“A conductor doesn’t make a sound. He depends for his power on his ability to make other people powerful.” — Benjamin Zander
From Visionaries to Builders: Decoding the Many Faces of Product Management
“Product management is the art of balancing vision with execution, the customer with the business, and speed with scale.” — Unknown (but definitely a product manager on hour 12 of a sprint planning meeting)
Product management, as a function, has evolved dramatically from its early days as a marketing-adjacent discipline into a powerhouse role that sits at the center of strategy, customer empathy, and execution. But despite its ubiquity, product management remains one of the most misunderstood and inconsistently defined roles across companies, industries, and maturity stages.
In this post, we unpack the diverse types of product managers, define the spectrum of product roles from early-stage startups to Fortune 100 giants, and examine how great companies structure their product management organizations. Along the way, we’ll call out some examples of what good looks like—and what doesn’t.
Historical Context: From Brand to Builders
Product management was born in 1931 when Neil McElroy at Procter & Gamble wrote a now-famous memo proposing the role of “brand men” to own and drive products from end to end. The idea was revolutionary: give one person full accountability over a product’s performance, from customer needs to packaging to profit.
Fast forward to the software age. The role adapted to become more technical, more strategic, and more collaborative. In the 1990s and early 2000s, with the rise of agile development and startups, product management found its modern identity: a glue role at the intersection of business, design, and engineering.
The Product Management Spectrum: Roles and Responsibilities
Not all product managers are created equal. Here are the most common archetypes you’ll encounter in a high-functioning product organization:
1. The Visionary PM (Ideation & Strategy)
These PMs focus on identifying opportunities, customer needs, market gaps, and future trends. They’re often aligned with founders, heads of strategy, or new venture units.
Common in: early-stage startups, innovation labs
Strengths: customer insight, market sensing, blue-sky thinking
Weaknesses: executional depth, technical fluency
2. The Portfolio PM (CPO / Director / Group PM)
These leaders orchestrate across multiple products or product lines, set priorities, allocate resources, and drive alignment between executive goals and roadmaps.
Common in: mid-sized and large enterprises
Strengths: strategic thinking, stakeholder alignment, scaling teams
Weaknesses: may lose touch with customer or delivery teams
3. The Technical PM (TPM)
Deeply embedded with engineering, these PMs write specs, debug APIs, evaluate architecture trade-offs, and can even participate in sprint ceremonies as equals with tech leads.
Common in: dev tools, APIs, infrastructure, and ML platforms
Strengths: technical credibility, clear communication with engineers
Weaknesses: risk of over-optimizing for engineering vs. customer value
4. The Growth PM
Focused on conversion funnels, onboarding flows, A/B tests, retention metrics, and virality. Often data-driven, rapid iteration, and focused on user behavior at scale.
Common in: B2C, SaaS, and e-commerce platforms
Strengths: experimentation, data fluency, optimization
Weaknesses: short-term thinking, may neglect long-term value
5. The Product Ops Lead
While not a traditional PM, product ops is essential at scale. They manage tooling, rituals, metrics, and process hygiene so PMs can focus on solving customer problems.
Common in: orgs with >10 PMs
Strengths: cross-team efficiency, operational rigor
Weaknesses: requires strong alignment with PMs and leadership
What Great Looks Like: High-Functioning Product Teams
Spotify’s Squad Model
Spotify popularized the “squad, tribe, chapter” structure. PMs, engineers, and designers work in autonomous squads aligned to customer problems. Product ops ensures common practices across teams. The model emphasizes autonomy, ownership, and rapid learning.
Stripe’s Full-Stack PMs
At Stripe, PMs are expected to be technical and strategic. They’re trusted to own the entire lifecycle of their product—understanding the codebase, talking to customers, aligning with legal and compliance, and writing business cases.
What Bad Looks Like
- A PM team with no authority and all responsibility (“glorified backlog groomers”)
- PMs treated as project managers, with no say in what gets built
- Overlap and confusion between product, engineering, and marketing leading to accountability gridlock
Org Architectures at Different Maturity Levels
Stage 0–1: Founder-Led Product
- Who: CEO or founder is the de facto PM
- Structure: Flat, no dedicated PM
- Focus: Vision, MVP, user interviews
- Risk: No process, ad hoc decisions, lack of validation
Stage 1–2: Single PM or “Mini-CEO”
- Who: One generalist PM owns the whole product
- Structure: PM reports to founder or CTO
- Focus: Product-market fit, prioritization, iteration
- Risk: Overload, blurred boundaries with engineering
Stage 2–3: Growing PM Team
- Who: 3–5 PMs, usually divided by product area or user journey
- Structure: PMs report to Head of Product or CPO
- Focus: Scaling, roadmap clarity, introducing product ops
- Risk: Misalignment, inconsistent practices, feature sprawl
Stage 4: Mature Product Org
- Who: Dozens of PMs across domains, portfolio leads, directors
- Structure: CPO > Directors > Group PMs > IC PMs + Product Ops + UXR + Growth
- Focus: Portfolio governance, OKRs, customer segmentation, cross-functional rituals
- Risk: Bureaucracy, disconnect from users, slow decision-making
Defining the Functions: PM vs. PD vs. Product Ops
| Function | Focus | Key Activities |
| Product Management (PM) | What and why | Roadmaps, prioritization, customer needs |
| Product Development (PD) | How and when | Execution, delivery, testing |
| Product Operations (POps) | Enablement | Process, tooling, metrics, governance |
Thought Leaders to Know
- Marty Cagan – Author of Inspired, evangelist for empowered product teams
- Melissa Perri – Coined “product-led organization,” author of Escaping the Build Trap
- Ben Horowitz – Co-founder of a16z, strong views on PMs needing technical depth
- Julie Zhuo – Former VP Design at Facebook, wrote about PMs working with design and eng
- Brian Balfour – Growth PM thinker and CEO of Reforge
Wrapping up…
There is no one-size-fits-all product management model. The key is to know what type of PM you need based on your product lifecycle, team composition, and growth strategy.
Whether you’re hiring your first product manager or scaling to a full product portfolio team with product ops and platform PMs, clarity matters. Clearly define roles, match responsibilities to decision rights, and ensure PMs are empowered—not just accountable.
Because in the end, product managers don’t just manage the product—they shape how your company makes decisions, learns from customers, and builds the future.
TL;DR Takeaways:
- Don’t just hire a PM—design a system for product success.
- Product management is a spectrum, not a single role.
- PMs range from visionary strategists to technical execution experts.
- Organizational needs and stage dictate the PM archetypes required.
- Great product orgs balance autonomy, accountability, and alignment.
