Product Manager Archetypes

When I was a product manager at Meta, it was clear that the company had a very different approach towards product development and technology than most companies. The one that I am most impressed with, is their concept of “Product Archetypes”, or the different types of product managers that exist at a company. The purpose of having different “archetypes” for product managers is twofold: we can ensure that the right PM is mapped to the right style of project, and we can eliminate some biases during year end evaluations by separating out PMs based on their strengths instead of giving extra weight to the strengths that we personally value. The existence of product archetypes can only thrive in a culture that also pushes people towards their strengths instead of pushing for a more well rounded, generalist employee. During my time at Capital One, PMs were definitely pushed to be well rounded and to improve on their weaknesses, while at Meta PMs were encouraged to cater to their strengths and to just avoid projects that required skills associated to their weaknesses.

If I were create my own product archetypes, here is what they would look like:

The Magician

This is the PM that probably is most favored at year end review time and that most PMs likely aspire to be. A magician is capable of evaluating the company, the product and the teams and steering…