Where Do PMs Go After They Peak?

Is there a lack of good opportunities, like it was 5-10 years ago in companies like Gojek, Swiggy, etc to grow fast into a Director of product role?

Hi all, I am from a tier 1 MBA college and have worked in a startup post graduation. Currently doing strategy and ops planning role in a founder's office role. How can I move to VC? I don't have the CGPA to get into an MBB or IB roles but am aware that VC hire folks with operating exp as well. Is this a viable option for me?

Sharing some reflections on this: 1. Product is not a function with a large hierarchy / multiple levels in the ladder. Managerial responsibility comes in very late in the product career and the spans are typically small (relative to other functions like engineering, sales, operations). This also means a steeper funnel to the top and only a handful VP Product roles in the industry. 2. Product is centered around technology and digital consumer trends, both of which are fast changing. This requires constant unlearning and relearning. But more critically, this also means that previous knowledge/experience hits a plateau on marginal value beyond a basic threshold (where you have developed some essential product semse and skills). 3. Product managers are also much higher-paid vs other functional peers, at comparable years of experience. This means that a PM gets to a very high salary (say, 1+ crore) by the age of 40 (15-20y into their career). Tech functions in non-tech companies (like FMCG, banking) cannot offer that kind of pay, meaning salary growth beyond a point is limited to tech-first companies / limiting addressable market for lateral moves. All of these considererd, how should PMs think about the longevity of their careers? Unlike traditional roles, this does not seem like a "retire at 60" job. What would be the realistic age one should plan for, at which career growth and salary growth will stagnate? What are ways in which a 80%ile PM can extend their career (eg: also taking up engineering management or P&L responsibility or growth function etc., to increase scope)? PS: this post is not for the top 5-10% PMs. They will always find roles at VP level etc, this is for the 50-90%ile bucket of PM talent.

Note - I am a product manager too 4 out of 5 product managers will act all high and mighty of themselves, bragging their way as if they run everything going on in the company, flaunting their business degrees and being utterly disrespectful towards their team( dev design qa name it), Recently started going to office so the attitude I am seeing is very transparent and more visible (more with the higher experience folks) It makes me wanna leave this hyper inflated role, thinking of I will end up like them scares me, and you have to do is speak out jargons in meetings day in day out and have a English accent of Shashi Tharoor. Recently my manager told that this is a role where you have to very representable or very visible and act in floor as if you are the busiest person on earth and I seriously some PMs in company doing that, they walk so fast in floor as if they will fall off or would be better to have 4 legs.

https://the-ken.com/story/why-more-40-somethings-are-becoming-unwilling-retirees/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter

As the title suggests, I often wonder what is the natural progression for people who join startups in Chief of Staff or even Founder's office roles? Do they move to a specialized vertical internally? Or do they move to other startups in CoS roles? Or they do their own venture (I like to believe this is still less likely). Have this thought because a lot of Tier 1 MBA, MBB consultant profiles have been moving to these roles and it really makes me wonder what path would the careers of these top talents take?

Got laid off from my first product management job. Was the company’s first APM hire and built 70% of their client facing features from 0 to 1. As an early PM with 2 years of product experience (3+ if you throw in analytics roles I’ve done before), what will be a good fit role for me? I’ve narrowed them down to 3 1. PMM 2.PM-1 3. Founders office roles Can anyone tell me the pros and cons of going into each role after a long APM stint (slightly less than 2 years, was their walking GPT for every tec-product-business thing they did, also was informally managing 3-4 people)

Hey everyone, excited to be doing this AMA! A brief about me, I work currently as a Director of Product at an Indian unicorn startup About my career: - Did my undergrad from IIT and then masters from an Ivy league school - Have been in product for almost 10 years now - across 2 Indian unicorn startups and a publicly listed company Would love to take questions on what it means to be a PM, growing within the role, building your career, and other things :) Will be back here at 4 pm and start replying Shoot away!