VP, Product @ Uberall | Product Leader, Seasoned SaaS Operator, PLG Expert | Keynote Speaker
There has been a lot of conversation recently about Product Management dying in Tech. Most of it is extremely overblown. First, we were told AirBnB let go of all its Product Managers, when in reality, they evolved the Product Management role to become more of a single-threaded leader, thus reducing the number of PMs required in the organization. A presentation on product management being dead a month or so ago has every PM Leader discussing the topic and how AI will change the role, when in reality, it's simply signalling what we've always known about this job (and what makes this job amazing), Product Management is evolving once again and we all have to be ready to learn the new way of doing this job. Unfortunately, a lot of newcomers are scared of getting into Product right now because of these headlines. For those of us who have been in this for a while, we've seen these evolutions occur multiple times. We saw this over a decade ago when Product Ownership was introduced and then denounced. We saw this a few years back when Growth and Product Growth became an important function within Product Departments. All that is to say, I have a lot of younger PM's reaching out having a hard time landing a gig and questioning whether they should even pursue the role of PM if it's about to die. My answer to them is this: Product Management is not dead, nor dying. Product Management, as it always has been is about learning, curiosity and evolution (read: change). If you're ready to learn and change constantly over 2+ decades of your life, this is one of the best jobs in the planet. Full stop. For those struggling to land a job, take a look at your CV, if you don't have formal PM training, get some. I was recently told a stat that less than 50% of PMs have any formal training and that half of those folks only have a CSPO as their designated training. 15-20 years ago, something like Pragmatic Marketing was a requirement to get into a PM job. These days, something like Pragmatic, Reforge or something like what PMDojo and Bosky Mukherjee provides is a must. And yes, that's even if you have a fancy MBA. #productmanagement
If it weren’t evolving then I think many of us would be unhappy anyway!
This was a great take. I'm not in product management but I partner with product managers all the time as the leader of product specialists (customer engineers). I don't care how good AI gets, if you think that product management is going to get replaced by AI, you just don't do product management correctly. Product managers are all about judgment. AI is awful at making judgment calls. If the critical parts of product management in your mind can get automated away by AI, those parts that you think are critical, just aren't critical.
I'll second PMDojo. It's one of my go-to's when mentees ask me for product management training. The reason is that their program emphasizes talking with customers, having stakeholders, and collaborating with a trifecta (Design, engineering, etc.) pitching. All of those are invaluable learning that will help you get better at interviews, have stories and hands-on learning. 🏁
Founder & CEO @ PMDojo | Ex-Atlassian | Product Leadership Advisor | Fractional CPO | Keynote Speaker | Community Builder | Mom 👩👦🐶
5dThanks Partho Ghosh for the shoutout. Building PMDojo and designing each of our programs for Product Managers has been the most impactful part of my 25 year career journey. 💖 For any Product Manager looking for practical and learn by doing methods to upskill, here are the most recommended programs that leaders send their teams for in PMDojo: 1. Product Leadership Edge (PLE) to learn hard skills, meta skills and mindsets needed to advance your career by building the core competencies needed in this new era - https://www.pmdojo.me/product-leadership-edge 2. PMDojo for Teams: Our corporate training program that is 100% customized for each product team - https://www.pmdojo.me/pmdojo-for-teams Here are just some outcomes from PMDojo's programs: 1️⃣ 93% of our members get multiple promotions compared to peers 2️⃣ 10x more likely to achieve revenue goals from innovation initiatives 3️⃣ 4.8x more likely to receive recognition from leaders Reach out if you want to learn more about how we can help you level-up or your team to level up.