Why does my new PM role feel like I'm starting over?
Reflecting on different types of product management roles
A friend of mine recently shared this observation about their new job:
"I know I'm adding value, but I feel like my skills are being underutilized. Engineers and data scientists here can accomplish things without me, but I also feel I need to somehow carve out scope for myself. This means that I am either reduced to being a glorified project manager, or I have to take over some of the work that was previously done by folks in Engineering – and that is not always welcomed."
If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. Over the years, I've often heard this sentiment from folks changing jobs, especially when moving from small, scrappy startups to larger organizations. They arrive with a clear mental model for what being a good product manager entails, only to find their new reality looks nothing like their expectations.
It can be jarring, and it raises a curious question: if you were successfully doing PM work before, why does it sometimes feel like you're back to square one?
Being a "Product Manager" – what does this mean, exactly?
Here's the thing: "Product Manager" isn't a real job title. Well, of course it is – that's what your (and mine) offer letter said after all – but in reality, it is more akin to a collective moniker for a rather large set of dramatically different roles.
Having worked with startups and in big tech, I've come to believe this is a critical insight that eludes many. Having the right mental model for this becomes critical when choosing companies, evaluating roles, settling into a new job, or defining what success looks like for you.
On that last point, I'm not talking about performance reviews. What I mean is the internal scorecard we all keep, aimed to help answer questions like: "Am I doing good work?", "Am I growing?", "Is this what I expected?"
Two key dimensions
While there are countless ways to slice the PM landscape, two critical dimensions can help rationalize a lot of it.
First: your specialization
Being a UX PM at Airbnb is fundamentally different from being an API PM at Stripe. Shipping Instagram newsfeed features requires different skills than integrating Copilot into Office. A Growth PM's toolkit looks nothing like a Platform PM's.
Most people grasp this intuitively – they have a vision for the kind of PM they want to be and seek matching opportunities.
Second: company scale
This is where things get tricky, and if you're feeling confused about your new role, this dimension is probably the culprit.
The PM experience varies dramatically between early-stage startups, growth companies, late-stage pre-IPO firms, and mature organizations with thousands of employees.
When I say "big tech," I mean any mature company with complex organizational structures – Fortune 500s, large financial institutions, or tech giants.
Why scale matters
In larger, well-resourced organizations, the PM challenge fundamentally shifts. At startups, you can add value by implementing the textbook PM playbook: taking over customer interviews from busy founders, creating structure where none exists, filling obvious gaps in strategy, wearing multiple hats across entire product areas, etc.
The situation is often different at scale. Engineers and data scientists are great and comfortable in their seats; customer engagement processes already exist – they might not be ideal, but people make do; product strategy may be well-established, driven not by a dedicated product org but by multiple teams co-owning pieces; the list goes on. There is also often a lot of organizational context and complexity that accumulated over the years, as well as, unavoidably, politics.
The challenge isn't that your team needs you to save them – you might discover that they were doing fine without you. In this situation, success means finding (often non-obvious) ways to add value rather than filling obvious gaps, while you also take time to learn the ropes and make sense of the organizational setup and existing dynamics.
If this feels disorienting, that's normal – everyone will have to go through this adjustment.
Note that this works in reverse too. PMs who've spent years at large companies often assume their skills will easily transfer to startups, when in reality that kind of arrogance can be very dangerous – the ability to navigate complex org matrices doesn't necessarily prepare one for wearing five hats simultaneously while the company burns through runway.
Redefining success criteria
When you join a mature organization as a PM, your initial work might indeed look suspiciously like project management. This might feel disappointing compared to your past jobs, but it's expected. Treat it as par for the course and a necessary part of learning the new context.
Your value will come from learning complex context and history, taking time to understand the real (and often hidden) team needs, building relationships with numerous stakeholders, and identifying opportunities others have missed.
Instead of fighting for scope or enforcing rigid processes that teams operated fine without, the highest-leverage activities will include conducting proactive user research, building stronger customer relationships than anyone expects, creating partnerships with adjacent teams, and finding white spaces between well-defined territories.
It takes time – but then it will pay off, trust me.
What this means for your career
The fact is, the skills that made you a standout PM at a 50-person startup are going to be different from what makes you succeed at places like Google or Microsoft. If you're working at a startup that's on the right trajectory and you stick around long enough, you might get to observe some of this transformation as your startup grows from 50 to 5,000 people. But if you’re jumping from a startup to big tech, don’t expect a seamless transition – the role might look familiar on paper but feel quite different in practice, especially at first.
That's why I think it can be very helpful to internalize and reflect on both the functional specializations that exist within the product management discipline and the trade-offs that come with working at smaller high-growth companies vs. at large complex organizations.
Do this, and you will gain clarity on what to expect at each place. You will also start defining what success looks like for you in your job. And most importantly, you will get to set the right expectations with yourself, and hopefully gain some peace of mind – which can be critical in the disorienting early days of any transition.
Final thoughts
Back to the question I quoted at the beginning, my advice for anyone facing this dilemma is simple: relax and enjoy the ride. Your confusion is valid, and if you ultimately decide that a certain place or type of PM role isn't for you, that's okay.
In any case, it's good to experience different environments, company stages, and types of roles before figuring out what works for you, and what doesn't. Besides, what energizes you will likely keep changing throughout your career. You might also discover that certain environments simply don't work for you, regardless of excitement, compensation or prestige they offer – and that knowledge can be very valuable too.
Finally, if you're still deciding whether to take that offer, or considering if you should try something new, it helps to think through what you're optimizing for.
If it is money, mature companies will typically pay more, but your role might not quite match your expectations. If it's career growth, define what growth means to you – e.g., title, scope, learning – then proceed. If it's specific skills, different environments offer different lessons, so it helps to reflect on the types of places you can get the most concentrated learning experience at.
In many ways, the specifics of the answer itself matter less here than going through the thinking process required to arrive at one.
What's been your experience moving between different types of PM roles and companies? Shoot me a DM if you have a story to share.