How to Foster Your Career as a Senior PM 💪
Main insights from the top article and podcast of 2023
Every member of our BPM organisational team is currently or has been a PM, so we cannot live without constantly testing our approaches to see what applies and what brings us closer to our mission — fostering an inspiring and connected product culture in Berlin. That’s why this time, we want to try a completely different format for our newsletter, focusing on the education of PMs, particularly CPOs or seasoned PMs who have the most experience in the company.
In this post, you will find our personal top-:
article
podcast
educational program
...along with our main insights from them and how we implemented these insights in our companies.
Before we jump straight into the content, here is the list of knowledge bases that we admire and carefully read through to continue improving ourselves as PMs every day. It’s collected by our whole team, re-structured, and commented on by Sonya. So, whether you find the list valuable or not, send her a brief note on LinkedIn.
Best of 2023:
To boost hard skills:
ADP list has an incredible database of strong mentors that can help you grow and build your career in Product, Marketing, Data Science, Design and other fields related to Digital Products.
Kyle Poyar, Elena Varna, and Leah Tharin have some of the best Substacks that cover Product-Led-Growth related topics.
To boost soft skills:
The Art of Accomplishment (podcast) by executive coach, Joe Hudson. I personally found the episodes on decision-making and addressing conflict avoidance particularly helpful, and my communication with the team (especially during the initiatives prioritisation process) has significantly improved.
And now let’s get to the main juice of this post:
Top Article: From PM to Director, to VP, and CPO
This article, written by Nima Torabi, is full of gems, so I will jump straight into them, but I strongly advise that you read the full article, as it is well-written and structured.
Gem 1: The Fluid Nature of Titles
It’s important to recognize that titles can vary significantly across companies, and the responsibilities and skills associated with each role may differ as well.
The recognition of title variability serves as a reminder that career progression in product management is not a one-size-fits-all journey.
Instead, professionals should focus on building a strong foundation of skills and competencies that can be applied across different contexts
This approach enables product managers to adapt and thrive in various organizations, leveraging their expertise to make meaningful contributions.
Ultimately, success in product management lies in taking a nuanced and adaptable approach to career progression. While titles may differ, the focus should be on acquiring transferable skills and staying attuned to industry trends. By remaining open-minded, flexible, and adaptable, product managers can embrace diverse opportunities and contribute effectively to any organization they join.
Gem 2: Criteria to Evaluate and Promote Product Team Members
To build high-performing product teams and foster career growth, it’s essential to establish criteria for evaluating and promoting individuals based on their skills and contributions. The author highlights 15 key criteria to assess and promote in product teams:
Strategic Thinking
Leadership
Scope Management
Collaboration and Influence
Vision and Innovation
Team Management
Decision-Making
Communication
Customer Focus
Adaptability and Resilience
Data Analysis
Business Acumen
Domain Knowledge
Strategic Partnerships
Self-Reflection and Continuous Learning
What is more important, is how these criteria differ depending on a role. Let’s take Decision-Making as an example:
As a product manager, one must make important decisions regarding resource allocation, prioritize product investments, and determine the long-term direction of the product. They rely on data analysis, market insights, and customer feedback to make informed decisions that maximize the product’s impact and value.
Directors of Products make critical decisions regarding resource allocation, product investments, and long-term product vision. They leverage data, market insights, and customer feedback to make informed decisions that align with the company’s overall strategy and drive product success.
A VP of Product makes high-level decisions regarding resource allocation, product investments, and long-term product direction. They have a strategic perspective and the ability to weigh complex trade-offs, considering market dynamics, customer needs, and business objectives. Their decisions have a significant impact on the company’s growth and success.
The CPO makes high-level decisions regarding resource allocation, product investments, and long-term product direction. They weigh complex trade-offs, considering market dynamics, customer needs, and business objectives to make informed decisions that drive product success and align with the company’s overall strategy.
This table is a great cheat-sheet for evaluating yourself, as well as for defining your areas of improvements:
Gem 3: How the Product Hierarchy Drives Success
Collaboration between CPOs and VPs of Product is essential for driving product strategy, fostering innovation, and achieving long-term business success. Their collaborative efforts enable the company to develop and deliver exceptional products that meet customer needs, align with market trends, and drive sustainable growth.
