When I graduated from university, I joined a startup and realized very quickly that I wanted to be in the world of technology. I didn’t have any engineering or design skills and was not confident in starting my own startup. Soon enough I came across the role of the product manager within the tech team and realized this is the path that I could follow. But beyond that, I did not know much about what it meant to pursue a career in product management.
The Two Chasms
The first time it really hit me, I went to a product talk by Jonathan Nightingale. It struck a chord, as he talked about this chasm in the product management career path, where your progression from a product manager to a product leader may be very poorly defined. The product career path is “relatively” novel, and still evolving. The entry points can vary, and your progression within it can also follow a very winding path, all of which makes it hard to claim that there is one true way of following this career.
Reflecting on his talk some more, I believe there are actually two so-called chasms in the career path for Product Managers. Preceding the chasm from product manager to product leader that he described, there is also the chasm of getting into product management. There are very few product manager roles for people fresh out of university, and those are primarily Associate Product Manager roles in APM programs at the likes of FANG companies (but people are trying to change that). This is challenging as product management is such a cross-functional role, it usually helps to build some competency in one section of the product Venn diagram before you can truly open the door. And on the hiring side, companies are less willing to put graduates right out of university in these roles without some prior experience. Everyone’s entry point is different, I joined a startup where I worked closely with the tech team doing QA and anything else that was needed. And as the founders pulled back, I stepped in when the need for the product manager role became apparent.
Product Management ladders, frameworks and rubrics
Going back to that talk, it also really got me thinking about how I wanted to advance as a product manager. Naively I assumed my development as a product manager would come organically with the growth of the startup I was in and it created an unnecessary tie between the two. While a great experience, I really had to be more mindful about how I wanted to advance as a product manager.
While that thinking took some time to develop, I did start evaluating myself more closely, trying to understand where I needed to progress further. Since I was not working in a more developed product organization with an established progression ladder, I looked a few up and came across some great examples to see what other great product organizations look for.
I came across these great rubrics from the XO group and Intercom (I also found one from Monzo, which no longer seems to be up), which I would frequently go back to. Intercom’s rubric captured the essence really well, touching on themes of Insights-driven product managers, who are focused on execution and driving outcomes, with strong people leadership and strategic thinking. More recently, I also came across this article by Sachin Rekhi talking about the ladders at various large tech companies and covered their common themes on advancement (independence, scope, and people leadership). This is something that resonated with me now that I am also in a larger product org, where I also see how those themes have become more important as I progressed.
What’s next – the dual track ladder?
I have been going back to these thoughts recently as there is an interesting conversation developing in the product world now on the topic of Dual Track Ladders for Product Managers, primarily evangelized by the likes of Ken Norton and Hunter Walk. The essence of this is that there can be two progression tracks for Product Managers, similar to what you might see in for Engineers. At a certain point, you can split between paths where one role is more people management than product leadership, and the other is more product leadership than people management.
I find this really interesting, as I do wonder how my scope might change as I progress (and if I’m fortunate to hit those lofty milestones). I feel that I am still in that phase where I want to build “hits” (see Gibson Biddle discussing the career stages of a builder), and care less about the title and direct reports. Obviously, that will change as you need to build more leverage through larger teams when you work on deeper and broader products.
I tried bringing up this concept of a dual-track product ladder in conversation, but I feel not everyone can grasp what this might look like, myself included (which is why Ken Norton had to do a follow-up piece talking about that exact topic). I think the organizational context and the products will really determine whether this is something that could work, but I am excited to see how the conversation unfolds.
Ajith Thilakan 