6 yrs in client facing. Sick of it. Should I move to PM/PMM or aim towards CS leadership (context inside)?
My soul has been dead at my current role for the past two years (at least). I'm one of the top performing people on my team, but client facing just doesn't cut it for me anymore. According to Gallup assessment my top strength is "Strategic thinking" and overall I am definitely more of a business-minded, entrepreneurial type. Currently choosing if i should work hard towards making internal transition into PM/or PMM role (but there's a risk I will hate being an IC there as well) or if i should go get a CSM team lead job at a smaller startup with the aim of becoming VP of Customer Success/CCO few years down the line. CS isn't as sexy or interesting as PM or GTM-focused roles but it could be a great managerial career in SaaS. Maybe my long lost passion and love for the profession will come back once I'm not on the front lines every single day anymore XD Any thoughts&ideas on good career paths in SaaS for strategic thinkers would be much appreciated. Cheers. TC: $120k #careeradvice #productmanagement #customersuccess #tech
Revops, salesops, bizops, analytics?
I don’t want to be rude but I see all of these as supporting functions as opposed to one of the core ones. Not really something I’d be excited to do.
And they are, you are not wrong. Depending on the org so is their CSM function if you are unlucky.
PMM is chill and well paid. Also, general enough you can move around in future. That is my suggestion unless you are close to being promoted to management. Another option would be shift into consulting and do more client facing work but in a different discipline.
If you are a PM who is not planning on being client facing you will suck at you your job. Basically you’re just adding internal stakeholders to the gaggle of cats you have to herd.
Not a fair comparison. There is a big (if not huge) difference between doing a full time client facing job and having respective KPIs on renewals/churns across your book of business VS a PM who does client facing interactions mainly in the form of user interviews; UI testing & some strategic "ego boosting" calls with VIP clients (I love doing user interviews btw). I know the difference first hand because I was doing all outbound product management activities during one of the new product launches in the past. A PM is not responsible for the full ARR of any particular client (at least they shouldn't be) rather they look for patterns and long term solutions (in the form of either adjusting product positioning OR developing missing features or both) whereas a CSM is expected to fight for every.single.client TODAY. Just comparing apples to oranges on this one, sorry mate.
Oh my sweet summer child…
Absolutely it’s much more chill
Which one are you referring though?