The job of a product manager is a hard one. When you are hired onto a new team, there is an expectation that you will make a positive impact in a short amount of time. Regardless of the state of a business, its size, software stack, or customer relationships - PMs are expected to come into that environment and make exceptional things happen.
Making great things happen in the face of ambiguous challenges is the job. It’s a reason why being a PM is high stress and high reward. It’s also the main reason why choosing where to work is so critical: great things don’t happen magically.
Success as a PM takes a lot of learning, collaboration, and trial & error. The company you choose to work at better have values in line with yours, otherwise you are in for a world of hurt.
Startup PM vs. Enterprise PM
I have been fortunate to work as a product manager at startups, growth-stage companies, and now one of the world’s largest employers, Amazon. There are some major differences between being a PM at a startup of 10 or enterprise of 10,000. I wanted to share some of the differences I’ve observed.
My hope is for this resource to help aspiring or experienced PMs make their next career move with confidence.
Constants
This essay will mostly focus on differences, but it’s important to first recognize the things that are unchanging. Regardless of where you end up, I’ve found these universal truths:
- Teams are a reflection of their leaders. Understanding who the leaders are and what they stand for is a major determinant of what PMs work on and how you work.
- Product management is messy. No company has everything figured out. It’s unlikely you’ll ever find an obvious path to solving customer problems. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
- If their culture doesn’t suit your lifestyle, it won’t work. Reflect on the things that you find important, be genuine to yourself, and don’t make compromises when it comes to fitting-in. Make sure you work with people you like.
Differences
When it comes to choosing between a startup or enterprise, these are some differences product managers should consider:
Scope
What am I responsible for?
Startup scope: It should be no surprise to hear that at small companies, PMs end up wearing many hats. Thus is the typical nature of startups: people work to fill-in gaps when and where things are needed. As an ambitious product manager, you’ll find yourself filling a lot of roles. You could be working on a product feature one day, then marketing, customer support, and backlog grooming the next. Working at a startup is a great way to learn about a lot of competencies.
Enterprise scope: Enterprise PMs have fairly well-defined areas of ownership. You will be responsible for an important aspect of the product or business, while relying on cross-functional coordination to provide support. If your project requires marketing or business development to be successful, you will all work together to make it happen. Working at an enterprise is a great way to see maturity at every business competency.
Working Team
Who is involved with making a product or feature successful?
Startup working team: Business decisions are made as a company. Everyone from C-suite to interns will be involved in making daily decisions. The product you’ll work on is likely in its early stages and colleagues are more closely impacted by each decision, when compared to a mature enterprise. Therefore, the extra time spent discussing opportunities with and staying on-the-same-page as your teammates feels justified.
Enterprise working team: Enterprises are all about team-centric decision making. Teams must be self-reliant to execute for any new feature or product. Modern software businesses trust that PMs are the experts of their domain and will pursue the right opportunities for the company. If you need to enlist the expertise of outside domains or leaders, you can make it happen. If you need more resources to get the job done, your team will have to justify it.
Strategy
How do I influence strategy?
Startup influence: At a startup, the strategy and product vision are still being shaped. The company may have goals, but it’s still in a state of exploration. You are often one partnership, customer story, or major event away from pursuing a different path — a better path. Therefore to influence strategy, it’s important to cover ground. Experiment, tinker, share resources, talk to people smarter than you, go to conferences, and listen, listen, listen. When you throw out an idea that gets some traction, stay on it.
Enterprise influence: Even when you work at an established company that has a proven strategy and product vision, there is room for influence. Enterprises typically have a broad set of goals that everyone in the business is working towards. Within these goals, it’s the responsibility of each team to identify and pursue opportunities. That opportunity you choose to pursue could very-well shape the future of the broader business. Getting alignment and buy-in on a vision is therefore no different than what PMs need to do at startups, there are just more people to align with and more established systems to work through.
Experiments
What’s needed for me to run experiments?
Startup experimentation: Your drive is all that’s needed to run experiments. If you can will it, go for it. See a new app that might solve some pain points the team is facing? Give it a trial run. Want to validate if customers will really use the feature you’re considering? Spin up an A/B test. Want to see if that tagline will really convert more users? Show it to 10% of users. Experimenting at startups is easy — Maturing those experiments into fixtures of the business is where the challenge lies.
Enterprise experiments: Experiments are taking place across teams daily. Prototyping a new idea can happen freely, within policy guardrails. If you want to test using a tool that does not exist or experimenting with data a way that has not been approved by other teams, you will have to go through some approval process. This ‘red tape’ can feel slow at times, but they are put in place to make sure the decisions of one team don’t compromise or hinder another’s unsuspectingly (or worse, get a publicly traded company in legal trouble).
Compensation
Which is better for me financially?
Startup comp: Startups are going to index on the speculation of future value. Base salaries will be typically lower and combined with future compensation, either in the form of an equity package or a contractual “promise” to increase your salary at a certain date. Startups are also investments in yourself. You may be totally willing to choose a slightly lower salary if it means working for the right team, in the right industry, or on the right problem. Do what’s right for you.
Enterprise comp: Businesses that want the top talents are willing to pay top of market prices. Depending on whether or not the company is publicly traded, they are likely to offer you stock as compensation and/or by bonus. Depending on your appetite for financial risk, being an enterprise PM role may be the safer option. The Lindy effect suggests it’s unlikely a long-standing company will shut down while you're there.
Finding your next PM job
Now comes the hard part: deciding where to work.
There are “perfect” situations at thousands of companies. Finding them is a matter of ensuring the place fits the PM.
Take time to figure out what you’re looking for, then get yourself out there. Start researching companies that fit your needs. Reach out to current and former employees and ask for honest feedback about their experiences. Don't be afraid to ask questions.
There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to choosing between a startup or enterprise — do what’s best for you. The worst mistake you can make is to take the next step in your career without any intention.