Top Podcast: The Truth About Life As A Senior PjM
I was sitting in the empty co-working space on Jan 1st, trying to define which podcast I consider life-changing. Initially, I wanted to highlight the podcast, “How To Tell Better Stories“ from Lenny’s Newsletter because it's a simple skill that leverages any career, yet not many people practice it. I found pieces of advice like "you should start your stories with location and action" and that "a presentation should be entertaining; something that is 100% funny is nostalgic" particularly useful. As you can see, I’m trying to implement it. So I totally recommend listening to the full episode.
Then, on the other side of the office, I noticed my friend, a Project Manager once shared a great podcast for Project Managers that opened my eyes to certain things I didn’t want to recognize.
What we usually hear about advancing as a Product Manager are the following:
Keep up with new market trends.
Take on new responsibilities.
Support and help your team members.
Excel at prioritization and data-driven decisions.
And other obvious generic advice.
But the podcast "The Truth About Life As a Senior PM" highlighted some of the typical blind spots that are very common, but not given enough attention to. I have added my personal insights as well in a hope that they will be at least as useful as they have been for me.
1 - Let go of your previous role
Sometimes we take on some responsibilities because they were assigned to us in our previous position. People may desire familiarity and find comfort in tasks they are familiar with, even if those tasks are from their previous role. It could be even within one company, for example, when a new position division is introduced, such as Technical as Business Product Managers, or Engineering Manager, etc. Give yourself time to review your daily tasks and focus on what is of the biggest importance for you.
2 - Be available for your team
As PMs, we sometimes get drained into deep work, as we are the ones who should bring up the right ideas, approaches, frameworks and priorities for the team. But it all doesn’t make any sense if it makes us unavailable for our team.
We should be there…
…when a design review is needed or one of PMs in our team asks for an opinion about an risky monetisation test launch. Your availability for your team is also valued as reliability.
3 - Understand the impact on other teams, especially the finance team
This is so relatable. Basically, its one of the risk mitigation initiatives, that you have to be responsible for. Costs for tools that you use for user testing, data visualisation, task management, all depend on the numbers and initiatives that you put into the roadmap. Don’t hesitate, that the financial team will be happy if you give them earlier notice on possible charges and needs that might occur along the way. This will prevent you from avoidable delays or product restrictions.
Want to end up with the quote of Tracy Hennessy, a co-author of this podcast.
Be confident in yourself. You’ve earned the title and the new role. If you see yourself in that position and build a trusting space for your team, the rest will figure itself out.
Top Program: CoHorts
BPM team co-founders, Carlo and Daniele, are working on CoHorts, online and in-person monthly programs, to foster career growth and networking for senior people with the collaboration of Antonia Landi, Freelance Product Operations & Product Management Leader, and one of the top voices in European Product Operations among other great mentors!
Currently focused on user research and the establishment of the first CoHort, the team plans to kick off in Q2/24.
Stay updated by Daniele
Up next...
Our next event will start the BPM season and we worked hard to push the community beyond. As we keep our mission in mind: “Foster product culture in Berlin,” we aim to get top speakers, increase seniority level among the community, aiming for an aftermath of top learnings and networking opportunities.
We want to personally thank our members from Babbel: Julian Ringel, Eli Cohen, and Ulyana Egof among others to make our mission reality with the effort of Amplitude Cohort Community and Esther to support us and having Leah Tharin, curator of Leah’s ProducTea, top PLG and Growth speaker in Berlin.
To match such quality, Babbel accepts the challenge with speaker, Clemence Chee, current investor and VP at Babbel, (formerly at HelloFresh) who has >10 years as a Data & Technology enthusiast.It seems like an interesting start to the new year <3.
Our last thanks goes to Lenny’s Newsletter and orb. for their sponsorship of this event. Lenny’s community renovate our collaboration for 2024 with more ideas and budget, embracing our philosophy where we want to invest on useful things for our Community!
That’s it for today; we hope we provided you with the right tools to start this year strong!
Share your opinion: would you be interested in purchasing any Berlin Product Managers swag, where the proceeds contribute to community development? If so, which items would you be interested in? Leave your response in the comments to the post.
See you at our next Meetup!