"The discomfort is because the widely assumed career path for PMs is quite simple and looks something like this:"

"But what happens if somewhere along the line you discover that you’re climbing someone else’s ladder or just that you’re done climbing and happy to stay on your current rung?"

"We had to work tremendously hard to get the job to begin with, which makes this CEO hustle peer pressure so exhausting."

"To many, becoming a product manager was the achievement, and now we’re expected to keep on marching? What if this is our destination?"

"You end up losing talented people and stacking your leadership ranks with reluctant, incompetent people managers (the so-called Peter Principle)."

"“I’m done moving up; I’m happy spending the rest of my working life right here.” So, why is it different for product managers?"

"Some tech companies do have at least partial dual career ladders, exemplified by a principal product manager role."

"I’ve heard complaints from employees at these companies that the principal level is not really equal to the management rung."

"Despite PM ladders mirroring Eng (and Design) in many other ways, why did we have principal software engineer and principal designer roles but no principal product manager?"

"Their response was, “It’s hard for a product manager to be an individual contributor since a lot of product management work at the senior level requires managing a team.”"

"What they don’t like is when the “management” part of their job begins to drown out the “product” parts."

"Worse, the expansion of my responsibilities left me with minimal time to shine at the parts of management I enjoyed the most."

"As your department’s headcount and business surface area grows, you spend more of your day managing up and sideways than managing down. (Less charitably: bureaucracy and politics trample coaching.)"

"To move toward dual product management career paths becoming a reality, we need to establish some core principles upfront:"

"Product management isn’t merely a stepping stone; it’s a career."

"My proposal isn’t a choice between managers vs. individual contributors."

"People should be encouraged to design careers that align with their values and help them find fulfillment."

"This is because the GPM is still learning the people management ropes, and we want to give them space to focus on strengthening those skills through training, coaching, and practice."

"GPMs and principals are peers on the ladder, and the split between the two paths starts a level earlier."

"The product leadership–people management split is even more extreme for principal product managers: 80%–20% or even 90%–10%."

"In early-stage companies, the director role — or even the VP of product — might have job duties comparable to a principal."

"This is often why PMs feeling uneasy with management overhead at big companies are attracted to director or VP positions at startups."

"A friend calls this “promotion downsizing” — a better title with fewer direct reports."

"Ladders can allow for lateral movement. Someone can spend time as a director and then decide that they’d like to switch to the other ladder, becoming a principal."

"Product management has matured and is long overdue for the same treatment that our technical colleagues have received for decades."

"Most importantly, one’s base compensation, bonus, and equity should be comparable no matter which path one follows."

"And most importantly, no one should ever feel like they have to give up doing what they love in order to advance in their career."