Archetypes of Product Managers

Every company and every job are different, and hence, every Product Manager role is different. However, by separating B2B from B2C and identifying the main drivers behind product innovation, certain archetypes can be identified.

Archetypes by Business Area and Company Culture

Engineering-Driven Culture

Driven by technology and always looking for areas where technical skills can have the highest impact.

Examples in B2B include Microsoft, Stripe, or Docker when they are building platforms for developers.
Examples in B2C include Google, Dropbox inventing new products for consumers

Product Managers typically have a strong background in Computer Science and closely collaborate with Engineering teams who are often very familiar with the problem space.

A typical example would be to develop Lidar-based products for autonomous driving.

Data-Driven Culture

Working primarily with (usage) data and aiming at scaling an existing product.

Examples in B2B include Paypal or SumUp understanding payments among merchants and consumers
Examples in B2C include Netflix, Facebook, LinkedIn, Booking optimizing adoption based on usage tracking

Product Managers deeply understand data and statistics and often collaborate closely with data scientists or business analysts.

An example that can often be observed is optimizing the onboarding of new users based on A/B testing.

Design-Driven Culture

Collaborate closely with design to come up with innovative solutions to user needs.

Examples in B2B include Square, Asana, or Figma, bringing the beauty of consumer apps to the business world
Examples in B2C include Instagram, Apple, Airbnb, Snapchat, or Spotify, driving user adoption through premium design

In pre-product-market-fit situations when data isn’t yet available, Product Managers often conduct deep user research to understand users' pains, gains, and needs. Together with the design team, they develop solutions that, more often than not, build on new paradigms.

A canonical example is the iPhone, which re-invented smartphones in many ways when introduced in 2007.

Business-Driven Culture

Ensure success in markets where a lot of dimensions need to be considered, including product features, pricing, go-to-market, sales strategy, partnerships, etc.

Examples in B2B include Salesforce, Workday, Marketo, Oracle, or DocuSign
Examples in B2C include DocToLib

Product Managers collaborate with all stakeholders and help align the entire team toward the product's success. Often, regulatory aspects need to be considered, and specifically in B2B, a longer sales process will require extra care around the product roadmap.

A recent example is Salesforce’s launch of the Sustainability Cloud as an extension of Salesforce’s offering.

Which one is Right for You?

Given the above prototypical representations of Product Managers, there is, of course, a huge variety in real life. Hence, it is important to understand whether the current company and position are a good match for a specific personality type.

For that, PM Daisy comes in handy. PM Daisy is a visual framework for evaluating the job responsibilities of a specific Product Management position. On the one hand, it lists 10 different activities relevant to a PM. On the other hand, it evaluates how deeply a PM is involved in these — from individual contributor level to a supporting team to external resources being utilized.

Anybody can run a quick survey and receive a nice visualization of their own assessment. As shown to the left, Product Management jobs differ significantly across companies, industries, regions, and aspects such as B2B vs. B2C.

The key idea behind PM Daisy isn’t so much to assess individual competencies but rather to identify good PM positions depending on personal preferences so that you can get clarity over your Product Management career.

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