Nobody knows what you do

Product management is a growing trend. Everyone thinks it’s “cool” to be a product manager. It is not uncommon to come across software engineers, designers or business analysts sitting in their office chairs and thinking about quitting their jobs to become a product manager.

This trend is perpetuated through social media and driven by the human need for significance. If Maslow made a career hierarchy, the “PM” title would sit right at the top looking down on all other peasants below them.

To set the record straight, I am all for product management. I love being a product manager, and I believe product management is a great way for any human being to discover herself/himself and create value in the world.

I’m simply suggesting you think long and hard about it. Certainly, product management offers countless pluses as a career. But the negatives make a strong case for why one should carefully examine options before switching careers.

If you want to be a product manager, it’s essential to realize there will be emotionally hard parts of the role, and come up with your own ways to cope.

There is no clear definition of the product management job. It varies with the team, product and company. Even the experienced leaders, CXOs, are not clear on the specific roles and responsibilities of a product manager. People think a product manager facilitates meetings. In the best case one can imagine, they manage the project and delivery.

This ignorance can lead to comments along the lines of: “Do we really need a PM?” “Can our developers not sub as PM?” or “PMs are just useless bureaucracy.” I wish I could tell them just how wrong they are.

Product management is the kingdom of trade-offs. As a product manager, you will have to do trade-offs every step of the way. It could be anything related to:

Soon, you will find it’s become a part of your identity. You will start making personal life decisions, such as shopping, picking the right place for travel, buying a house, starting a family, etc., as product decisions. Is it normal? Is it overkill? Are trade-offs in one’s life avoidable? We will never know.

As a product manager, you contribute to all stages of product development. For that reason, and since the role of a product manager is still relatively new in software companies, this role differs from organization to organization.

Unfortunately, that means if you were responsible for one set of tasks in your previous job, it doesn’t mean you’ll have the same responsibilities in your next position. As a result, you will have to constantly expand skill sets and competencies to stay ahead in the employment market. Learn to use new technologies, new methodologies and tools, and applications that are popular. Be ready to move out of your comfort zones, re-skill and upskill yourself to be seen as a valuable asset to employers.

A company’s product or service is a manifestation of its founder’s vision. A founder leads the effort to come up with something novel and disruptive. At some point, however, the initial product charge gives way to other concerns.

As the company grows, the founder’s responsibility grows with it, so he/she hires product managers, who can extend his/her vision while also freeing him/her up to focus on other tasks. But as he/she keeps adding leaders to the executive circle, there’s more overlap in duties. More friction, too. This aspect can be disturbing, irritating and frustrating if not handled properly. And it’s challenging to get it right for several reasons, not the least of which is the founder’s instinct to maintain control.

It may seem like I was building up to this. But think about it: PMs don’t specialize in a field. They aren’t experts in design, development or anything. They have all the responsibilities of the product, but none of the authority. The organization controls the resources to build, and sales and marketing control access for customers. The product manager merely brokers the intersection, often with limited resources.

Product managers execute and deliver based largely on their ability to persuade and lead. Product managers do not build products on their own. They coordinate and direct product development based on user discovery, input from key stakeholders and market research. Product managers are just that — enablers — and hence, just as easily replaceable.

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