![]() This is where soft skills around people management become a critical part of the job - managing people is even harder than managing products! VP Product / Head of Product It goes from an individual contributor who owns a product and works hands-on with engineering and design teams, to someone who has stepped back from the day-to-day to focus on leading other product managers and working on alignment. Product Director / Group Product ManagerĪ Product Director or Group Product Manager is where the role starts to change. Recognising who is great at leadership and who is great at building amazing products is equally important and valuable to an organisation. Some people are just better suited to one path than the other. Just because you’re a great product manager and want to advance in your career, it doesn’t mean you should have to move away from being a hands-on product manager to a leader of other product managers. In many ways, this is similar to the Architect track in engineering (in contrast to the CTO track), and something we should encourage more. The difference is they are not managing other product managers at all - they are simply exceptional product managers who want to stay hands-on and leave people management to others. This can be equivalent in rank to a Senior Product Manager through to a VP Product. This is a newer role, and usually a very senior product manager who is responsible for a critical product in the company. The Senior Product Manager is hands-on with a product and also has some line-management responsibilities. In some organisations, this is a hybrid role. Product Managers identify customer needs, set the strategy, roadmap, and feature definition for a product (Image: Shutterstock) Senior Product ManagerĪ senior Product Manager does the same thing as a product manager but has a senior title either in recognition of their contributions, the relative importance of their product, or reflects the fact that they also spend time mentoring junior product managers. For example, if they’re a product manager for Facebook’s news feed and impact billions of users, they’re probably more senior and experienced than a product manager at a brand new startup.įor some insights on the Product Manager role see ‘ How do you Become a Product Manager?’ by Liam Smith and discover what it is that Jase Clamp believes really makes a Product person in ‘ What’s in the DNA of Product People?’. Because it’s the most common title, it’s important to consider what product they manage. Broadly this is someone who operates independently, leads the work of a product development team, and is responsible for a product or customer journey. The most common job title of a product manager can span a wide gamut of experience, responsibility, and skills. Some of the best product managers out there have come from customer support, QA, or business analyst roles.įor advice on hiring a Junior Product Manager, check out ‘How do you Choose who to Hire as a Junior Product Manager?’. Engineering, design, or business are the most common backgrounds. A Junior Product Manager typically has some work experience under their belt already and can come from any background. They operate independently with a product development team, maybe on a smaller product or area, and under the leadership and mentorship of a more senior product manager. Junior Product ManagerĪ Junior Product Manager is also new to the role but doesn’t require as much hands-on training as an Associate Product Manager. The aim-similar to most apprenticeships-is to develop these candidates into full-time positions through a combination of training and hands-on involvement with real projects. This is a common rotational apprenticeship program in larger companies like Google and Facebook. It also has a specific connotation with an Associate Product Manager (APM) program. This is an entry-level product position, for someone who is brand new to the role. Let’s take a look: Associate Product Manager Product manager levelsĪ standard is emerging from most successful product teams and organisations that can serve as a template for your own. In this post, I’ll walk through the product manager levels, providing overviews for each product role, and some useful content to refer to. This makes it hard to compare jobs, plan your career, and attract the right talent to your team. There’s a lot of confusion around product management job titles, seniority, and hierarchy.
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