I feel like I get too many inquiries on LI and IRL to answer so I'd like to take any questions folks have here so I can answer without much filter. Who am I? I've been a Senior Director of Product at various high growth tech companies in multiple industries and cities. I do not have a technical degree and worked in odd jobs, small startups, and briefly in growth marketing before joining product. I teach a bunch of folks interview hunting, job hunting, salary negotiation, and career guidance. TC: 325k base + 1.2m/yr equity (private) + 97.5k bonus This is above average for Sr Director salaries in private companies because my competing offers were VP and CPO. I imagine I'll get a lot of Blind style comments but will focus on the authentic questions people have so don't get discouraged about asking. #pm #product #productmanager #interview #salarynegotiation
I am a Director of product with tech background. Would need some career guidance from you. How to go to next stage? How to find another job in this market?
Market will require persistence and patience. Get in touch with tons of executive recruiting firms and tell them what your after do them shop you internally in their agency. You might take 8 months to find a new role but just keep networking and applying. Roles are less common this year. Avoid growth stage startups unless they're much bigger titles, value their equity half of their last round or less, and they are a notable name that will probably still IPO without a down round.
any recommendations on executive recruitment firms
Are you open to coaching/mentoring? If so can I DM?
Only in group settings and well paid, if I did this. Time is tight with family and work. I only volunteer for teaching a B School course.
But you can network with plenty of folks online and someone might be in a good spot to help
As a engineer, what is the best way to spot sound product folks ? Some product folks are good at painting the picture but in the end after stuff are built it isn’t so awesome… so would like to suss out the better ones to collaborate with
Can you elaborate? What do you mean by at the end it isn't so awesome? You mean their product execution isn't strong? Design? Iteration?
There are multiple reasons that I have seen the ideation phase is impressive but when the product is built and delivered it is’nt exemplary. Reasons such as they did not cross the t’s and dot the i’s . Resulting in compliance or others stopping, delaying and changing the product development course. The ideas were more blown up than how the consumers react to it, it doesn’t get the reception that was expected. They keep changing the features while engineers are developing the product resulting in a lot of developmental churn and frustrations. So how to know if a product partner is going to be reliable and actually know what they are doing and will utilize engineering bandwidth properly
What were your strategies for moving up? Do you think changing companies is a better way to move up? Or, do you think that staying for a very long time in an organization is the best way to climb up the ladder? What are the skills you would look for, for a senior or principal product manager to move to director or senior director?
I could write a whole thing but Nikhyl (VP at Facebook) wrote a great substack on thinking about this: https://theskip.substack.com/p/when-do-you-know-its-time-to-leave tl;dr every year, look at whether the company is growing faster than you are, whether you're getting promoted or getting great reviews ahead of inevitable promotion, and/or your boss is moving up fast and will need someone to fill the void they leave. Stay then. After year 2, reduce that to every 6 months. If you have a boss who really trusts and relies on you, that makes a big difference. Chaos is a ladder if you play it right. Make sure you're curious about problems around the company outside your space so you can take on bigger scope or better yet identify more scope the leaders didn't think of so you can make bigger impact for the company. The biggest differentiator at the principal +roles is rethinking the problem area to find more impact rather than executing well in a narrow path.
What if you do the same…contribute so much outside of your work and still.. when the time comes, you are told that no matter what you did, you are not eligible for promotion as you have not performed 1 year in your desired role i.e. fall short by 1 month.
I quit Amazon as Sr PM and joined a startup (as a Sr PM again). The startup has only raised seed funding and does not have any reach outside a few pilot customers, even though it has plans to grow If you were hiring, will you consider startup employees or do you only prefer established companies
I do consider startup employees and it's a plus, but when you move to a startup from FAANG you should be getting a title boost.
You get a title reduction when you move back
For TC, is $325k the cap for your base or why opt for high % in equity?
even vp will get mid 300k base. equity is the bulk. check levels.fyi for director or vp and you will see
I'm trying to find my next position as I'm at the point where I've grown faster than my division. However, I'm also in an incredibly cushy situation where my pay to effort ratio is humongous (TC 450k, 30 to 35 hours a week), which will make a move result in more work with potentially less pay. I am compelled to continuously grow, but part of me thinks I should rest and vest. Because of this I'm taking the strategy of cold contacting people in interesting areas in high potential startups who have funding. This way I could get a jump in career while having similar base comp but potentially that sweet sweet exit. Any thoughts on the strategy?
Right now late stage startups equity is over valued. Unless you get a huge equity package even if discounted for time, risk, and if you revalue their equity at public comps (ie 60% less than their 2021/22 round), I would favor big public companies.
As for the boredom, go for a level increase somewhere where your new boss is way better than you and on the rise. I might stay where you're at though if you want to just enjoy the rest of your life and try side hustles until the hiring market gets hotter and you can get more big offers again
For people who are senior PM (IC6/7, M1/M2) trying to get to D1/D2, what advice would you give? When interviewing someone for a manager role, how do you assess their experience and whether they will be a good manager? I've done people management at a big tech + startup, but still got dinged at Uber and Stripe for manager roles because they felt I didn't have enough experience. I want to figure out how to convey my experience properly and hit the right notes.
I got to this level at smaller companies and rotated in. Moving up in MANGA internally is not my experience. In order to get interviewed at those places at those levels you need to manage managers with a sizable org in a decent growth stage company. I would target companies just post IPO today (usually pre IPO but most of those companies are overvalued in equity). Go to somewhere smaller than Uber but go for a bigger ownership scope. I wouldn't get discouraged by two dings. I got 20% hit rates and still tons of offers. You need volume, patience, and contacts at executive recruiting firms.
Hey! What was your path to a Sr Product Director level? Did you work in FAANG or have you achieved this level in start ups? And what is the difference between Sr Product Director in a start-up and a FAANG company?
Growth stage Startups. I did get Director offers at the bigger companies and some VP offers at public companies, but my comp here was much better. I replied to another comment about how to move up. Be curious about the whole company. Gain trust of a boss or future boss who's moving up fast. Make impact and suggest strategy focus. Eventually switch if those don't line up and aim super high in level through recruiter firms and networking. There's more but that's a highlight reel
Got it. Can I ask you for some specific advice? I have ten yoe in tech, first five as an SWE, and the last five in product roles. My last job was as a Product Director in Series C Unicorn from US, but I didn't pass the probation period. Before that, I worked and managed 2-3 PMs, but it was in Europe in good, but local companies. Now I want to continue working remotely with the US as an independent contractor and relocate with an o1 visa later, but I don't understand what level of roles I should aim for now in the US market? I can easily land Lead/Head of Product roles in my local market, where I have a name in the industry, but it's different in the US right now. Does my plan make sense to you? Any tips on the role level and company type?
Pretty much
Love the response