Beyond the Job Description: How Company Size Defines Your PM Role
All the information you need to know about product management roles and responsibilities across companies at different stages of maturity
Product Managers work across a wide range of companies, from early-stage startups to large corporations with decades of history. Depending on an organization’s maturity, a PM’s roles and responsibilities can vary greatly.
While startups require PMs to wear many hats, growing companies demand more strategic focus, and mature organizations often need specialized expertise with deep business acumen.
Whether you’re considering a role in a startup or an established enterprise, it’s essential to understand how expectations and core skills shift with organizational growth.
In this article I´m going to dive into PMs responsibilities in three different stages of organizational maturity - startups, growing companies, mature (established) companies.
Startups
Product Managers in startups handle a bit of everything. Time and speed are critical as you aim to deliver the product as quickly as possible.
The overall goal is to prove the idea is viable and to attract initial users, showing traction.
In a startup, your main responsibilities will include daily collaboration with developers, functioning similarly to a project manager or product owner in larger companies, creating tasks, and ensuring they’re completed.
You’ll also work with the designer, customers (if you have any), the CEO, a marketing person, and anyone else involved in the project.
In a startup, it’s helpful if you know how to:
Work with product boards such as Trello, AHA, GitLab, or Jira. These tools are far more efficient than keeping tasks in a spreadsheet.
Have familiarity with agile software development methodologies like Kanban, Scrum, or lean development to bring structure to development.
Combine the roles of Product Manager and Scrum Master, facilitating the work of the development team.
Understand the basics of SEO and marketing.
In startups, there are typically no established processes, so much is created from scratch. You may even take part in peripheral activities, like hiring or payroll management.
As a Product Manager, you’ll help drive transformation as the company grows and moves toward becoming an established organization with stable growth.
Growing companies
In a growing company, you still collaborate with developers, but usually on a smaller scale, as these companies often have the resources to hire specialized roles like project managers or delivery managers.
Your focus shifts more toward crafting the product roadmap and initiatives to achieve it. Your main stakeholders typically become the CEO, CTO, CMO, and other C-level executives.
Instead of quick developer tasks, you’ll create Product Requirement Documents (PRDs) and low-fidelity design prototypes to present to your team and the product designer.
You’ll also work extensively with product analytics and metrics.
As a Product Manager in a growing company, you should be familiar with:
Backlog management and prioritization techniques like KANO, MoSCoW, RICE, or any proprietary prioritization framework.
Concepts of user acquisition, activation, and retention as part of marketing frameworks. (Referral and revenue are also important but stem from the original trio.)
Product metrics tied to these frameworks, especially if you’re a PM for a SaaS product, and analytics tools like Amplitude, Hotjar, and Google Analytics.
A/B testing as part of continuous product improvement; while not mandatory, it’s a highly desirable skill.
In growing companies, processes are better established, allowing you to focus more on product-oriented tasks in your daily work.
Mature companies
Mature companies excel with well-established and documented processes. Each employee knows their specific area of responsibility, which also applies to Product Managers.
Here, you’re largely removed from the development side and focus more on the business aspects of the product. Most of your time is spent managing goals, KPIs, meetings, emails, and documentation.
Your main responsibility is to ensure that the product aligns with the company’s business goals.
As a Product Manager in a mature company, you’re expected to have the following skills:
Crafting product vision and strategy. These two main documents define the product’s development direction and are typically crafted by senior product management, who then communicate them to the rest of the company.
Creating and maintaining the product roadmap at a strategic level, forecasting product development several years ahead.
A deep understanding of business and product economics, developing strategies to maximize profit and reduce expenses.
Acting as a subject matter expert for your product or product portfolio, assisting other departments with product-related initiatives.
In mature companies, the product manager's role is highly focused on aligning the product's vision and strategy with broader business objectives, using established processes to drive long-term growth and sustained market relevance.
Conclusion
In this article, I’ve reviewed the roles and responsibilities of Product Managers across companies at different stages of maturity, showing just how much these roles can differ.
The roles and responsibilities of product managers evolve significantly as companies mature, from the dynamic multitasking required in startups to the strategic focus demanded in established corporations.
Understanding these distinctions allows product managers to select or adapt their career paths to align with their skills and preferences. Many product managers start in startups, gaining a wide range of experiences quickly, and later transition into companies with more defined structures and strategic emphasis, where they can focus on long-term product and business development.
Regardless of the chosen path, these insights equip you to navigate any environment and confidently lead your product.
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