The Three Layers of Product Management

A product manager is a fluid role at many companies. He or she is regularly the team’s visionary. They are also often the team member that has to do the jobs no one else wants to. They fill the potholes of the team to ensure a smooth drive on the company's roadmap. Through multiple conversations with aspiring and experienced PMs and watching leadership at ZipRecruiter navigate their roles, I have attempted to distill product management into three ascending layers.

Before I continue, I want to write a brief caveat that this is based almost exclusively on my experience as a PM at ZipRecruiter and Earny and may not reflect roles at other companies or industries. Moreover, I have only been in the industry for three years and my understanding may be changed or shaped by future projects, initiatives, or companies.

My thesis is that to become a more complete Product Management, three “layers” must be obtained. Shaped like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, each level of PM macro skills is more challenging to attain and requires experience to perform at a high level. These three levels in ascending order are 1) Operational 2) Data-driven 3) Idea leader.

Operational

The operational product manager is the first level and generally the baseline that is needed to impact a company and enable one to drive results at the other two levels. It's hard to be an “idea leader” without pushing operational processes. This is almost the “project manager” of product management. It includes daily tasks such as:

1. Writing Jira stories

2. Coordinating and managing sprint planning

3. Leading retroactives and project pre/post-mortems

4. Hosting standups

5. Creating project timelines and communicating blockers when they arise

In my career, sprint planning, ticket creation, and general project management were one of the first initiatives and weekly tasks I was assigned as a PM. Without these skills, it is more challenging for a product manager to manage product launches and timelines.

Now, I use common terms in the tech industry for project management, however, these skills can be obtained without knowing “sprint planning” or using jira/a similar software. I simply use these terms to quickly describe the processes that are needed to run team-wide and cross-team initiatives.

Data-Driven

The data-driven product manager is the next tier. A product manager at this stage becomes intimate with the data of the company. Some examples of skills within the “data” layer of a product manager are:

1. Managing A/B tests

2. Funnel analysis of user behavior

3. Querying (SQL etc.) to find product opportunities

4. Scoping potential impact of product launches and tracking results

5. Setting realistic OKRs/KPIs for the success of a product or project

This layer is the next stage of success for a strong product manager. Gleaning insights from data (whether you are the one pulling the data or not) is tricky and requires critical thinking including question asking, sniffing out incorrect assumptions and data, and having an intimate understanding of your customers, the product, and how the two interact. Being able to actually pull the data (whether with SQL, Python, or a front-end software such as Mixpanel) is a bonus. Without this layer, a Product Manager may struggle to classify and measure successes and failures, find new opportunities for the business, and build a convincing case for why or why not to build.

Idea Leader

The final layer and in my opinion the hardest to attain is the “idea leader”. The idea leader is someone who can:

1. Come up with his or her own ideas based on their deep understanding of the product

2. Collect, ideate, and decide on ideas presented by other team members

3. Communicate and present these ideas to key stakeholders (executives, the engineers working on the product, and other colleagues) spanning a large period of time (quarterly and yearly timelines)

4. Properly resource these initiatives

5. Navigate your team and your peer’s teams resource constraints to maximize the impact

It is very hard to attain this layer without the ability to operationally manage timelines for these products and it is challenging to decide on products/projects to build and create a convincing argument without the data piece. This is why I have set this up as a pyramid of skills.

A group of “idea leaders” acts as the spinal cord and brain of the company.

As I have become more senior in my product management career, I have seen how challenging it is to build a detailed and convincing product spec, sow dissent among team members, and convince the team to build the product. Moreover, a company and product manager is thrown hundreds of ideas every week that could be the next million-dollar idea. The key to a product manager's job is to understand impact, complexity, and effort -- and balance these while also looking to the future of the product, company, and industry. A good product manager can contribute successfully to a company in many ways without this skill, but great Product managers find the best ideas out of the slew of good ideas, map out the product’s success, and implement.

Finally, a good product manager is able to modify his or her skill set and time allocation in these three tiers based on the needs of the team or the business. As the needs of the business change, the time allocation and expertise required by the company from its PMs may change as well. A senior level leader may see a need for operational structure for the larger team and go down into the weeds to develop a new system. At another time, a lack of data resources may require a product manager to spend 80%+ of their time manipulating and working with data.

The three layers of product management build on top of one another and when mastered lead to a more versatile and fluid product manager. While these layers do not entirely capture all aspects of product management (such as design thinking, user interviews, etc.), I think they capture a slew of the most important skill sets to become a product manager.

For those other product managers out there, what do you think?