At some point in your PM career, you'll face a choice: keep going deeper as an individual contributor, or transition into people management.
This isn't like other career transitions. Both paths are legitimate. Both can lead to leadership and impact. But they require different skills and offer different rewards.
Let me break down what each path actually involves—and help you figure out which one fits you.
The Career Ladder Overview
Most PM career ladders look something like this:
IC Track:
- •Associate PM / PM I
- •PM II
- •Senior PM
- •Staff PM
- •Principal PM
- •Distinguished PM / Fellow
Management Track:
- •PM Manager (managing 3-5 PMs)
- •Group PM / Senior Manager
- •Director of Product
- •Senior Director
- •VP of Product
- •CPO / Chief Product Officer
The tracks typically diverge around Senior PM. At that point, you've demonstrated you can do the job well. The question becomes: what's your next chapter?
What the IC Track Actually Looks Like
Let's demystify the senior IC path. What do Staff and Principal PMs actually do?
Staff PM typically:
- •Owns critical, complex product areas
- •Influences product direction across multiple teams
- •Mentors other PMs without formally managing them
- •Handles the highest-ambiguity problems
- •Partners directly with senior engineering leaders
- •May represent PM perspective in executive discussions
Principal PM typically:
- •Shapes company-wide product strategy
- •Works on the most critical, cross-cutting initiatives
- •Acts as a technical product expert
- •Influences without direct authority across the organization
- •May be recognized externally as a domain expert
- •Often operates like an internal consultant on hard problems
The key theme: senior ICs expand their impact through expertise and influence, not through managing people.
What the Management Track Actually Looks Like
Now let's look at the management side:
PM Manager typically:
- •Manages 3-5 PMs directly
- •Still involved in product work (usually owns a product area too)
- •Responsible for team hiring, development, and performance
- •Runs team rituals and ensures PM process health
- •Acts as a player-coach—managing while doing
Director+ typically:
- •Manages managers (or a mix of managers and ICs)
- •Less direct product work, more strategy and team building
- •Responsible for larger organizational outcomes
- •Spends significant time on people issues—hiring, retention, performance
- •Increasingly deals with cross-functional leadership
- •Represents PM function to executives and board
The key theme: managers expand their impact through building and developing teams.
The Honest Tradeoffs
IC Path
Good:
- •Stay close to the product and customer
- •Less time in management meetings
- •Intellectual depth over breadth
- •Can remain "in the craft"
- •Less people management complexity
Hard:
- •Fewer IC roles at senior levels (the pyramid narrows)
- •Influence without authority can be frustrating
- •May need to change companies to find Principal-level roles
- •Some organizations don't truly value senior ICs
- •Career ceiling may be lower (comp and title) at some companies
Management Path
Good:
- •Clear career progression at most companies
- •Impact multiplied through team
- •Compensation often higher at senior levels
- •More organizational influence
- •More roles available at senior levels
Hard:
- •Less time on actual product work
- •Significant time on people issues (not all enjoyable)
- •Responsible for others' failures, not just your own
- •Management skills are different than PM skills
- •Can feel removed from what drew you to PM
How to Know Which Path Fits
IC path is probably right if:
- •You love the craft of product management
- •You get energy from solving hard problems personally
- •Managing people sounds draining, not exciting
- •You want to stay deep in a domain
- •You're motivated by being the expert in the room
Management path is probably right if:
- •You get energy from developing others
- •You're genuinely interested in team dynamics and people growth
- •You're comfortable with less direct product work
- •You enjoy organizational and process challenges
- •You're motivated by team success over personal accomplishment
A few diagnostic questions:
- •When a junior PM succeeds because of your coaching, do you feel as satisfied as when you succeed personally?
- •Would you be happy if you spent 50% of your time on people management vs. product work?
- •When team dynamics are messy, do you find it interesting or draining?
- •Do you enjoy giving feedback, having difficult conversations, and coaching?
- •Are you okay being judged on your team's output, not your personal output?
If you answered yes enthusiastically, management might be your path. If you hesitated or said no, the IC track might fit better.
The Dangerous Middle Ground
Here's something nobody warns you about: the first-line PM manager role is often the hardest.
You're expected to:
- •Still contribute directly to product
- •Manage 3-5 people
- •Hire and develop the team
- •Handle performance issues
- •Represent the team to stakeholders
It's a lot. And many people take this step without realizing what they're signing up for.
If you're considering management, be honest: are you excited about the management parts specifically? Or are you just taking the promotion because it's the obvious next step?
Taking a management role without genuine interest in management is a recipe for burnout—and not fair to the people who'll report to you.
Can You Switch Tracks?
Yes, but it gets harder over time.
IC to Management: Generally possible if you demonstrate leadership, mentorship, and interest. Many companies prefer to promote internal ICs into management.
Management to IC: More challenging. You'll need to prove you can still do deep IC work. The longer you've been in management, the harder this transition is. Some people do it successfully; others find their IC skills have atrophied.
The best time to decide is before you've gone too far down either path. Once you're a Director or Principal, switching is a significant career reset.
What If You're Not Sure?
If you're at Senior PM and unsure which path to pursue:
Try management informally first:
- •Mentor junior PMs
- •Lead a workgroup or guild
- •Volunteer for cross-team coordination
- •See if you enjoy developing others
Try senior IC work informally:
- •Take on a high-ambiguity project
- •Influence without direct authority
- •Build expertise in a domain
- •See if deep craft work energizes you
Many companies also allow people to move between tracks. You could try management, realize it's not for you, and move back to IC (though this is harder than it sounds, and not all companies support it).
My Take
There's no right answer. Both paths can be deeply rewarding. Both can lead to significant impact and compensation.
What matters is being honest with yourself about what energizes you.
I've seen great PMs become miserable managers because they took the promotion without wanting the job. I've also seen great PMs thrive in management because they genuinely loved developing others.
Don't choose based on external validation, compensation, or assumptions about what success "should" look like. Choose based on the actual day-to-day work each path involves.
The best PMs I know—at all levels—are doing work they genuinely enjoy. That's true whether they're Principal ICs or VP of Product.
Find the path that fits how you want to spend your time, and you'll be happier and more effective than if you chase a track that doesn't suit you.