Transitioning from a PM role to a PM leader role

Progressing from a Product Manager (PM) to a Product Leader position requires a substantial change in duties, perspective, and competencies. This transition goes beyond a simple advancement and represents a fundamental shift in the way product management is approached.

During my transition from a Product Manager to a PM leader role at Target in 2016, I experienced a lot of overwhelm, made several errors, and faced my own set of challenges. I am sharing insights from my mistakes in this blog to help others benefit from them and have a more seamless transition.

This transition is not easy and requires a significant shift in mindset.

The transition from a product manager (PM) to a product management leader (PM leader) role involves a shift in focus from execution to developing processes that enables successful and scalable execution of the Products portfolio.

To achieve this transition successfully, we need to focus on developing 4 important muscles

1. Building relationship with stakeholder

2. Establishing operating models

3. Empowerment and coaching

4. Invest in your team’s well-being.

I am, here-by, sharing a cheat sheet for the transition.

STEP1: Self-Assessment: Evaluate your current skills and identify areas for improvement. This involves seeking feedback from peers and mentors to gain insights into potential and opportunity areas.

STEP2: Build the 4 muscles critical to your and your team’s success.

1. Building Relationships with stakeholders: Expand your network within the organization and industry. Building relationships with key stakeholders can enhance your influence and provide valuable insights into effective leadership practices.

2. Establishing operating models: Remember in your new role, while you are accountable for Product OKRs, you can’t deliver them by yourself. Unless you institutionalize a well-defined SOP (standard operating procedure) with your teams to review in-take, backlog, value-testing, product measurement, user-feedback, scaling, GTM etc. You will feel every overwhelmed in your role. You won’t be able to stay on top of your accountability areas. It’s also very important to define handshakes with your partner teams like engineering, process, finance, HR etc.

3. Empowerment and coaching:  Once you have defined a good operating model (OPS), delegate tasks effectively, encourage decision-making, and provide resources for your team's independent success. Coach and mentor individuals to help them develop their skills.

4. Invest in your team’s well-being: Collaborate with your HR partner to hire and retain top talent for your team. Provide opportunities for professional development and growth. Foster a culture of collaboration, trust, and open communication within your team. Work with your leadership and stakeholders to recognize and celebrate the achievements of your team members to boost morale and motivation.

Here are some additional tips.

• Find a mentor or sponsor who can guide you through the transition and provide valuable advice. In my experience, I realized that having your business sponsors as your mentor is always a good idea.

• Connect with other product leaders to learn from their experiences and share best practices.

• Stay up to date on the latest product management trends and best practices through continuous learning and professional development.

• Continue to assess & reflect once a quarter on whether you are making progress against our planned goals.

References

• my own experiences

• google search GenAI

• perplexity AI