The Life of a Product Manager at a Startup
Considering how competitive and volatile the market is becoming, any business that offers products or services requires minds that are constantly ensuring the overall strategy is really working. In technical terms, you would call these minds product managers. Of course, product managers’ roles and responsibilities go beyond developing strategy. They are also responsible for tasks, such as roadmapping, prioritizing features, market research and so forth.
While I have listed the general responsibilities of a product manager, understand that the actual responsibilities may vary, depending on the size and type of organization. Thanks to the internet, there are lots of resources out there that explain the life of product managers at large organizations. One question that always came to my mind when reading/viewing these was: What is the life of product managers like at startups? I knew it must not be the same, but what are the differences?
Our own experiences can sometimes give us the best answers to questions. Having worked as a junior product manager at a startup company for a little more than a year, I got to know what a product manager is expected to do and not to do.
Being a product manager at a startup is like being a mom of 10. Maybe that’s an exaggeration, but a product manager at a smaller organization does have to work on many different things. I am not saying product managers at larger organizations don’t have hectic schedules. But at startups, product managers generally don’t work on one or two areas, as do those at larger companies.
Product managers at startups are responsible for following up with their team (engineering, design, QA and others) on a daily basis, working with management on overall strategy, carrying out market and UX research, analyzing customer feedback, roadmapping, figuring ways of optimizing, working with QA to test and prepare reports, and much more. All these tasks are not done on a daily base; how much you do is greatly dependent on how many projects are ongoing.
Because of working on so many things, as a product manager, you may even get confused about what your role is, exactly. Six months into working at my company, I remember asking my senior, “So, am I supposed to primarily consider myself a QA or a product-strategy developer?” The response was, “Consider yourself both.”
Due to startups being of smaller size, product managers have to play multiple roles. This means you may not get to work just on one area, but you do get a taste of multiple areas. This is a good thing, especially if you are just starting out in this career. It allows you to know the areas in which you want to eventually specialize.
Have you worked as a product manager? If so, how has the experience so far been? Let me know in the comments section below, so I can learn, too! And for those who may be not be into product management, I would love to hear your thoughts, as well.
