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Does there need to be a Growth PM specialization?

As the number of Product Management specializations has grown, so has the debate about whether these specializations are worthwhile. Let’s take Growth Product Managers as an example. Theoretically, everyone wants their product to grow, so do you really need a specialization around that? Isn’t that just Product Management? As is the case whenever you use generalizations like “everyone”, real life is not so simple. Here are some deeper explanations of the Growth Product Manager role, why you may want one in your organization, and how to find people to fill that role.

Growth Product Managers: What they do and why you need them. It became common for product-led growth businesses to focus on developing growth teams with Growth Product Managers at the wheel. Despite the increasing demand for Growth PMs, there's still no precise definition of what the growth role is and what this specialist should be responsible for. Lilia Gurova explores whether Growth PM is the next big thing in Product Management, and how that role can help move companies forward. 
(via @elekenagency)

What is a Growth Manager? And how to hire one. Growth means nothing if you can’t sustain it in the long-term. User acquisition hacks can bring thousands of individuals to try your product as new users. But they won’t grow your company if you cannot keep them. Achieve sustainable growth through a strategy that involves the entire customer lifecycle — awareness, acquisition, activation, revenue, retention, and referral. Josh Fechter explains that Growth Managers are the people who build the ground for this holistic strategy that leads to long-term growth.
(via @joshfechter5)

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Goodbye to the office?

Remote work isn’t necessarily a new thing. Some companies – like Dribbble, Buffer, and many others – have operated under remote-first work cultures for years… well before the COVID19 pandemic. But the pandemic led to many other companies being thrust into remote-work whether they liked it or not. 

Some companies liked it. Just yesterday, it was reported that Airbnb is allowing their employees to work from home (or wherever they’d like throughout the world) permanently. They can work from Airbnb’s office if they’d like. And there would still be regular in-person interactions planned throughout the year. But Co-Founder and CEO, Brain Chesky, said that it’s been Airbnb’s most productive 2-years ever since their remote-first experiment started. 

Then again, others aren’t so ready to adopt that approach. Netflix’s Reed Hastings has been completely against the idea of anything but an in-the-office work environment. Apparently he did not see the same type of productivity boost that Chesky from Airbnb saw. 

For most tech companies, it seems to fall somewhere in the middle. Most are still maintaining offices – but they’re leaving it up to employees as for whether they want to work in that dedicated workspace… or from home. And it seems like this type of choice may be important. After all, good talent is hard to come by (especially these days) – and recently, it was reported that almost ⅔ of employees would consider quitting their jobs before being forced to return to an all in-person work environment. 

So what do you think? Have the past two years cemented a WFH preference over the return to the office? Or, do you miss the extemporaneous interactions and relationship building with co-workers that working alongside each other physically can sometimes bring? Or… is it somewhere down the middle? Give me a shout and let me know – I’m curious!

The Art of Product Management

In a previous newsletter, Ken Norton reflected on his career in product management and shared some lessons he’d learned. One section, in particular, seemed to generate the most responses:

In product management, there’s an art and a science. The “art” gets dismissed as soft skills. When PMs fail, it’s usually because of “The Art.” The most important thing you can do early in your career is grow these skills. Don’t let them be dismissed as “soft skills,” don’t get lured by the promise of tactics and techniques: they’re essential, but the craft depends more on the art over the long term.

This essay explores “The Art” further. His hope with this essay is that we can all begin to appreciate how critical these so-called soft skills—or rather, “human skills”—are to product management.

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How to become a Growth Product Manager. You may have noticed a trend with product management job descriptions recently. The term ‘growth’ seems to pop up more and more in titles and descriptions of Product Management job postings, especially within the tech industry. The folks at Product Gym explore what exactly a Growth Product Manager is, what makes it different from a core PM role, and how you can land a Growth PM job.
(via @ProductGym)

What does growth mean for PMs and how do you go about building a team as a Growth PM? Tech startups and leading companies are achieving breakthrough results by viewing product development and marketing as integrated functions, not silos. The vital Growth Product Manager role encapsulates this approach. Sara Nofeliyan and Merci Victoria Grace share insights and lessons learned from their experiences as Growth Product Managers to answer the questions: What are the keys to success as a Growth PM? How do I build successful Growth Teams?
(via @nofeliyan and @merci )

Should a Growth Product Manager even be a thing? Once a product achieves product-market fit, a growth product manager specializes in making the ‘hockey stick’ user growth curve a reality. They do this by focusing their efforts on instrumenting, experimenting with, and optimizing the product(s) to make this happen. Jock Busuttil explains some companies use specialist Growth Product Managers to yield better results, more quickly at the expense of deemphasizing other aspects of Product Management.
(via @productpeople_)

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