Something that quite often gets addressed in Product Management blogs is how the role changes as you progress towards Head of Product and CPO. This is an important area to cover, because there is no doubt that things do change during this progression. I’m going to use a general model of career progression and show its applicability to Product Management specifically, I first saw this model presented during my MBA and it is something I have been able to relate to during my own progression.
The first thing to address in this model is that there are three types of “intelligence” when it comes to working within an organisation:
- Intellectual Quotient; this is the more traditional view of intelligence, where you are solving the actual problems.
- Emotional Quotient; this is less your pure intelligence and ability to “do the work” but your ability to emphasise with others, to understand them and for them to be able to understand you.
- Political Quotient; somewhat tied to EQ but this is your ability to navigate many individuals with potentially opposing (or at least differing) views and ambitions.
In order to be successful in a career you need to be able to showcase all of these types of intelligence, however the model argues that as you progress up the career ladder different types of intelligence become more prominent.
At the first stage of your career as a Product Analyst/Manager you are for the most part heavily involved in the day to day running of the product organisation, you are building requirements, creating product backlogs, building product roadmap, and working with the development team on a daily basis in order to execute on product strategy. At this stage in your career your network may be quite small and you are working with your direct team only and do not have direct line management responsibility. Therefore success in your role is predominantly determined by your IQ.
As you progress to a Senior Product Manager / Product Director you have a wider network of people you are working with, you are more directly involved in fully determining product strategy and you are also likely managing one or two individuals. At this stage it is important that you are able to work with the team and people around you and that you are able to build professional relationships, communicate effectively with individuals and at this stage your EQ becomes a prominent part of your role.
Lastly, at the most senior level of Product Management you have a huge network of colleagues you are working with, from the broadest range of functions (Finance, HR, etc). Additionally you may be in almost direct competition with other areas of the business when it comes to capital allocation. In this environment, it becomes important to be able to navigate the political environment and therefore PQ becomes an important aspect of the role.
All the above being said, a few critiques of the model:
- This model applies most specifically to large organisations, in a smaller organisation no matter what level you find yourself in you will be moving up and down the triangle in terms of responsibilities. There is less defined structure and therefore this flexibility means you will be utilising EQ/PQ/IQ significantly at different times.
- As a Product person, by your very role you sit within a range or functions and work with a wide range of people. The model feels more directly applicable in different functions, but I think still provides a decent framework.
It is obvious that as you progress up the career ladder the role will change, but the above model provides a good narrative for how the role changes. In order to be successful as you progress it is of course important that you maintain your capabilities from your previous role, but you need to be aware that it won’t necessarily be more of the same that makes you successful in the new role. The above model shows how the role might change and what sort of capabilities might be required.
rla-blog 