What pains most though is that VP PM is often seen as additional responsibility extended to VP Engineering or VP Marketing, this somehow dilutes the purpose of PM organization.

Why, might you ask?

Well, first, it being a complete surprise is not something that at 14 years into a Product Management career is welcome. It shows a lack of planning and communication that really is disconcerting. I literally found about about it from a co-worker who called to congratulate me AFTER the official email announcement went out. Bad form. I had taken vacation the day before, but my boss knew I was out of pocket (my wife had surgery on her shoulder, and I was with her the entire time.) Still, no excuse to wait for the last minute.

Second, unlike what you mention in the meat of the article, here at least, it is a super product manager position. I still carry the bag for our biggest product, and I was told specifically that I couldn’t hire a senior level person to backfill. So, the truth is, I am still just a product manager, with a title that will make it harder to find my next step (years ago I came to the realization that I was not executive material, and made peace with being a senior product manager until the day I die.)

The ambiguity of the Product Management role seems magnified when you talk about Directors of Product Management. In my company (mid sized enterprise, 4500 employees, and probably a dozen BU’s), there are more directors of product management that you can shake a stick at. Really, here it seems like it is just a way to reward mid career product managers and try to keep them from bailing.

Oh, and of course, my promotion came with exactly no extra salary.

Why should I be excited again? Oh yeah, new business cards. If I ever get to Japan again, I will be able to meet with one level up managers than I currently have access to.

Still enjoying the series though!

I want to do this job and the lack of glamour suits me just fine! My reasoning? I want to be a startup CEO in the future and if I can be successful as a product manager then – in my opinion – I’ll have proven to myself that I have at least some of the skills and attributes needed to run a successful company.

In the grand scheme of things, not many people are cut out for tech entrepreneurship, but the odds must be better for those who have successfully launched and maintained products while keeping their team motivated in a PM position.

So, glamour or no glamour, if you want to start your own startup, I’d suggest that a PM position might be a good grounding for you.

As my namesake Mr Anderson states, roll on the next installments!

Thank you very much for this information and keep it coming. A PM does provide guidance and solid people skills. Another area that I believe strongly correlates to a PM role is the Quality advocate who usually provides the PM with insights before it is too late.

This being said, a Quality Assurance resource working closely with a PM is also a nice branch into the PM role.

Joel

I kinda chuckled about the “glamour” of product management. I think it is pretty much the opposite. Think about internal demos, and the responses when they go well – “great design”, “wow, that is elegant”, etc. Never – “gee, that is sure to resonate with buyers and close deals for us.”

For me, product management is _enriching_, in the sense that a job well done is something to be proud of, and investing in yourself to get better at what you do (whatever it is) is also intrinsically rewarding.

Great start to the series!

Scott

Most cities / countries don’t have a large number of tech companies to work at. So you may need to relocate. Of course, outside the big tech centres there are fewer jobs but they’re more likely to accept a first-timer.

As Rich points out, given the choice experienced PMs will get hired.

Surest route to start is to follow Rich’s advice above and build up skills, related experience and wait for cyclical economy to pick up, they you’ll be able to choose.

I also agree generally about not changing role and company at same time. But I did that for my first product manager job and changed industry, continent, and went from large enterprise to start up – it was a lot of fun (just before 2000 bubble burst)