The Different Categories of a PM — Specialist or Generalist
No matter whether you are a junior PM or a senior PM, you will always think about what is the NEXT step in your career path. Should I remedy weaknesses or enhance strengths? Should I focus on one industry or various industries? We all know that is a BIG question in our minds. We have some guidelines to help us dig into our true calls.
Specialist vs. Generalist: Which is Right for You?
1. A specialist is someone who focuses on a specific area of expertise within the field.
They have deep knowledge and skills in B2B PM, such as project management methodologies, software development lifecycles, or product design principles. Specialists have often sought after for their technical skills and experience in a particular area, and they may work on complex projects or products requiring specialized knowledge.
For example, someone focuses on building and leading an agile scrum team. Someone who focuses on the IoT industry he/she is familiar with supply chain management, but he/she doesn’t have any idea about e-Commerce ecosystem cooperation. Someone focuses on building SaaS service, but he/she has no experience in on-premise service.
There is no doubt to say that a specialist has more specific domain know-how and know-why. The risk is there is a chance that your industry is gradually declining, and how you can devote your specialist to business and team. Also, it might cause less innovation because he/she doesn’t know what happened in other industries. Even in this era, you can see Amazon use disruptive innovation to enter the traditional bookstore.
2. A generalist is someone who has a broad range of skills and knowledge across multiple areas of B2B PM
They can often work across different functions or teams within an organization and may have experience in project management, product management, software development, and other related areas. Generalists are valued for seeing the big picture and collaborating effectively with stakeholders. They may work on projects or products that require a more holistic approach.
On the contrary to a specialist, a generalist sometimes can provide different insights from another industry and skill. We can bring a whole new aspect when one merges into another one. On the other hand, a generalist might suffer from how to know the market well, and he/she needs to pick up quickly when entering a new industry.
Here are Some Examples
In my personal experience, whether you are in B2C or B2B, domain knowledge is very critical, so you can play a critical role while switching from one company to another. Especially in the B2B model, it is much more critical because your daily life is approaching those stakeholders, vendors, and hart-to-imagine products/ecosystems. Unlike B2C products, you can download, play around quickly, do user interviews, etc. Let us share some short stories from my friend. These names are anonymous.
Case 1: Rita is a specialist
Rita loves computer and smartphone devices very much. She has worked in that industry for around 15 years and has accumulated experience in project management, product strategy, and supply chain management. She is a talent in high demand. She is very nervous that the software industry is rising and the hardware industry is gradually becoming a red ocean market. She wants to transition her career to the software industry but has some opportunity costs on salary, age, and experience. What can she do?
Case 2: Adam is a generalist
Adam is curious about every product in the different industries. He loves helping solve problems for the company and building better projects and products for the client. This year he is in the streaming industry, and two years later, he is in the MarTech industry. Later, he is in the Blockchain industry. Now, he is questioned for lack of expertise in a certain field. What can he do?
What’s More for Your Choices, and What You Can Do?
Life is limited. We have no chance to be omniscient and omnipotent. The examples above are straightforward and short stories. There is not only one answer. Maybe Rita can choose the IoT industry, and maybe she can still stay in the original industry. Below are some key points to think about in our choices.
1. Who Am I? What Kind of Person do I Want to Be?
“Start with the end in mind” is a very key point. Maybe you want to be an expert in one domain, or maybe you want to be an interesting person who can solve general problems across different industries.
Right, this is the career consideration for sake. How about life?
In your different ages, we must consider wealth, health, relationship, spirit, personal achievement, etc. There are lots of aspects that we need to leverage. I think the “hedgehog concept” is a very significant part of knowing.
2. Be Flexible and Be Adaptivie
First, as a PM, we must definitely have one strength. It can be your technical skill or your negotiation skill. Be unique so the company can find some differentiation from you.
Next, you are your own product. Knowing more about yourself, your market, and your own pricing model is necessary. Always be open-minded and be a growth mindset. We can always renew our hard skills and soft skills. The only constant changes.
3. Think More about Your Tags
Even though I want to be a specialist, we cannot avoid the changes in the world. While finding new opportunities, think more about what you have. This can help you find the overlaps between you and your new opportunity.
For example, I have experience in B2B industry ever and have ever co-work with Japanese, Singapore, and Dubai companies. In addition, I also have experience in building Web, Android, and iOS products. Moreover, I sealed with a large-scale business model like millions of USD dollars. Then, what is next? Maybe the next chance is I can still focus on B2B products, but the company is only for Europe web-based solutions. Or, I can still focus on education start-up company that wants to build a whole new OTT platform.
Conclusion
As a PM, we must remember what kind of person we want to be. Then we can acquire more experiences in our career path. The following article, we can dig into practical use cases, hard skills, and soft skills for B2B project managers and product managers.
About Author
Why Starts
I wrote many articles via Mandarine to illustrate my insights on product management, business strategy, career path, and book reviews. Now it’s a good try to reach various audiences across many countries. It’s very exciting to share insights and exchange ideas with different backgrounds.
Who Am I
This is Mr.T, with around 10-year experience in product and project management. I have been in the B2B technology field in the telecom, electronic vehicle, and video streaming industries.
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* Mail: ctianchen886@gmail.com
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tianchen-chen/
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