Product Managers — How You Spend Your Time as Your Career Progresses
During my time at ITV and the BBC, I prepared a career path breakdown for how Product Managers might want to think about spending their time, and how that might change as they progress through their careers. I thought now would be a good time to dust that off, make some updates and ensure that it’s still relevant today so I can share it with all of you. Let’s take each role in turn as we step through how the Product Management role evolves as your career progresses.
At each stage, I’ll highlight key changes from the previous role to help make the differences clear. I’ll also be including some of the other common role titles that are used interchangeably at each level. There isn’t one way of doing this and many of the titles peppered through this article will mean slightly different things in different organisations — as always, this is just one take on how you might want to think about things, it’s not the only way. If you want a broader view of where the Product Manager fits into a team I’d recommend first reading my article Roles in a Product Engineering Squad.
We’ll start at the beginning with…
Associate Product Manager
A.K.A Junior Product Manager, Product Owner*, Technical Product Owner, Producer
An Associate Product Manager (APM) role is typically the first step on the Product Management career path. Entry-level roles aren’t exclusively for those just starting out in the world of work, though. In the context of an early career role, in my experience, this tends to be approximately a 2-year phase and can go by many other names. If a later career role, it can be as little as a 6–12 month phase before rapidly progressing to a full-blown Product Manager. An APM can lead a Product Engineering Squad but should be partnered with a more experienced Product Designer and Tech Lead from the outset to ensure appropriate support and development.
*Note: Product Owner is a role defined by the Agile Scrum framework, it is typically not an official job title in and of itself but rather a specific role within an Agile team and a subset responsibility of a Product Manager. If you’d like a better understanding of this I’d recommend reading my earlier article Product Manager vs Product Owner vs Business Owner vs Project Manager vs Programme Manager …what’s in a name?
Product Manager
A.K.A …any of the roles listed on this page!
In my experience, people will typically spend between 3–5 years as a Product Manager at this stage of their career. Career-hungry high-performers may spend a little less time here, perhaps 2–3 years. There are also many that will choose to remain at this or the senior stage for much longer, as in so many ways, it’s where all the action happens! This is the most common role title you will hear referred to and I tend to encourage Product Managers at any stage of their career, to simply refer to themselves day-to-day as a Product Manager. It helps to create a safe space for others and removes HIPPO perceptions (Highest Paid Persons Opinion). At heart, we all want to build products that people love. Day-to-day seniority doesn’t really matter when it comes to product development.
Senior Product Manager
A.K.A Lead Product Manager, Principal Product Manager
The Senior Product Manager role title does not necessarily have a huge impact on the day-to-day function of the Product Manager role. It tends to denote greater experience and will often see these individuals being handed more complex problems or more challenging teams to operate with. If you operate 10% time, this is where I tend to see Product Managers opting-out so that they can increase their focus and impact on core business problems to solve. It can come with increasing responsibility for being externally focused, and managing relationships with other organisations. So, all things considered, be careful what you wish for with this promotion!
Principle Product Manager
A.K.A Senior Product Manager, Product Director, Executive Product Manager
It’s worth noting that due to the more limited time available to perform the ‘Product Owner’ portion of their role, a Principle Product Manager is not necessarily always positioned with the most complex teams/problem spaces to solve. This varies and depends on the wider business context and organisational change that is taking place. It’s also worth noting that some organisations align to the Engineering concept of the Principle role being an individual contributor; in this model, the below would look quite different and replace much of the Product Owner portion with non-Squad-based strategic discovery.
Head of Product
A.K.A VP Product, Director of Product, Head of Product Management, Group Product Manager
Product Leadership takes on a different meaning now, being much broader and more about the overarching vision and how it is communicated throughout the organisation. Line management and resource planning also take a step up — while line management can be included in earlier roles, I’ve emphasised it here as a notable differentiator. Head of Product versus Product Director or VP Product: Well, definitions start to vary here but for me a Head of Product will generally be responsible for the line management and operation of the Product Management function alongside guiding and supporting the vision and work of each of the teams within their remit. Where as a Product Director or VP Product may perform this role, they can in some circumstances take the form of an individual contributor or expert in their field focused on a particular customer problem space or narrower Product portfolio.
Chief Product Officer
A.K.A. SVP Product, Group Product Director, Executive Director of Product, Chief Product & Technology Officer (CPTO)
The role of Chief Product Officer (CPO) tends to make a more notable shift, with the focus becoming more holistic and wider in organisational responsibility as a part of the Executive Leadership Committee (ExecCo). There should still be a lot of emphasis on the product offering itself, of course, but with the focus being on the longer-term strategic vision and placement, with most day-to-day operations falling to the team. General business administration and being a leader within the wider organisational context becomes an important step change, focusing on the department and business budget, financial forecasting and annual report are important activities. As are defining the operating model, engaging with the Board, and internal and external audit planning/response. It’s a very different role and not for everyone — there’s a lot more paperwork and a lot less hands-on product development work!
In Conclusion
A Product Manager’s career path is rarely linear and experiences will be varied. I hope, however, that this framework provides some guidance and insight into how you might want to be distributing you and your team’s time.
You might notice that throughout all of the above role profiles, one item remains consistent, that small 5% slice of Personal Development time. Irrespective of your role or the progress through your career, it’s important to always dedicate time and space to focus on learning — over and above the learning we simply gain through hands-on experience. It’s also a good idea to seek out a mentor from beyond your organisation to provide an external perspective on both your day-to-day work as well as your future career path.
Lots of people have contributed to the framework above over the years, I’d like to particularly call out Tom Morgan for helping me get it off the ground at ITV, Dan Taylor-Watt for encouraging its evolution within the BBC and most recently Kevin Curtis for working with me to update it.
If you’d like to read more on this topic I really enjoyed: 1) Simon Cross’s take in his article Junior PM vs Mid-level PM vs Senior PM as well as Product Dave’s thoughts on the different types of Product Managers in his article 5 Types of Product Managers in High Demand Right Now.
Check out more from my series of Product Management articles, Leadership articles or my practical guides on building and operating effective Product Engineering Squads.
All thoughts are my own.
