Live Recap: Navigating Your Product Management Career
Get the resources and highlights from Product Breaks Live: Navigating Your Product Management Career
Last week, we held our inaugural live event, Product Breaks Live, which was hosted by Erin Kyle (Lead Product Manager, Kin + Carta).
We held a collaborative discussion about:
The kinds of PM specialisation that are increasing in the industry
What situations specialisation is useful for
How to strike the right balance between generalist and specialist skills for your career development
Below are our notes and highlights from the session.
Intro
Specialist Product Management roles are becoming more common in the industry. These can include specialisation through skillset (e.g. Technical PMs, Data PMs and Platform PMs), technology (e.g. AI PM, Blockchain PM) or industry (e.g. FinTech TM, EdTech PM, HealthTech PM). For more on what specialisms are out there, check out the article that launched this debate.
Specialism is being encouraged in an industry context where:
The Product Manager’s job is so broad! There are lots of definitions of roles and responsibilities for the PM, and people seek comfort in narrowing their focus
LinkedIn and other recruiters encourage PMs to differentiate themselves and seek out the most relevant candidates through specialism
Trends and fads in tech are happening more than ever before and are highly visible on social media - encouraging people to jump on board.
But is specialising always the best step for your career?
The key question
We asked the attendees of Product Breaks Live to choose a side - are you for or against the view that specialist PM roles do more harm than good?
FOR
The view from our host, Erin Kyle:
Personally I believe that specialisation does more harm than good, especially from the standpoint of a technology niche, e.g. AI PM. You can fall into trap of putting a square peg in a round hole. This has an impact on customer outcomes and means less positive outcomes are tightly coupled to your growth.
Even in a domain such as finance, I think it’s beneficial to see a few different industries first, especially early in your career. Different problems and stakeholders help you grow and spot trends, which in turn brings in innovations from outside the norm. Over and over again I’ve seen senior stakeholders who’ve been in industries for 20 plus years lose their ability to do any more than tweak or change a process. Keep your outsider mentality!
I do think specialisation is valid for Technical PMs and Data PMs, where you need to comprehend highly technical user problems and potential solutions to be effective. In those situations specialism avoids falling into the project management trap.
AGAINST
The view from our moderator Izzy Watson:
I spent a significant time in my career working at an EdTech start-up, and understanding that domain is a key part of delivering value for the user. This is more than just domain knowledge. For example, academic learning concepts informed how we designed and built the product.
Deep-dive specialism can set you up for success and expertise in a certain vector of the industry.
The debate
The group split into breakout rooms to discuss before joining back together. A summary of the key discussion points:
Domain knowledge
AGAINST: In-depth, highly regulated fields require a lot of knowledge. Having that knowledge first-hand can be invaluable.
FOR: As a PM, you can leverage SMEs for this knowledge - you just need to know how to get the most out of people. Also, it is always part of your role to understand the constraints of your product, even if they are regulatory or domain-specific.
Your career
AGAINST: Specialism is an opportunity to get ahead when you're going for roles and it’s also an opportunity to engage with new and upcoming tech to create the absolute best solutions for your users
FOR: You might not want to specialise too early in your career, as you might miss out on that all-rounder experience that grounds your product thinking (e.g. a user focus)
Your passions
AGAINST: The role is so big that breaking it down makes sense - it enables you to understand where your passions lie and work in an area that excites you
FOR: The broader view allows you to experience every part of the product process - no FOMO!
The scope of the role
AGAINST: In certain situations, specialism can be a superpower
FOR: As the number of product managers grows and the maturity of the discipline develops, good practice will be shared and there will be less need for skills and specialism
Key takeaways
There are no right or wrong answers - our debate was evenly split! However, there are some important considerations when making a decision about your next step as a PM.
Consider where you are in your career: if you are early in your PM career, it’s important to get a well-rounded grasp of good practice. Later in your career, specialism might be the accelerating force to get you where you need to go.
Consider where your interests lie as a Product practitioner: if there are aspects of the product lifecycle that particularly excite you, specialism could be your route to greater job satisfaction.
Consider whether you feel passionate about a specific sector: if your dream job lies in the MedTech world, specialism could be key to getting there. Similarly if you don’t know yet what makes you tick, generalisation will help you answer that question.
Thank you everyone, and we look forward to seeing you next time!
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