How Will You Measure Your Career?

A guide to redefining your success

For a long time, I struggled to answer the questions, “What’s your career goal?” and “How would you measure it?” Initially, my answers were vague, focusing on external validation, such as being known as the best product manager or achieving a specific title. Then, a few years ago, I had an ah-ha moment that helped me unlock my own definition of career fulfillment. 

I vividly remember a career conversation I was having with a senior product leader at Google. When asked about advice he would give to PMs, he said, “Many people take a while to internalize this: focusing solely on external validation, such as job promotions, may prevent you from finding true happiness in your career. Instead, concentrate on developing your skills, and your success will take care of itself." I nodded my head in agreement, even though I did not internalize it at that time. In my mind, scope was still a proxy for measuring career advancement. Junior product managers are typically responsible for smaller product scopes, leading teams of around 5-10 people. A group product manager may influence the work of around 50-100 team members, while a VP may influence the work of around 500-1000 team members. As product managers gain more experience, they take on more extensive scopes and influencing more people.

Therefore, despite agreeing with him on the surface, I thought to myself, “How else would I possibly manage my career?” Only after countless career conversations with multiple coaches did I discover a new way of managing my career: one that focuses on leaning into who I am, what makes me tick, and why I enjoy the work I do. As a result, I’ve become a lot happier in work and in life—and that product leader’s advice makes a lot more sense now.

It took me more than a decade of reflection to reach this point, and I recognize that this journey may not be the same for everyone. In this post, I aim to share the steps that I found helpful in learning to measure my career on my own terms—not the terms of others.  

Step 1. Understanding who you are and what makes you tick

To achieve career fulfillment, it is crucial to have a deep understanding of yourself: of who you are and what motivates you. This involves exploring your personality, strengths, values, and the type of work that brings you the most joy and satisfaction. You can do this through quizzes, conversation, or good, old-fashioned self-reflection. Either way, it’s a critical part of learning to measure your career. 

Here are some tips for gaining a better understanding of yourself:

1. Take a personality assessment: Personality tests are an invaluable tool for getting in touch with what motivates you. Check out my previous Whisper on this topic for more information.

2. Reflect on activities that give you energy: Take note of activities, tasks, and projects that make time fly by and bring you the most joy in your current job. Understanding what you naturally enjoy and excel at can help you identify the type of jobs you thrive in, which is key to finding fulfillment in your career. 

3. Ask for feedback: Colleagues and managers can help you identify your superpower and uncover your blind spots.

4. Reflect on childhood experiences: Think about activities you loved doing as a little kid and identify themes that carried through into adulthood. We were all likely to be more authentic when we were free from the pressure and expectations of adulthood. Revisiting these memories can help us identify passions that we may have forgotten.

5. Think about your legacy: Imagine reaching the end of your life and looking back. What would you think about your life as it is now? What would you regret not doing? Identifying your definition of a life well spent will help guide your choices based on your own goals, not the goals of others.

I stumbled on product management without much planning, and I love it! My personality fits the job so well, I joke that I would do it even if I weren’t getting paid. Looking back, I notice that I practiced many aspects of product management before I even knew the job existed, such as bringing people together under a shared goal and orchestrating complex projects when I was a youth leader in middle and high school. 

Step 2. Choosing the right role

A few weeks ago, our team hosted a panel of senior PMs at Meta. A couple of them shared that they decided to follow the senior IC PM route instead of managing other PMs, since while they enjoyed helping others, they didn’t enjoy the work of hiring strong PMs and navigating the month-long performance review process. They explained that they would rather focus their energies on practicing the craft of product management. This is a decision many PMs have to make as they advance in their careers: whether they want to become a manager of PMs or a  senior IC. 

Naturally, these sorts of career decisions require reflection and planning. Even within product management, there are multiple career paths. At Meta, there are multiple PM archetypes as PMs advance in their careers: Specialists, who are subject matter experts on specific domains; Captains, PMs who know how to ship insanely complicated projects that require many orgs working together; and Entrepreneurs, who lead projects from zero to one. While PMs often have to be versatile, some personalities fit into one archetype better than others. For example, while Captains often work with large teams, Entrepreneurs prefer working in smaller, nimbler, scrappier teams. Depending on the type of work that brings you joy, you might find yourself thriving more in one type of PM role than another. 

