The joy of product management is that there is never a one size fits all. You can be a generalist product manager which is supportive of all the different types of product management roles or you could specialize and switch to different PM roles throughout your career. The variety of roles that are available is one of the many aspects of product management that make it so great.
It's important to know what to look for and to understand the skills that need to be acquired. This will help to choose the type of product role that interests and motivates you. Otherwise it can lead to burnout and possible thoughts that being a product manager isn't quite for you.
Generalist Product Manager 👩💼
"My strength is in my ability to be versatile." ~ Wendy Starland
As a generalist PM the world is your oyster. This is the most common PM Role. This is my favorite because you can pivot into a more specialized role if you choose or gain experience in a variety of different facets. The only con that I have seen when it comes to being a GPM is when a company wants to hire someone that has significant experience in a specialized role usually at the senior level. The pro side of being a GPM is that companies will see you as versatile, adaptable and that you understand a variety of different areas. Above all, this role positions you to become a manager of people and go on to be a Director or VP of Product.
The Role
A GPM will own the discovery, delivery and market adoption process. This means they will need to understand the product management lifecycle and software lifecycle of a product to lead each part of the process. This is where a GPM is responsible for the product from conception to launch.
The Focus
The success metrics of a Generalist PM will measure customer satisfaction that will translate into revenue usually. This will include things like a CSAT Survey, NPS Score, Customer Retention Rate (CRT) and any other metrics that can gauge how a customer feels about the product.
Skills
A Generalist PM will need to understand all the business functions that affect the sales of a product. They will need to make connections, be able to identify problems between different functional groups, and speak the language that other specialist PM won't need to. It is especially important that a GPM has customer insight with a good grasp of what they need, want, and value so that you can meet their expectations.
Technical PM 👩💻
“A great product manager has the brain of an engineer, the heart of a designer, and the speech of a diplomat.” - Deep Nishar
As a Technical PM you will usually have a strong technical product background or at the very least be able to understand how your product is built. Usually a TPM will focus on the technical aspects of a product and work extremely close with all teams including sales, marketing, business, but especially engineering and design.
The Role
The role of a TPM will focus on the implementation and the 'how' of a product compared to a GPM that will generally focus on the 'what' and 'why' of product requirements, product vision and the overall product roadmap. It's important to remember that even though the general focus is not on the customer needs like the other more common roles there is still a level of focus on the product management side and the TPM will still need to keep the customer in mind.
The Focus
TPM's are less focused on the customer needs and more on the technical aspects of the product's development. TPM's use their technical knowledge to help prioritize work in the backlog, develop user stories, refine requirements, and improve the communication across cross-functional teams.
Skills
As a TPM having an engineering or technical background is important. At the very least you should be able to understand how a function will be affected by another function to provide input to engineers on the best route to take. Usually, a TPM will have very good design and engineering skills. This will prove useful as engineering and design is extremely in sync because not everything that is designed can be engineered.
🚨Important Note: Even if you aren't in a TPM role you should understand and acquire some technical knowledge to understand and collaborate with engineers. This will gain trust, support, and respect.
Consumer Product Managers 📱
"It's easier to make things people want, than it is to make people want things."—Des Traynor
Consumer Product Managers work on features for user-facing products. Some examples include: Youtube, Googlemaps, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Yelp, and any application most likely downloaded on your phone.
The Role
A consumer PM will focus on getting users to use the product and keep them coming back to the product. Your KPI's or success metrics usually will measure engagement to get people continually using and returning to the product. Some success metrics could include Daily Active Users (DAU's) or Monthly Active Users (MAUs). Some products that are used for entertainment purposes may measure "time spent" such as minutes listening. A product manager would then own usage metrics for this specific area.
The Skills
Being a consumer PM requires you to be very customer focused, exceptional at design (after all consumer apps are customer facing,) and be very creative. The competition is fierce when it comes to consumer apps because there are many out there. Ultimately, users will choose the application with the best experience, design, and that gives them the best value.
Having strong product sense also known as product intuition coupled with customer research and data analysis skills will ensure your product works for the "silent majority" as opposed to getting mislead by the "vocal minority." The old adage "the squeaky wheel gets the oil" doesn't apply as most silent users want an application that will benefit them more from usability improvement and easy-to-use features as opposed to the vocal minority who want nice-to-have features that are niche cases.
When it comes to being a Consumer PM your engineers and design team are your heavy hitters and biggest influencers. Prioritizing effectively and being comfortable with saying no will be important along with outstanding collaboration and leadership skills to have an influence.
B2B Product Managers 💼
Customer-centricity should be about delivering value for customers that will eventually create value for the company.—Robert G. Thompson
Business-to-Business Product managers work on products that sell software to businesses, schools, or large companies. Examples of B2B Products are Dropbox, Microsoft Office, Shopify, Slack, Zoom, Workday, Asana, Jira, Aha, Square, Hubspot, Salesforce, etc.
The Role
B2B Products help to build products that people find value in. Being a B2B PM isn't very complicated when it comes to identifying metrics and market research. Overall, you will need to learn what your customers want and know what you plan on building will deliver value to them. This means the PM will need to understand their customers wants, desires, and needs.
The Focus
The success metrics of a B2B PM usually measure revenue since the product is something consumers pay for. So the main success metric would be getting users to pay and continue to pay for your product. The features that will be built will need to be focused heavily on engagement and retention to hit this metric.
Skills
As a B2B PM the person buying the product isn't necessarily the person that ends up using it. For example, a CIO that purchases software for HR isn't the one using it. Thus, the needs of a purchaser will have different needs than the user. It's important for a B2B PM (and PM's in general), to focus on both the purchaser and the person using the product as opposed to just the purchaser so you don't end up building the wrong features. If the user (HR) doesn't think the platform is feasible for the business and communicates this to the CIO then the CIO will search for another product. In the end the user not the purchaser will be the ones generating the revenue for the business.
E-commerce Product Managers 🛍
"The more you know about the how your customers discover your brand and make purchasing decisions, the better equipped you will be to execute on all other aspects of your business."— Casandra Campbell
An e-commerce PM usually deals with applications that sell things online. This would include websites such as Amazon, Alibaba, Target, Walmart, Zappos, etc.
The Role
As an e-commerce PM you will need to appreciate the fundamentals of the supply chain process. The goal is to understand the lifecycle of the customers order process and every element of the process that touches the customers order. This includes the 360 degree view from managing merchandising to answering support tickets.
The Focus
The main success metric for an e-commerce PM are successful orders. The process of getting to a successful order will include a conversion funnel: visiting the site, viewing a product, adding it to the cart, checkout and purchasing. During this process it's important that users have a seamless experience from start to finish so the simplicity of design will weigh heavy.
Skills
As an e-commerce PM it's important to understand the design process and have a creative mind. Creating a seamless experience is essential so that users will purchase the product and keep coming back. Every role requires execution as a PM, but specifically in this role you will need to execute more frequently to account for the different stages in the supply chain process. All these parts will need to work together to get to the end goal of the users purchase.
Final Words 📖
There are many different roles of Product Management. This is what makes the career so exciting! Coming from different backgrounds the transition to finding something that empowers you to make a difference is crucial. The roles in which were talked about are the basic ones I have been seeing. I'm sure there are many more exciting roles that are out there and ones that are yet to be developed.
Hopefully, this gives you a generalized overview of the different roles you may see when applying for your first role. Just remember Product Management is what you make of it. Experience will serve you to a certain point then your passion, perseverance and potential will carry you the rest of the way.
Next Steps 🚀
1. Hierarchy Ladder of the PM Career
2. How can I learn Product Management