In reading Start with Why by Simon Sinek, I got to thinking about why people get into product management. I have narrowed them down to roughly 4 archetypes, but they are not mutually exclusive and I fall into multiple of these buckets myself. My goal with this is to explain the product manager archetypes as I see them, discuss some pros and cons, and try to explain where I fall in.
The PM who loves to “ship cool shit”
Summary: products / features sound “cool” so let’s ship them.
Pros:
- They are passionate and interested in producing a fun, interesting, and usable product
- They see themselves as the user and can build to what they want, believing in empathy and focusing on the best aspects of the product
- They may focus on specific fields or areas of the product that they find the most interest in (can be quite helpful when it’s an area others do not find interesting)
Cons:
- They see themselves as the user – much like the crash test dummies study, building for yourself as the model is not necessarily the best idea given you might not be the target user
- Prioritization is difficult – “cool” things are like fast fashion, it’s easy to see things go out of style so a 3-4 month project might lose steam quite quickly
Amaan’s interest (how interested am I in prioritizing this as part of my product management style): Medium
Amaan’s alignment (how much I actually prioritize this in my product management style): Low
The PM who “loves the tech/subject matter”
Summary: the underlying technology behind the product is what drives them to build product
Pros:
- Likely to be more technical, can empathize with engineers and, in certain situations e.g., cryptocurrency, can speak to the more technically advanced aspects of the platform(s)
- These PMs can become subject matter experts (SMEs) quite quickly – understanding the underlying tech can lend itself to becoming a master of a particular field
Cons:
- Being too far into the technology behind a platform can pull you aware from the intended customer use, where platform improvements may help the company’s ability to scale, if they are not felt by the user and others are not taking advantage of these improvements, you might not be in a position to need better scalability
- The technology underpinning the platform may not be the core focus of the product; emphasizing technologies that are not fundamental to advancing the product or company can lead to wasted effort, time, and money
Amaan’s interest: High
Amaan’s alignment: Low/Medium
The PM who “loves the design”
Summary: the PM who believes design runs the product and can be the platform for the product to stand on
Pros:
- Design and user research often go hand in hand and by emphasizing design, we can see the benefits of listening to our users and incorporating their feedback
- Starting from designs around a product and thinking about the information architecture (which, based on my previous experience, is part of the field of design) can have huge payoffs in regards to navigation and functionality of the application
- Putting design first can show rather than simply tell the story of your product or platform’s strategy and vision, helping to manage stakeholders’ expectations and keeping the team excited about what’s to come
Cons:
- Interestingly, the biggest con here is not directly the cause of the PM but can be indirectly caused by the PM – rallying around the design believing it’s the substance of the product
- The biggest example of this is my experience at N26 where we would often rely on our design as a crutch for a product that didn’t have the requisite features or products our customers needed (e.g., offering a debit card+checking account on a slick mobile app that did not include a way to allow people to add funds to their account)
- When making trade-offs, design is often the highest priority and the engineering changes to accommodate it – this isn’t always a bad thing, but if a simpler or less involved design shaves a significant portion of time off of the project, it is well worth looking into, in my opinion
Amaan’s interest: Medium
Amaan’s alignment: Medium/High
The PM who loves to align with company goals/strategy
Summary: whatever the company strategy, the PM uses that as the north star to prioritize and make decisions
Pros:
- This is the person who may be promoted to a PM role because of their dedication to the company or their knowledge of how the company works – can be an internal encyclopedia of knowledge; this is partially because they have been around the company for a while and partially because they love the mission/strategy/vision of the company
- Prioritization is easy for them – they know the fundamental goals and core values of the company and can continue to champion them
- Engagement with stakeholders is fast/efficient as the goals of the company should guide the discussion(s) had around various projects and why certain things should be focused on vs. others
Cons:
- In environments where the company does not have a vision/strategy for their product, this puts this PM in a precarious situation and they do not have the guidance around why they pursue the projects they do
- The PM might engage in limited exploration of tangential topics – while the company might be excellent at what they do, unless instructed, this PM might be hesitant to explore outside of the company’s comfort zone and therefore limit the capabilities of their product area
- If this PM is put in a position that indirectly effects the company’s desire to achieve its core metrics, they will not be satisfied by their work – by not being able to see how their work directly ties to the company goals / metrics, it becomes difficult to stay motivated
Amaan’s interest: High
Amaan’s alignment: Medium/High
I bet there are other archetypes out there who exist, but this is how they’ve all boiled down based on what I’ve experienced so far. I tried to detail how I align with each of these and, like I mentioned in the beginning, these are not mutually exclusive, but people do tend to lean more in some directions than others. It’s a great thought experiment to self-reflect and understand what your priorities are be it at your current job or where you want your priorities to be somewhere else.
Amaan Lakhani 