Being a product manager is different at different companies. Each company has its own mission, and part of being a product manager is to align and prioritize the company mission for every product you deliver to your stakeholders.

Product managers in IT companies?

The obvious question you might ask is, "A product manager in a product company sounds like a normal thing, but where does a product manager in IT companies come from that works with multiple clients and 100s of projects at the same time?"

This is an evolution for IT sector companies that has already begun around the globe, where customers have become more demanding and need smart product managers to code their products and also help with the GTM in the initial stages.

Higher competitiveness, unique business models, the evolution of new technologies, and, most importantly, finding the right talent are the major factors contributing to this rising customer demand. Most of these customers and stakeholders include funded startups.

some context...

1 core product companies

The last decade of 2010–20 was the era of product companies, a.k.a. startups, which raised huge funding, worked on one problem in the market, focused on one core product solution, and hired 1-2 product managers to execute the product part.

Product managers concentrate on the growth, and alignment of stakeholders with similar personas in a single market, and after finding core consumer patterns and behaviors, they plan go-to-market acquisition and retention.

Working on multiple projects as a product manager

This sounds harsh and competitive, but this is a real shift that is happening even with 1-core product companies. You might have noticed this, it happens when the core product matures the market either they expand to different markets or launch new products, increasing complexity.

Thus come hierarchies:

• Chief Product Officer: Defines product targets/OKRs for the next quarter-to-year aligning with the company mission and direction of the business.

• Director of Product: Manages the top-level view of all products in the company and helps with execution. Manages SPMs under them.

• Senior product manager: Manages a team of junior PMs with up to 4-5 products depending on size and product complexities.

• Associate product managers: Generally the entry-level manager who is just getting started with 1 core product.

The same hierarchical pattern is now being adopted and is similarly growing in IT corporations. This is good news for upcoming product managers, and product management is a growing career option. Talented workers' salaries and wages are rising all over the world. If you want to make a switch to product management, now is a great time to do so.

In the next post, I will write about the challenges I faced while working on multiple projects at once. how to manage customer expectations, and how a paying client is a different stakeholder altogether.

Please share your feedback and comments.

Till then, K sera sera