One thing I realized from my personal experience is that the skills required to transition from mid-level to senior management position (say from a Senior / Group Product Manager to Director, VP, and CPO) are very different from what makes one successful as a Product Manager.
Product Managers who were rock stars earlier in their career struggle to make a high impact when they don’t understand and prepare for this transition. The situation is a typical ‘what got you here won’t get you there’ conundrum.
There is a mix of functional and behavioral skills (and a lot of mindset change!) that are required to make this transition. Some of the functional skills are – hiring, setting up processes, organizing teams, setting up systems for tracking, mentoring PMs, etc. Some of the non-functional skills include – managing your manager & higher-ups, handling tough stakeholders, communication, handling politics, storytelling, influence, perception management, drawing boundaries, etc.
Surprisingly, there are not great resources that are helpful in managing the transition. This blog is about sharing my learnings & experiences (along with that of some of my friends and mentees) who have made this transition so that you can apply them in your career and grow.
The blog is organized into different topics (categories) and each has 5 to 20 posts with key learnings in the topic.
