The Perils of Being a 21 Year-Old Product Manager

Re:The Perils of Being a 21 Year-Old Product Manager by Hydraulix989 on Friday October 07, 2016 @09:38AM (#12660557)

Calling a "product manager" a "strategic leader" is a bit of an exaggeration. At most tech companies, entry-level software engineers are on the same "level" in the corporate hierarchy as "product managers," and product managers aren't "managers" in the same sense that they are managers of people -- they actually don't have anyone under them, they are only managers of the product itself.

Yes, in some sense, everybody is a strategic leader -- even engineers at big companies, but this argument is really just a pleasantry.

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Re:The Perils of Being a 21 Year-Old Product Manager by k__ on Friday October 07, 2016 @11:01AM (#12661185)

Many people think if they got "Manager" in their job description they're suddendly cream of the crop.

I worked with two <25 year old PMs and none of them had any clue what PM is, they just did some pre-sales stuff.

He's only 21, so don't be too hard on him.

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Re:The Perils of Being a 21 Year-Old Product Manager by Hydraulix989 on Friday October 07, 2016 @11:46AM (#12661551)

Right, I wouldn't call it "perilous," but hey, there's plenty of rhetoric on this site that I disagree with.

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Re:The Perils of Being a 21 Year-Old Product Manager by FullMtlAlcoholc on Friday October 07, 2016 @09:37PM (#12665198)

A bit off topic, but is it ubiquitous throughout the industry that product. managers are on the same rung of the ladder as entry level software engineers?

At a previous gig, the lead Android device transitioned to being a product manager and I assumed that it as a step up. Granted, the CEO of the company had a background in pre-web marketing surveys, so it was a tech company in name but not culture.

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Re:The Perils of Being a 21 Year-Old Product Manager by Daviey on Friday October 07, 2016 @10:24AM (#12660859)

A good product manager is a manager of other product managers, that happen to not be product managers.

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Re:The Perils of Being a 21 Year-Old Product Manager by Hydraulix989 on Friday October 07, 2016 @10:31AM (#12660923)

Yes, and that's in my latter pleasantry category -- you're still effectively on the bottom rung (assuming you aren't a Product Manager II or a Senior Product Manager).

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