PM vs. SDM: A Tale of Two Careers
Discussing some of the similarities & differences between the Product Manager & Software Development Manager careers
Today, there are a ton of different career paths one can pursue in technology — in a way, that’s one of the key things that makes tech industry so great.
In this post, however, I’d like to focus on exploring the similarities & differences between two critical roles in the tech world: Product Managers (PMs) and Software Engineering (Development) Managers (SDMs).
My goal here is not to ‘pick a side’, or tell anyone what path they should pursue (I personally think both those roles are great, and among the best & most interesting careers one can have in tech; I also believe that great SDMs in particular are worth their weight in gold, so to speak), but rather to provide some insights into the complexities of these roles and also help people further recognize their complementary nature & the benefits of developing a deeper understanding of the ‘other side’.
The Basics: What Do PMs and SDMs Generally Do?
I know that for many of you, this is quite familiar (in which case, feel free to skip this section), but I believe it's useful to do a recap of this nonetheless, if only to align on the basic facts for the later discussion.
What do PMs do? A brief overview
At the highest level, PMs usually focus on the following:
Defining long-term product strategy & vision for the product
Conducting user research & gathering customer feedback
Translating customer needs into product requirements / building product roadmaps
Prioritizing features & managing the product backlog
Collaborating with cross-functional teams to ensure successful product launches
Note that this is not an expansive list by any means, but rather a recap of some of the key activities Product Manager role usually entails.
What do SDMs do? A brief overview
In turn, SDMs typically focus on the following (again, this isn’t a list of everything SDM role involves, but rather a short summary of some of the key activities):
Managing & mentoring software engineering teams
Overseeing the software development lifecycle (SDLC)
Ensuring code quality & implementing best practices
Collaborating with PMs on product strategy & requirements
Balancing technical debt & feature development
How are PM & SDM roles similar vs. different?
PMs and SDMs have a lot in common, especially at higher levels
While the way PMs & SDMs get started on their respective career paths is in many cases different — e.g., PMs are often career switchers & generally come from a variety of backgrounds, while most SDMs start as software engineers & then move to the management track — PMs and SDMs usually end up working very closely together, and as their careers progress, the lines between those two roles become increasingly blurred.
That might sound surprising at the first glance, but it actually makes a lot more sense once you spend some time thinking about it: for instance, both roles require deep understanding of product strategy, putting user needs first & figuring out effective collaboration with cross-functional teams, amongst other things.
As a result, at higher levels (e.g., M2 and above), PMs and SDMs may even find both themselves managing both engineers/other SDMs and PMs, regardless of their own previous background — in fact, more & more companies move to this model, though the exact point of convergence will differ between companies (usually, it happens at the Director or VP level).
One other thing to note here is that while I focus on software engineering/SDMs in this post, most of what I write should also be applicable to the data science/data science managers career path.
Some interesting trade-offs between PM vs. SDM careers
Another aspect that I believe is important to understand when thinking about PM & SDM careers is the typical balance between tactical & strategic work at each level, and the nuances of overall career progression, for both PMs & SDMs.
If you look at key job responsibilities listed for SDMs above, it’s fairly clear that a lot of it is focused on building your team, helping people become more productive & become better engineers, and managing day-to-day aspects of software development. For the lack of a better word, I’d describe those activities as tactical, although this is in no way a judgement on their importance — in fact, without this work, all the strategic insights will be worth nothing, because nothing will actually get built.
PMs, on the other hand, spend a lot of their time trying to figure out the answers to the ‘what?’ & the ‘why?’ questions — e.g., what should get built, why is it important for the team to invest in it, etc. Again, for the lack of a better term, many of those activities can be described as strategic, in the sense that you’d get to focus on longer-term strategy for the product, spend more time with the customers, company leadership & so on, in order to figure out answers to some of those questions.
Next, it’s also worth highlighting certain differences that exist in career progression between SDMs & PMs. Software engineers interested in trying their hand in management can usually become SDMs earlier in their careers (more on that below), and will then progress to the M2 level (manager of managers) a lot quicker too, compared to PMs. In contrast, it typically takes longer for PMs to become managers, and then PM managers will often remain at the M1 level (line managers) for a lot longer.
The interesting thing is that this progression from an IC (individual contributor) to M1 to M2 has little to do with the leveling ladders (if you want to learn more about levels, check out one of my previous posts on this here). In many cases, M2 on the SDM side will have the same level as M1 or senior ICs on the PM side.
