Hello there Reader,

Last week I wrote about why you should become a Manager. I unexpectedly received some divisive feedback. It was welcomed, just unexpected.

For some of you, Why you should become a Manager deeply resonated and informed your career path—for others, there was a hard disagree.

My intent was to write a balanced, two-part series on a topic that comes up repeatedly in people’s careers. I (perhaps naively) didn’t make that clear in my previous issue.

Today is part 2 of 2, then.

Let’s explore why you should stay an IC (or go back to being one).

As always, your feedback is deeply valued and appreciated.

What matters as an IC Product Manager

Being a successful IC boils down to this: delivering impactful outcomes. That’s not to say delivery is the most important part of Product Management, but if your work isn’t achieving impactful outcomes, your job is at risk.

That said, excelling as a Product Manager still requires mastery across these critical areas—with a bit of a different lens.

Vision-driven thinking

An IC PM establishes vision at product or feature level. They normally stay in their own lane, though, with their work informed by the vision at the org or company level.

They go really deep on their specific problem space and customers to inform their vision. They have to get buy-in on their vision from everyone around and above them.

Strategic mindset

Like the Product Leader, ICs have to balance short-term pressures with long-term value creation, regularly having to operate in a world of trade-offs.

Day to day distractions can’t be swept away or delegated. While doing with those, they have to keep their prioritisation focus on the product and roadmap, pushing back or up on their leadership when teams aren’t operating effectively.

Communication

Moreso than the Product Leader, the IC PM has to calibrate communication across many more levels and functions. That communication calibration spans across how you talk (e.g, tone, depth, clarity), what format or medium you use (e.g., email, slack, documentation), and what the setting is (e.g., leadership meetings, team meetings, customer interviews).

The IC PM is normally first in line to answer questions and retrieve information with speed and accuracy. They’re expected to know the details and communicate them well. IC PMs who can’t do this well struggle.

Empathy

A great PM understands users and stakeholders.

As I said last week, empathy drives better product decisions. It also builds stronger relationships amongst the many people and functions an IC PM has to work with, influence, or depend on.

Why you should stay (or switch back to) an IC Product Manager

The most compelling reason is the profound satisfaction that comes from the hands-on work.

As an Individual Contributor, your greatest impact comes through your direct work on products and features.

Seeing your own ideas come to life and knowing you played a pivotal role in creating something valuable for users can be deeply rewarding. Product Leaders I work with who go back to IC roles typically cite missing that hands-on work.

Another reason to stay an IC is if you thrive on deep, focused problem-solving.

ICs spend the majority of their time diving into complex problems, conducting research, and crafting thoughtful solutions rather than managing team dynamics or navigating organisational politics.

If you excel at analytical thinking and find energy in building a comprehensive understanding of your customers problems, the IC path will likely remain fulfilling for you.

Looking at data, finding patterns, having those ‘ah ha’ moments…if you find joy in these, then an IC role gives them to you.

The IC role also offers the opportunity to develop expertise in specific domains and building new skills. Product Leaders are often steered away from getting too hands-on, pushed to delegate instead. There are countless IC PMs experimenting with AI right now. Product Leaders don’t always get that flexibility.

While there are certainly other paths to advance your career, the unique skills you develop as an IC—technical mastery, customer empathy, and calibrated communication—will serve you throughout your career journey, regardless of your future roles.

Revisiting those career ladders

In an ideal organisation, there are growth opportunities beyond Senior Product Manager which don’t require a switch to leadership. That’s not always the case, though.

Here’s that handy graphic from Susan Videira Lopes I shared last week:

The reality is that many organisations will handle things differently.

How small companies do it

When the number of PMs across an entire company is in the single digits, or perhaps slightly more, they will often only have PM and Senior PM designations.

They normally aren’t set up, or interested in, creating more defined career ladders.

How mid-size companies do it

If a company has dozens of Product Managers, it’s likely they’ve got more established career ladders—ranging from Associate/Junior up to Senior and sometimes Principal.

How some big companies, and big-tech, do it

Larger companies can have a dizzying number of levels. For example, ServiceNow has at least seven:

Product Owner
Product Manager
Senior Product Manager
Staff Product Manager
Senior Staff Product Manager
Principal Product Manager
Senior Principal Product Manager

I’m sure worse cases are out there when you add in associate level roles to the mix.

Amazon had 4 different levels for an IC PM, but recently they’ve cut it down to 3. Internally these were labeled as PM I, PM II, PM III, and Principal PM.

Meta and Google each have 5, with the top being L7 PM, or Principal, respectively. Of the big tech bunch, Meta obfuscates the levelling from employees for their own reasons.

Career-level positions

At some companies, you are pushed to constantly level-up. Others have what are called ‘career-level’ positions, meaning once you obtain a certain title or level (such as Senior PM L6 at Amazon) you don’t have to get promoted. You can continue operating at that level as long as you meet performance expectations.

What to watch out for

The temptation to move into leadership is almost always driven by either influence from your boss, or it being seen as the (seemingly) obvious path to increase your remuneration.

These are traps.

Why your boss pushes you to move to management

Good leaders think about succession planning and the obvious place to look is their team.

The challenge, though, is they will sometimes steer an individual into a leadership position for their own reasons without regard for the individual.

If you want to move up to more senior levels of leadership, you need to demonstrate you can find, develop, and promote others into positions of leadership. That can lead them to push people in a direction that might work better for them, not the IC.

The glass ceiling of IC jobs

Hitting a pay ceiling at your company can feel limiting. You’re looking at costs going up, and want to earn more—but single-digit percent raises aren’t cutting it.

It’s here where people will follow the path to leadership for the earning potential, overlooking many of the implications of such a switch.

They start to earn more money, but realise they are missing what they really enjoyed about being an IC, or worse, hating what they have to do as a Manager.

How to decide what to do next

If you’re stuck trying to decide what to do, and need someone to talk to about it, you can join the upcoming Career Clarity Lab I’m running with fellow coach Parveen Downer.