<aside> 🪜 You can see the full product management ladder levels in https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YWFyy1bRwP_R4JJThncjlXhp86GJv1dcZyePDfXtvbE/edit#gid=958077415.

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The product manager path at MUI is open and relies on Leveling at MUI.

Functional skills:

• Measuring progress. We can't optimize what we can't measure. This is paramount. You should be analytical and fluent with numbers. You define the right metrics. Sometimes you write SQL queries; other times you run scripts to extract data from logs.
• The problem space. You put users first. You are zealous about providing the best user experiences possible. You conduct customer interviews and user testing. You can perform market assessments.
• Execution. You lead product development teams. You have influence and credibility with engineers. You should be able to answer questions like: Write an algorithm that detects meeting conflicts.

Tracks

The career path is composed initially of the main track, common to everyone, and that later bisects into two distinct tracks: Individual Contributor (IC), and People Management (M).

Individual Contributor (IC)

An individual contributor is someone who works towards delivering the highest impact possible in the product through their own work. Even though an individual contributor's value is through deliverables, it is also expected of an IC to greatly empower others through knowledge sharing and planning.

People Management (M)

The people management track focuses on leading people and working together to deliver value as a workgroup. In this track your contributions will gradually shift towards empowering the people, optimizing the different value streams and the people that are involved with them.

How is a PM scope determined?

The different types of product work: Problem Solution How Execution:

• Problem: deciding which problem to focus on
• Solution: figure out the right solution to that problem
• How: running great meetings, strong communication, interviewing these people, etc.
• Execution: get the problem solved

At MUI, the higher level you are at, the more you get closer to focusing on: what are the right problems to focus on?

Black & Scope is what is given. Yellow is what you are responsible for solving. Source

Some organizations value things differently, P > S > H > E isn’t necessarily right for all companies.

Benchmarks

• https://www.wise.jobs/product-management-career-map/ inspired the first version of the career ladder.

• The case for a non-managerial product track https://www.bringthedonuts.com/essays/dual-product-management-career-path/

  

  

• The transition from Senior Product to Group Product Manager https://www.reforge.com/blog/crossing-the-canyon-product-manager-to-product-leader