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the_prd
the_prd
Udaan

To people with 10+ years in product management, what's your outlook for the future?

The job market has dried up for senior product roles. Do you think the situation will improve soon? What's your overall outlook of product management as a career beyond 10 years? Do you see yourself doing this for another decade?

Asking mostly from a supply and demand point of view. Also, has seen that the role is becoming more and more vague and replaceable.

Context: Leading a 6 membered product team in a series B funded company. Managing the ceo/cpo opinion differences, moving to wfo from remote, high work pressure and too much reporting. I have been working with series A, series B companies throughout my career.

15mo ago
Dihaadi
Dihaadi
Stealth15mo

I’m in a similar position, managing a team of 4 PMs @ a Series B startup B2B pure tech domain.

For tech PM roles - Head of product roles are majorly moving to US/Europe due to greater % of revenue from these markets. You’ll get till Principal level roles in India.

For B2C PM roles - There is a lot of scope in the market as you can’t hire a Ivy product grad and expect them to build for users which they don’t even know exist. But, there is a lot of hubris in this space due to investors / stakeholders looking for Airbrushed resumes to project Value instead of actual working chops.

The outlook doesn’t look grim to me at least, because -

  1. Most US product based companies would have a India site in the next 5 years, if not already. PMs would generally take up General Management roles going forward, as most tech giants are moving in that direction. The site leaders / cost centre leaders would be mostly folks from a PM background.

  2. There would always be crappy gray areas in execution which would only be done by PMs, engineers wouldn’t do it due to sheer entitlement and business folks can’t do it due to lack of skills.

the_prd
the_prd
Udaan15mo

True. The head of product roles are moving to the US. Whatever is remaining is moving to PMs from large orgs (faang, Microsoft etc) who were otherwise stuck in their career. The role and scope difference between VP and GPM is not clear in series B companies.

But interesting viewpoint that the PM role might transition into a general management role for US tech companies installing their RnD in India.

Learningmind
Learningmind
Stealth15mo

That's little concerning, I would like to understand mindset of people who are having 10+ years of experience, few questions I have are

  1. Are you ready to take IC roles if required
  2. Let's say the pay is 80L, how much cut are you willing to take in stress macro scenarios (which can last for 2 years)
  3. Are you guys still upskilling given you have family and other things going on do you get time to read/learn academic stuff
  4. Are you open to explore small business which say pay net profit of 3-5L per month, if yes what is the thing that is holding you back
  5. Are you afraid that you might not be able to provide the best education to your kids (I'm asking this as there is no upper limit of what all resources one can provide to their kids)
  6. Are you able to spend enough time with your parents.

About me- 6 years of work experience

the_prd
the_prd
Udaan15mo

Why is this concerning?

  1. Depends. Doesn't mind the IC role if the role comes with better work life balance or payout or high upside potential
  2. Again. Similar to the above. Might take a break rather than a paycut for a year. Again, doesn't mind taking a paycut for a year or so to lead the product of a series A company. Given that the compensation is covered substantially via esops.
  3. Married and going childfree. Upskilling is not a choice but a mandate for our profession
  4. Like what? Give me ideas :)
  5. Not relevant
  6. Luckily yes. Enough as in, 5-10 days a quarter.
Dihaadi
Dihaadi
Stealth15mo

1 I’m balancing both IC and PM mgmt atm.

2 If folks <8-9yoe and get 80L, it’s not a pay cut , it’s Market correction. But, would prefer 4-6 months gap as opposed to pay cut and the psychological turbulence it brings

3 Family / Other responsibilities should not stop you from learning. If that’s the case, talk to your partner/ family and carve out at least 2-3 hours of focus time / wk, for starters

4 Who wouldn’t :P. Tried - organic farming, franchising, markets but realised that you need to go all in for a steady income stream at least for an year or so, I couldn’t give that time and hence refrained from side hustles. Moreover, I’ve seen side hustles are only possible for people who don’t have a main hustle ;)

5 Expectations are like Entropy , infinite and ever increasing.

6 Since the past couple of years, I’m spending at least 1-2 months / year in total with them, would like to spend more but they’re also working and uprooting them from their place isn’t possible right now. Probably when they move closer to home..

ElonMast
ElonMast
Amazon15mo

This post is becoming very interesting, people sharing insecurities and getting support is only possible on an anon channel. In real life, we all have to present ourselves smart & confident.

To add some of my learnings - Yes, market is dry as of now. I see one of the reasons is - Companies moving to maintenance mode. I can tell so many companies are trying to save cash by not investing for future. Can this be a status for long? No, not at all. My overall outlook is - This field will evolve and people will start wearing additional hats or move slightly deeper in tech as Tech PMs. Yes, I am pretty much planning to stay in a similar role as I’ve been part of such teams where product moves the company goals.

My guess on your situation - I’ve been part of series-A start up in India. Now thinking back, I feel in such startups product team majorly involves in covering the feature-gap against the competition. The CEO/CBO/COOs keep asking if they are doing it, why can’t we. Honestly, if you move to a market leader or platform product role, you will see your contributions much more beyond the conflict resolutions. Just for my curiosity, if your company have document culture?

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