Product Management - The New Exit Op?
Product Management intrigues me. I had always understood it to be a highly interdisciplinary role drawing on elements of engineering, finance, marketing, and (obviously) management, but I hadn’t done any in-depth analysis. I’ve recently given the field a closer look, however, as the trend out here on the West coast seems to be to jump ship from Analyst gigs one year in to take up PM roles at startups. In fact, two good friends of mine left their Analyst roles (one at a BB and one a former colleague) to do just that. Both left after a single year in banking, and both couldn’t be happier at their new jobs. What seems to be the incredible appeal?
A bit of Googling led me to this definition: “product management is an organizational lifecycle function within a company dealing with the planning, forecasting, or marketing of a product at all stages of the product lifecycle.” To draw an analogy, and this is the analogy my former colleague used in support of the argument that he was qualified for the role, product management is basically sell-side M&A, but with a product rather than a company. It’s like inventing, but with guardrails. As a PM you OWN a product from its inception. You could “own” the Facebook timeline, Google+, the “Like” button…or more tangibly Air Jordans, the Stratocaster, or those crazy Japanese toilets that talk to you…you get the picture. You reap the rewards if your product succeeds, and the blame falls squarely on you if your product fails – but therein lies the appeal.
The responsibility and autonomy granted to product managers can be enormous, especially at startups. And I can certainly see the appeal after a year of grinding away as an Analyst monkey underling. Beyond the merits of the role itself though, what I find to be most interesting is the fact that banking arms us with a skill set that is so readily transferrable to product management. Think about it – think about all the market analysis you do in your pitch books and marketing materials. Developing competitive landscapes, drawing upon Porter’s Five Forces, drafting pro forma projections, analyzing risks, assessing mitigating factors, even formatting things to look pretty for your MD – these are all frameworks and skills that can be applied to the marketing of a product. Whether we’re selling it internally or generating buzz in the marketplace, we could all theoretically jump ship. But why don’t we?
Are we just not creative enough? Is it just the money? Is it the fact that we like finance more and want to stay a step removed from the operations? Is it the fear associated with veering off that fabled “track” to glory…or is it something else? I’m genuinely curious to hear people’s responses...in fact, WSO Patrick – what are your thoughts? We’re all using your product right now!
Comments
Not to be a naysayer, but
Not to be a naysayer, but it's not that easy to move into a product management role. You often need real a real technical background or at least a design based background. It's not like you can just jump from working in M&A to managing new products at Facebook (especially without a ton of high-end programming ability.)
Also, a lot of people could've gone into those types of roles (which are much more marketing-oriented), but would have to take less pay than you get in banking. For instance, if you join a company out of college in "product management," you'll essentially be a junior marketing person and need to work your way up the chain. Yes, it sounds like an interesting job, but just be prepared to make $50 - $60K all-in for a few years.
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i'd like to add that Product
i'd like to add that Product Management focuses on developing a strategic direction for a product or service... not necessarily a new one. PM's appeal (from my experience as finance support to PM at a blue chip tech firm) is the high level of DIRECT impact the role has compared to other business roles... no hockey pockey Strategy Consultant bullshit that may or may not be implemented. no screwy DCFs that supposedly demonstrate "value" through synergies. PMs find out what customer's want, determine whether it's technologically feasable and financially beneficial, and then make it happen.
though it usually doesn't pay as much as banking or private equity, definitely a very cool role.
Money Never Sleeps? More like Money Never SUCKS amirite?!?!?!?
I like the entrepreneurial
I like the entrepreneurial sounds of the job, I guess I'm just not sure what levels analysts jump over into the product management side at say a F500...and what the hierarchy is like over there?
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I can tell you that at my
I can tell you that at my company Product Managers are about 90% marketing and 10% finance. They fall squarely within our marketing group.
Also, I work for an older, slower paced F500 so it really is a core marketing role. There is little to do with lifecycle management (launching and shutting down products). A PM at a startup, facebook or google is probably really cool. A Product Manager at P&G probably isn't all that exciting.
Patrick, at my company with only a year of experience you will not come in at the management level (in any role really, not just Product Managers). Your compensation and responsibilities are just not that intriguing at those levels.
Most PM's I've worked with
Most PM's I've worked with had undergrad Engineering degrees.
Maybe it's just my company but most of the PM's I've worked with have been:
undergrad CS -> developer -> PM or
undergrad CS -> developer -> MBA -> PM or
whatever major -> Strategy Consultant (MBB) -> PM (with an MBA in there some where usually)
rather than analyst -> PM.
PM is actually a very common route for developers who don't want to write code anymore and want to do more big picture stuff. As a dev, I'm very suspicious of anyone without significant tech skills as a PM.
accountingbyday: I can tell
I can tell you that at my company Product Managers are about 90% marketing and 10% finance. They fall squarely within our marketing group.
Also, I work for an older, slower paced F500 so it really is a core marketing role. There is little to do with lifecycle management (launching and shutting down products). A PM at a startup, facebook or google is probably really cool. A Product Manager at P&G probably isn't all that exciting.
Patrick, at my company with only a year of experience you will not come in at the management level (in any role really, not just Product Managers). Your compensation and responsibilities are just not that intriguing at those levels.
interesting, thanks accountingbyday
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Product management is a very,
Product management is a very, very, very broad term. It means completely different things across many industries. B2B or B2C? Technology or manufacturing or CPG? So many factors. Even titles vary (Product Manager at Google is the same this as PROGRAM Manager at Microsoft, while Product Manager at Microsoft is a Product Marketing Manager at Google).
What the OP is talking about I feel is tech product management, which REQUIRES a technical background. Another little history lesson: Google had non-technical PMs back in its early days but programmers got so frustrated with non-technical PMs that they don't hire them anymore (few exceptions for top MBA grads). When you're looking at spec requirements and you throw ideas against the wall, a developer will shake his head and say "you know how many requests per second that takes?" Or "this language doesn't even DO THAT." (for a good example, google "zerg rush" right now. That is only possible with the rise of HTML5, not Java).
Also...
Product management has been around FOREVER before tech. It's historically been a marketing field (I know, I was a marketing major).
Also...
Product management is not glorious. Often times it's working on a small aspect of a product. For example, you're product manager over Facebook chat. Seeing how it's compatible across different countries and browser sizes. Seeing whether its response time is .5 seconds or .47 seconds, and seeing at what point do users get pissed off on, and what sacrifices you have to make in functionality to reach that efficiency point.
And often times there's several product managers on the same product. You're not doing sexy stuff for awhile.
"the grass is always greener." Right? Sounds cool in theory though...
A good number of grads that I
A good number of grads that I know go right from CS and finance into product management. They see it as a good balance between business and engineering - they don't have to be the code monkey, but they get to use the CS skills that they love every day.
I'd say petehornberger hit the nail on the head here.