Main Takeaways:
-Roles and responsibilities vary by company, industry, and stage: Smaller company: simpler organization, more technical responsibilities. Larger company, more complex organization, more specialized set of responsibilities.
-Consistent across all is the responsibility of the PM to deliver outcomes, not master individual skills
-Know what you need to know. Confidently delegate the rest. A deep understanding of every detail and nuance of a product area is not a prerequisite to success
Time management and relationship building are increasingly critical as your career matures, no matter the size of the company
6. ● B2C
● 1-2k FTE
● Global
● Public
2009 -
2013
2013 -
2017
2017 -
2019
2019 -
2020
2020 -
● B2C
● ~500 FTE
● US Only
● Late Growth
● B2C
● 5-15 FTE
● US Only
● Pre-Seed
● B2B
● 20-25k FTE
● Global
● Public
● This is a school
● Not a business
● Did not work
here
👋 Career Progression at a Glance
7. ~50 PMs ~10
PMs
~500 PMs
1-2 PMs
Moved to progressively smaller companies to expand ownership
Returned to large company to reset and learn
8. Summary
1. Roles and responsibilities vary by company, industry and stage
2. Smaller company: simpler organization, more technical responsibilities. Larger
company, more complex organization, more specialized set of responsibilities.
3. Consistent across all is the responsibility of the PM to deliver outcomes, not
master individual skills
4. Know what you need to know. Confidently delegate the rest. A deep
understanding of every detail and nuance of a product area is not a
prerequisite to success
5. Time management and relationship building are increasingly critical as your
career matures, no matter the size of the company
10. “A product manager is the person who identifies the customer need and
the larger business objectives that a product or feature will fulfill,
articulates what success looks like for a product, and rallies a team to
turn that vision into a reality.”
- Sherif Mansour, Distinguished Product Manager, Atlassian
11. ● Not a “mini-CEO”
○ Startups already have CEOs
○ Enterprises have powerful
business stakeholders
● Competencies can be similar to
CEO, but are more diverse
● Relative importance varies
based on company
○ Culture
○ Industry
○ Business Model
○ Structure
○ Size / Stage
Great PMs are great synthesizers and communicators
Customer
Needs
Technical
Solutions
Business
Objectives
16. You may know where you want to go, but getting alignment is hard
Requirement Analysis
Legal
Operations Regional
Leadership
Finance /
Tax /
Accounting
Marketing /
CRM
Dependent
Tech Teams
Product /
Strategic
Leadership
Customer
Support
User
Research
Enterprise PM
17. You have less certainty, and less support, but you can move quickly
Requirement Analysis
How will we
measure
success?
Marketing /
Sales
Design/UX
Research
Your
engineering
team
CEO
Startup PM
Do we have
tracking?
Is our ESP up
and running?
What should
our copy be?
Is this the
best use of
resources?
What will
this teach
us?
18. Role of a PM is to drive your team ☝and 👉
Speed
Confidence
B2C
Startup
B2B
Startup
B2C
Enterprise
B2B
Enterprise
21. Clear PRDs are even more important in larger/B2B orgs
● Source-of-truth for what has been built and why
○ Turnover
○ New stakeholder onboarding
○ Avoiding repetitive questions
● Align dependent workstreams across functions
● Clear articulation of why the project is worth the investment
○ Justifying a project is essential when iteration cycles are fewer/farther between
23. ● Align stakeholders with
differing incentives/motives
● Situations can get political
● Leadership can get jumpy
Startup Enterprise
● Asking for trust: little data
● Everything is personal
● Things change in an instant
● Leadership can get jumpy
25. Manage
your time
judiciously
Takeaway #4
● Know what you need to know
● Delegate the rest
● Startup: Greater functional breadth,
simpler product
● Enterprise: Deeper, more complex
product, narrower scope