Product Management Career Path
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Product Management Career Path

Purpose of this doc

This document clarifies the career path available within the Product team at Fyle. Understanding these options helps team members make informed choices while enabling their managers to provide appropriate guidance, challenges, and opportunities.

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Core Competencies

Think of these core competencies as your dimensions for growth. You'll need to develop and demonstrate progress in each dimension throughout your career.

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1) Product Sense

Consists of:

  • User Empathy and Research
  • Market Awareness and Competitive Analysis
  • Roadmap Planning and Prioritization
  • Creative Problem Solving

2) Execution Sense

Consists of:

  • Problem Scope
  • Communication
  • Quality of Documentation
  • Effective Project Management
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration

3) Analytical Sense

Consists of:

  • Asking the Right Questions
  • Data-Influenced Decision Making
  • Quality of Proposed Solutions

4) Leadership

Consists of:

  • Sphere of Influence
  • High Agency and Ownership
  • Stakeholder Management
  • Mentorship

Associate Product Manager

Product Sense

  • Talk to customers regularly and gather insights for initiatives/product area/building empathy.
  • Identify key competitors and their offerings.
  • Help maintain the product roadmap.
  • Suggest solutions for clearly defined problems.

Execution Sense

  • Define problem statements with input from others.
  • Clear and good copy for: PRDs, product copy, KB articles, emails.
  • Communicate progress and challenges to the team.
  • Collaborate with Engineering, Design, and other teams to deliver features.
  • Work with Customer Success and Sales to turn user issues into actionable requests.

Analytical Sense

  • Monitor feature performance and share insights with stakeholders.
  • Make effective data requests through well scoped questions.
  • Ask clarifying questions to improve problem definitions and solutions.
  • Suggest multiple approaches to solving problems when possible.

Leadership

  • Contribute and influence within the team.
  • Take ownership of timelines and delivery.
  • Manage expectations for well-scoped initiatives.

There will be APM-1, APM-2 and APM-3 bands to represent progress. The individual’s manager will determine when someone has progressed through to the next band.

Product Manager

Product Sense

  • Own the product roadmap for their Product Area.
  • Talk to customers regularly and develop deep customer empathy.
  • Conduct detailed competitor analysis in Product Area and identify opportunities.
  • Be able to evaluate multiple approaches to complex problems and come up with a good solution.

Execution Sense

  • Define and articulate the scope of complex problems.
  • Communicate effectively with cross-functional teams.
  • Own feature launch by collaborating with GTM teams.

Analytical Sense

  • Ask questions to uncover key insights and refine solutions.
  • Use data to inform decisions and prioritization.
  • Suggest well-thought-out solutions backed by data.

Leadership

  • Influence multiple teams and stakeholders.
  • Take ownership of product areas and deliver results.
  • Manage stakeholder expectations across teams.
  • Mentor APMs to support their growth.

There will be PM-1, PM-2 and PM-3 bands to represent progress. The individual’s manager will determine when someone has progressed through to the next band.

Senior Product Manager

Product Sense

  • Drive user-centric thinking and inspire the organization.
  • Identify and seize strategic market opportunities.
  • Define and execute multi-quarter roadmaps.
  • Develop scalable solutions to highly complex problems.

Execution Sense

  • Scope and break down complex problems into actionable plans.
  • Communicate vision and progress to leadership and teams.
  • Deliver detailed and insightful documentation for major initiatives.
  • Align diverse teams around shared goals and execution plans.

Analytical Sense

  • Anticipate challenges and drive clarity for ambiguous problems.
  • Use advanced data techniques to guide strategy and execution.
  • Deliver solutions with a clear understanding of trade-offs.

Leadership

  • Influence across the organization, including senior leadership.
  • Own and deliver high-impact, cross-functional projects.
  • Build trust and alignment with stakeholders.
  • Mentor PMs and APMs, fostering their growth and development.

There will be SPM-1, SPM-2 and SPM-3 bands to represent progress. The individual’s manager will determine when someone has progressed through to the next band.

Lead PM (TBF)

Principal/Director PM (TBF)

FAQs

Q: How soon should I be moving from one band to another?

A: All official title changes will typical happen during annual appraisals. You are expected to be moving from one band to the next each year. Sometimes we may agree to skip a band based on your progress.

Q: How can I improve my core competencies?

A: The most effective way to improve certain competencies is to take up initiatives which exercise that competency. For example, to improve your execution sense, you should pick up an initiative which involves significant stakeholder communication or a tight deadline.

Q: How frequently will I get feedback on my performance?

A: The quarterly performance reviews serve as effective checkpoints to evaluate current performance and discuss areas of improvement among your manager and you. The 1:1s with your manager are also a good time to discuss performance and future goals.