It’s annual review time in a lot of companies and quite a lot of employees have thought of their promotion. For long time PMs looking to earn higher pay or transition to B-level management, times as these could be particularly stressful.
I have learnt that most organizations have no roles beyond “Senior Product Manager” for anyone who wants to remain an Individual Contributor.
PMs are convinced they are doing a fantastic job when they continually ship successful products and lead significantly happy multi-teams , then expect to be promoted at the next review cycle.
Those success signals that we identify can be misleading and cause us to remain stagnant on a job role. Speaking on a mentoring call two days ago with a PM, he wasn’t looking at jumping into management, but struggled with how to justify a promotion or raise for doing normal individual contributor work.
So here, I have unraveled the mystery in 3 top reasons why some great PMs do not get promoted ;
One : Zero knowledge of organizational structure
Holistically, organizations value either accomplishments or competency. Less mature companies flow with the former and as a PM, you have to make significant contributions to the bottom line of the business to enjoy recognition. In the latter, as long as you are demonstrating competencies visibly, you can expect to be rewarded. Here, you are valued for the problem solving and approach methods and less of the ultimate outcome.
My recommendation: Quickly understand how your company is set up. Clarify expectations with your manager and their boss , to define how success is established and measured. There are chances that strong stakeholder management and proving the ability to get consensus, far outweighs shipping 10 products in 1 quarter.
Two : Consistently being a small fish in a big pond.
Big Tech like MSFT or Apple, use the calibration process for promotion. This means everyone is stack ranked at the same level and the top 10% only gets promoted, with the bottom 20% fired. Despite outperforming their expectations, tonnes of PMs can get stuck there, by losing the finite opportunities for growth to others that are doing better relatively.
My recommendation: Locate a smaller pond. That might mean goodbye to the rat race, but career satisfaction is a journey and getting promoted feels just as good at any company.
Three : Remaining invisible to top leadership.
My biggest lesson at Big Tech was that good work is not enough, visible good work is required to propel you. The right people must conspicuously identify with your work, your ideas and achievements. There are scanty opportunities for a face to face with c-suite leaders and these are the moments that matter the most, regardless of how you perform throughout the year.
My Recommendation: Seek opportunities to present to the top guys. Ask your manager to place you on a strategic or highly visible project. Next, request to give updates or regular check-ins with whoever is responsible for your promotion. You want to diligently prepare for those meetings, to tell a compelling story, to debate intelligently and show that the project is exceeding expectations.
Summarily ;
Open feedback with managers and building a promotion plan for proper navigation should be a norm for Product Managers. Build your plan to reflect key areas of growth that will get you recognition at your next review. You must consistently identify and set yourself up with favorable situations.
Most importantly, a craftily written profile and resume would propel any great PM to get 3/4 feet in the door at a new company.
Have a great week ahead. 🚀
