Progressing through the Product Team
In the years I’ve spent as Chief Product Officer I’ve worked with hundreds of product professionals to hone their skills, develop their progression, and build their careers. This is an introduction to how I see roles and responsibilities build in a well-structured and cleanly-operated Product team. It is to be used as a guide with a few distinct principles / rules:
People are more important than job titles - always flex the JD to the individual and don’t expect the opposite to be realistic.
Each role builds in the truest sense - they are designed to grow sequentially based on leveraging the experience(s) gained in the previous role.
It’s possible for exceptional candidates to jump forward /leapfrog one (at an absolute push, two) of these roles at one point in their career - but it’s wrong to let / encourage anyone to do more than that. They simply won’t be able to do the job without having the experience to call upon.
This is not a race to become CPO - see ‘Product Lead’.
This list only really looks at Product Management - there are similar paths for Product Design and Product Marketing, of course.
Associate Product Manager (APM)
This is a foundation-level role in product management, suitable for those new to the field, particularly within the B2B SaaS industry where complexity often has to be learned through experience.
A lot of larger companies (and certainly the Googles, Metas, Salesforces, and Apples of the tech world) offer Associate Product Manager programmes, which are akin to rotational apprenticeships.
The typical APM is a recent graduate, and so the goal, as with most apprenticeships, is usually to groom these individuals into full-time roles through training and hands-on experience.
Most APMs completing a structured programme of learning and experience building will become Junior Product Managers after defined timelines of 12-18 months.
Junior Product Manager (JPM)
A Junior Product Manager is also a beginner role but - either because they are not totally brand new to Product or your sector, or they have relevant exposure to SaaS - it is one that doesn’t need as much guided training. They may also migrate to JPM after successfully being an Associate Product Manager.
They'll work semi-autonomously within a Product team, possibly on one specialist product or module, under the guidance and mentorship of a Senior Product Manager.
Many Junior Product Managers have prior work experience and might come from engineering, design, customer success / support / services, QA, or business analyst roles within the software industry.
The natural progression for a JPM, after 1-2 years is Product Manager.
Product Manager (PM)
A Product Manager operates independently and leads the development of a particular piece of software or customer experience.
In multi-product portfolios / suites this might be one whole product. Within large singular product environments this might be one particular customer experience / journey.
Best-fit PMs have autonomy, individual remits, and defined areas of responsibility - and they are held accountable for such. The PM role can cover a vast spectrum of responsibilities and it is the point at which real product ownership (see ‘Product Owners’ note) is earned.
Some Product Managers will spend a long time in their role, mapping their growth to their product’s. Moving to a Senior Product Manager role would usually only be appropriate after 3-4 years’ experience.
Senior Product Manager (SPM)
The Senior Product Manager is, of course, a natural continuation of the PM role. SPMs not only manage a product but it is likely they have taken on additional responsibility and / or their product has become more and more important / high profile.
The most common area of additional responsibility is line management and SPMs will usually also mentor JPMs and / or be involved with developing APMs and APM programmes. Some SPMs lead PMs too.
This mix of hands-on product management work and team management characterises this role. The split likely being no greater than 75-80% product management / 20-25% team management.
A good SPM may stay in-role for a long time, like the PM. Progressing beyond SPM to Product Lead / Product Director (depending on the paths offered by the company, and indeed the company’s size) would likely require a total of 6-8 years’ / 8-10 years’ Product experience respectively.
Product Lead (PL)
A fairly recent addition to the Product world, the Product Lead role can highlight an alternative path for Product people who want to stay focused on product management, versus team management, while still growing and gaining further seniority.
This senior position is responsible for crucial / critical / flagship products within the company. Ranging from a Senior Product Manager to a VP Product in rank, the PL focuses on hands-on product management without supervising other Product team members (100% product management / 0% team management).
This role recognises the value of exceptional product managers who prefer to remain engaged directly with product development and is similar to the ‘Architect’ track within the Engineering / Technology organisation where an alternative to the CTO track is becoming popular.
Product Director (PD)
At the point a person has reached the Product Director role, she / he likely has 8-10 years’ experience - having led both products and people.
They are now in the senior management realm and one that sees much more day-to-day / operational management sitting alongside product management.
The PD will likely take a step back from hands-on product work to lead other product managers and focus on alignment.
This shift involves mastering the complexity of people management and the PD’s time split looks more like 20-25% product management / 75-80% team management.
The Product Director may well be part of the company’s Management Team / Senior Leadership Team.
I’d expect someone moving to VP level to have a strong run, of 3-4 years, working at Product Director level.
VP Product (VPP)
Typically found in larger companies, or as the most senior role in a startup, a VP Product is all about managing product managers. At this point the VP’s time split looks more like 0% product management / 80% team management / 20% organisational leadership.
In addition to leading a team, as part of the 20% organisational leadership, the VP may oversee (or at least contribute to) budgeting, forecasting, and (in some organisations) P&L responsibility.
The VP is likely part of the company’s Management Team / Senior Leadership Team. Indeed, I’d be wary if they were not.
In many organisations (and determined mostly by overall company size) the VP Product role is the highest level within Product and will often report directly to the CEO if a CPO is not in place.
The VP Product role should never report to the CTO as Product’s / Technology’s roles and responsibilities are intentionally separate, working to define “what we build” (Product) and “how we build it” (Technology).
The transition from VP Product to Chief Product Officer is often more related to context (i.e. company size, moving to a Group structure, working within PE-owned businesses, operating within a listed company, etc) so years of experience are less relevant at this level.
Chief Product Officer (CPO)
The Chief Product Officer represents the pinnacle of Product leadership, managing multiple products, people, groups of products, and groups of people. Some CPOs work in a Group capacity and do this across multiple companies too.
Accountable for the overarching product strategy and alignment, both within their teams and across the organisation(s), the CPO usually reports directly to the CEO and sits on the company’s highest operating structure i.e. Senior Leadership Team / Executive Committee / Board.
The distinction between a VP Product and CPO might be subtle in smaller companies, but obvious in larger or more complex organisations. The CPO concentrates on vision, strategy, and structure whereas the VP Product focuses on people, processes, and execution.
Where a company is working to a defined M&A strategy the CPO will normally take a key role in defining which acquisition opportunities are pursued, adding to the company’s overall product capabilities.
In VC-backed companies the CPO will have a direct relationship with the firms’ leaders. The same applies to PE-backed businesses - where it can also be commonplace for the CPO to work with other Product leaders across the firm’s portfolio.
A note on the Product Owner role…
I don’t believe in, nor do I hire for, the Product Owner role. It is a delivery focused role and ownership of products always sits with PMs.
Where a delivery focused role is required, hire a Delivery Manager. She / he is likely to be best-placed inside the Engineering / Technology team though.
The ‘PO’ as we know it operates in a ‘post-’ environment, unable (and not mandated) to define, drive, grow, or kill products or their features.