As you transition from the role of individual contributor (IC) product manager to managing product managers, there will be a change in expectations and definition of success in your role. As an IC PM, your success is mainly defined by your ability to dive deep, show bias for action and perform timely execution. While as manager of PMs, your success will depend on your ability to delegate, think big, and grow and develop your team members. Navigating this transition is an art, which can be perfected with guidance and practice. It is also an iterative process, which must continuously evolve with the company goals, stage of the product and the working styles of the people reporting to you. From my personal experience, here are the key takeaways that summarize how one must evolve as one transition from IC PM to Manager of PMs:
In summary, as you transition from the role of IC PM to Manager of PMs, your focus should shift to effective delegation, big picture thinking and unblocking the team members, as and when needed. This is an iterative process and you must be open to learning and continually evolving in this role, based on active listening and learning from regular feedback from all the team members. In this role, you have to let go of a lot of tasks which you previously enjoyed as an IC PM. Letting go lets you delegate effectively amongst your team members, thereby freeing up the calendar to create more time for big thinking and unblocking your team members, when needed.
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