It keeps surprising me how Product roles can be different between companies. A PM role within an early stage start-up can be wildly different compared to the same role and title at a mature tech-company or corporate with a large digital department.

My role as Head of Mobile at KLM Airlines was very focused at:

1: Product strategy
2: Influencing people
3: Customer insights

My role as Head of Product at Someday - a fintech start-up preparing for launch- is more execution focused. Product Strategy is more about distilling the vision of the CEO into a manageable roadmap. And building product, processes and teams all at the same time. I would say my work is currently focused at:

1: Product execution
2: Customer insights
3: Designing and optimising processes
4: Influencing people

PM Career Ladder
To create some clarity, I wanted to define PM roles and their responsibilities better. I looked at the PM job ladder from Intercom and the Product Management Career ladder research that has been done by Lenny Rachitsky.  

IC vs. Manager
The most obvious distinction is that of Individual Contributor (IC) and Manager. An IC does not have any direct reports or team responsibilities. And a manager does. The one is not 'better' then the other. It's a matter of skills, strength and appetite.

General Career Ladder
In many companies details and labels might differ. And in larger organisations you will see some more layers especially in the manager roles. But in general it will look something like this.

• Associate Product Manager → manages some parts of the product.
• Product Manager → manages part of the product.
• Senior Product Manager → manages strategic part of the product.
• Group Product Manager  → manages PM’s in one key area of the product.
• Director of Product / VP of product → leads one key area of the product org.
• Chief Product Officer → leads the entire product organisation.

PM Skills Per Career Level
When it comes to PM skills per level I like to use the Product Manager roles framework from Ravi Metha combined with the more detailed explanation of Intercom. I will highlight the most important differences for 4 roles:

1: Associate Product Manager (IC)

• Focuses on execution of some parts of the product
• Facilitates and helps with the QA of theirs' and core features
• Interviews and understands customer need in their part of the product
• Understands the product strategy and can describe it clearly

2: Product Manager (IC)

• Focuses on execution of their part of the product
• Good understanding of customer needs and uses this to make the most effective decisions creating maximum business value  
• Uses data for insights, evaluations and performance of features
• Responsible for shaping of product area strategy
• Owner of the teams' roadmap
• Communicates with team, product leadership and key stakeholders

3: Senior PM / Group PM / Product Lead (Manager)

• Deep understanding of customer needs and is expert in her domain
• Anchors decision in data for insights, evaluations and performance, defines core metrics
• Understands competitor landscape
• Responsible for shaping product area strategy and clarifying it to team and stakeholders
• Owner of the teams' roadmap
• Understanding stakeholders opinions and motivations

4: Director of Product / VP of product

• Focus at product leadership
• Deep understanding of customer needs and is expert in her field and is very curious about all aspects of the customer needs
• Data driven, uses data insights to drive product strategy. And defines metrics to track and measure customer and business goals
• Understands competitor landscape in the broadest sense
• Responsible for shaping overall product strategy and inspiring teams and stakeholders with it
• Reviewer of teams' roadmaps
• Creates strategy and alignment with stakeholders
• Improves communication and alignment amongst teams

Shifting Gears Between Skills
PM roles differ within companies and the fase of the company. Be really aware of this while job hunting and hiring people.

The best PM's often excel in 1 domain, but have to ability to shift gears and provide the skills most needed for the team or company at that moment in time. In that sense you are a product yourself as well 🤗.