End of Product Managers?
This sure is the beginning of the end of Product Management. Or at least it seems like this to me. And I’m someone who just got started with my career in PM. Am I too late? The market for PMs is now saturated completely? Maybe I am the reason why it is saturated.
I’m skilled in UX and UI and I love working on the end-user experience for any product. Though I lack the technical knowledge a technical PM is believed to have, I never aspired to be one. But working in the tech industry, I do understand some of the tools we use to develop the product/feature, the Database we use to store the info, and Cloud knowledge about where we store the business data. I’m also well versed in a crossover with other roles like Marketing and Customer Success.
Lately, I have been thinking about different types of PMs that are there now in the tech industries and I wonder “where do I belong?” Clearly, the times have changed now. Gone are the times when a PM was usually from a CS background and who could code, if he wanted to. Today, you are equally considered for the role if you just know how the tech works and know how to collaborate with the tech lead. The tech lead will get the technical things done for your product requirements.
Imagine a ball being thrown in the air, it reaches a point where it starts to fall back. I think we just surpassed that point.
Typewriters are only seen in auctions now, flatscreen TVs nowadays, everything is available on your phone screens today, and not to mention, ODIs to T20. It’s all part of the change. Though these changes are comforting in many ways the truth is Product Management will soon be taken over by some other thing.
Isn’t everyone turning into a PM now? There are PM jobs all over the place and you can start without any experience. Before people kept this classic Marketing mix in their minds- the right Product, in the right Place, at the right Price, using the right Promotion. They were called, the “brand men’’ aka PMs. Along with understanding the tech side of the product, a PM was always focused on creating a product that's worth investing on for the company. It’s pretty much still the same, but the culture seems dead. People today, get attracted to this role for career growth and high pay, with very low effort. Of course, evolution.
With the rise of the Start-Ups, there was a rise in PM jobs and still is, but the real talent got saturated, and I believe, so did its pay. I will not shy away from admitting I am one among those hundred of thousands of people who are starting now, with 0 experience in tech and saturating the market. Could I have help! Though it’s been only a year with my skin in the game, I understand the culture it was and how we are treating it as a profession now. So many people are becoming product managers, not necessarily good ones. The level of learning people have now in this area has dropped drastically as we all are watching the ones above us.
Let’s pretend that the Product Management no longers exists from tomorrow, what would we do? Well, highly possible. But managing is a skill that is going to be around for a long time. Some people do the work, and some need to manage that. It’s always the case.
PS, this was my thought on how this profession has changed, happened with other professions too. That’s all.