If this sounds a bit weird, consider this: the normal ratio of PMs to engineers varies from 1:8 to 1:20 (and sometimes it can go even higher). This means that if you visualize the org chart as a pyramid (with CEO at the top and ICs at the foundation), the foundation of the ‘engineering pyramid’ would be a lot wider than it is for PMs.
Then, once you take into account the fact that it’s virtually impossible for a manager to allocate sufficient time to more than 10 direct reports (and even ten reports would be pushing it), it becomes pretty clear why SDM ladder usually starts at more junior levels, and why there will be a lot more M1s, M2s and so on in Engineering, compared to Product Management (I’ve also touched on this point in my previous ‘You got multiple job offers, all in different functions? Congrats! Now what?‘ post — if you haven’t seen it, you might want to check it out).
This means that PM M1s or senior ICs are often aligned to M2s or M3s on the SDM side in terms of scope and strategic focus, while M1 SDMs will naturally focus on delving deeper into the technical aspects of the work then PMs ever could, coaching junior engineers, and so on.
Again, none of the above is supposed to indicate that one career is better than the other. Instead, I think it’s useful to understand this trade-off between getting to do more strategic work vs. starting in people management earlier that exists for PMs vs. SDMs.
Which path is better for you? There are no right answers, just some things to consider
When comparing PM and SDM careers, it's much more important to consider your own interests, strengths, and long-term goals, in my opinion. Both roles have a lot in common, but there are some key differences that can impact your job satisfaction and career trajectory.
Growing in your chosen field
Both PM & SDM careers represent a great choice, and you can have a very happy career in either of the fields. In both roles, you'll be exposed to various aspects of product development, strategy, and cross-functional collaboration. As your career progresses, you might even transition between the two roles, leveraging your unique experiences & insights to drive success in your new position.
However, in your early- to mid-career in particular, those two roles can also be quite different, based on the different focus areas for each that I touched on above — so choose carefully (but also don’t stress too much if you think you made the wrong choice — I’ve seen enough examples of SDMs switching to be PMs & vice versa to know that it’s quite possible to do that with a bit of effort)!
The Individual Contributor route: another viable option in Tech
You should also keep in mind that the great thing about both Product Manager & Software Engineer roles is that you’ll have the option to remain an individual contributor and still have a rewarding career, making it a viable path for those who prefer not to move into management roles.
For engineers, the individual contributor ladder extends all the way to Distinguished Engineer and Technical Fellow positions (which are often equivalent to VP positions on the people management ladder), while PMs can reach at least L6/L7 (I’m using Google levels for reference here), and possibly higher in some cases.
In contrast, many other functions within tech companies have more limited growth opportunities for individual contributors, often capping at L5 (again, using Google ladder here for illustration purposes).
Levels and career progression in ‘Big Tech’ companies
At companies like Google, Microsoft, Meta, or Uber, there are specific levels at which one can become an SDM or a PM manager.
For SDMs, the earliest level is often L5 at Google (more realistically, L6), L63/64 at Microsoft, L5a at Uber, and so on.
For PMs, the earliest level for becoming a full-time people manager is typically L6 at Google (though more often, that will happen at L7), L63/64 at Microsoft (although it's quite rare, with L65-66 being more common), L5b at Uber and so on.
Understanding the leveling structure at each company can be very helpful for setting realistic career progression goals.
Conclusion: embrace the complementary nature of PM & SDM roles
If you’re a PM, your SDM is going to be your closest partner in many cases (and vice versa) — so, as you progress in your career, it's crucial to recognize the importance of cross-functional collaboration between PMs and SDMs. Both roles bring unique insights and skills to the table that, combined, can drive the success of the product & the team.
By gaining a deeper understanding of the ‘other side’, you can hopefully better appreciate the value of each role, leading to more effective collaboration and overall success in your career.
And again, remember that it's not about choosing one path over the other – rather, it's about understanding the landscape and making the most of it.
P.S. I’m assuming by now you’ve all heard about the release of GPT-4 model earlier this week. For the fun of it, I’ve tried to make GPT-4 to write this post for me, using a detailed initial prompt (and a lot of clarifications later on).
At the end, it took me a while to get it to generate something that I was reasonably happy with, and even then, I had to do a lot of edits on it to get to the final state I am sharing with you (realistically, it would have been a lot faster just to write this post from scratch on my own).
That being said, I believe that the capabilities GPT-4 brings to the table are insane, and there are a ton of ways to leverage it to improve your workflows (be it for work, or with personal stuff).
I intend to write a separate post to cover my experiments with it so far, and also discuss some of the implications of it for people working in tech (and other industries today), as I see it — so, if this sounds interesting, stay put!