Day 27/30: Product management career ladder ⛰️
Is our career as linear as the construct of a ladder leads us to believe? 🤔
On one hand, I think it’s awesome that product management is going through a similar evolution that engineering has, with the distinction between individual contributor and people manager paths. Ken Norton provides a holistic overview into this topic in his newsletter, Bring the Donuts.
However, I think this evolution still fundamentally propagates the philosophy that each of us needs to fit into a certain box or follow a predefined path in life. I think it’s to the detriment that the choice is presented to the general population in a binary fashion, though I suppose two paths is still better than one path.
In my conversations with product professionals with more tenure in their roles than I do, I’ve come to realize that climbing the ladder isn’t for everyone. Many folks didn’t realize that climbing the ladder wasn’t suitable for them until they had made it to the next run of the ladder.
As you move through your day-to-day, make it a habit to strive to find inner clarity. For me, this looks like reflecting on the following questions on a regular cadence (that is, at least once every week):
What am I proud of accomplishing since the last check-in?
What did I learn?
Where am I feeling challenged?
What types of work boosted my energy?
What types of work depleted my energy?
What do I want to have accomplished by the next check-in point?
Assuming there is high trust between you and your manager, keep this line of dialogue around your career progression in the context of the organization and how you can maximize for career-company fit open.
And remember that there are many factors at play that might propel you to persevere in your current product role or consider pivoting to another—to name a few that immediately come to my mind:
Company stage
The problem the product intends to solve
Product maturity
Leadership
Potential for you to grow or learn more
Changes in your life’s circumstances
Despite what we might have been socialized to think or believe over the course of our lives, at the end of the day, our time on Earth is limited, so I encourage you self-reflect, be open to experimentation, and accept that somewhat making up the journey as you’re going is expected—if not normal.
What are your thoughts about the concept of a career ladder for product management as a discipline?