Hopefully all of these nuances help you realize the importance of choosing a role that fits you well. But there is more to picking the right job than just the type of work. Another thing to consider is what jobs you want to do after the job you’re considering. Will your current path help you prepare for future roles? Product intuition comes with a lot of time and experience. Companies are reluctant to hire someone without relevant industry experience, especially in product management, one of the most critical functions. Therefore, it’s even more important to know your north star career mission so that you can choose the right path to get there. This can sometimes involve taking a step back and getting on the balcony when you need to transition to a new domain.

Last but not least, don’t forget to consider company and team culture when choosing a job. Does the company go at the pace you want? Is the culture more top-down or bottom-up? Is the environment collaborative or competitive? Do team members share similar values and work ethics? Understanding team culture and dynamics can help you determine whether you'll be a good fit for the team, and whether you'll thrive in that work environment.

Step 3. Designing your own career ladder

As a product manager, managing your career is just as important as managing the products you work on. People who work with me know how big I am about career management. I have monthly career conversations with people on the team, and I myself have a monthly career conversation with my manager. Proactively managing your career helps you focus on growing yourself. But how do you design a career path that allows you to be fulfilled and happy?

To start, don’t focus too much on the next promotion. Define a career ladder that focuses on skill development, and the promotions will follow. Focusing on skill development helps you to be resilient when a promotion doesn't come through. If you're only focused on getting promoted, you may become impatient or frustrated, which can lead to decisions you regret later. If you instead focus on skill development, you'll feel less disappointed, and promotion will be easier as you master the skills required for the next level.

A ladder that emphasizes your skill growth also helps you future-proof your career. When you eventually leave your current company, you'll lose your title and scope. However, skills are transferable, and can be applied in different contexts. Optimize for the skills you want to learn—not just for your current job, but also for the next one. Reach out to people who have the job you want to have in five years, and ask them which skills you'll need. Design your career ladder around developing those skills, even if it means deviating from the traditional career path. Gaining important skills in advance will position you to leapfrog into a critical position that you wouldn't have been able to otherwise.

I once knew a program manager at a SaaS company who wanted to transition to being an ML PM. Every day, she worked hard to finish her job at five, and then stayed late to develop her technical skills, taking online statistics classes and learning ML modeling. For the two years she spent developing her deep technical knowledge, she was a bit behind compared to her peers in career advancement. Yet she knew what she wanted and carved out time to prepare for the change and make sure she was equipped to take on the challenge. 

I had another friend whom I really admired who worked in product management. Although she was an incredible PM, she was very passionate about cooking and creating handmade artsy stuff (think yummy cookies and beautiful, fragrant soaps). She was able to create a life on her own terms, doing product management jobs remotely and as a contractor to cover her living expenses while operating her own boutique store. As a result, she could spend time doing what she loved without the stress of scaling her passion project. When I visited her afterward, she was beaming with happiness. 

These are living examples of why, as product managers, a critical part of managing our careers is figuring out what we want those careers to look like. By thoughtfully guiding our work in the direction we want, while focusing on skills and not titles, we can take ourselves off auto-pilot mode and forge our own paths. 

Step 4: Live Your Life Without Delay 

The last aspect of finding fulfillment in our work is learning to live our lives without delay. Living our lives without delay means not putting our dreams and passions on hold until we reach a certain level of success or meet certain milestones. It means finding ways to incorporate those passions and aspirations into our daily lives, even if it's just for a few hours a week. 

Growing up, I dreamed of one day leading an education program. Inspired by my father, who used to be in charge of a school, I kept telling my coach that one day, when I retired from my product management job, I would open a school. He challenged me to find ways to incorporate my love of coaching and training into my current job. “Can you run a product school as part of your job?” he asked. That was the pivotal moment that led me to start PM Whisperer and become more involved in PM training at Meta. The journey has been fun. Despite working harder than ever (this sometimes feels like another job on top of my current job), I have so much fun that I’ve found I am actually more effective at my main job. 

Living our lives without delay requires us to take risks, step out of our comfort zones, and pursue what we truly want in life. It may not always be easy, but it's essential to avoid regret and make the most of the time we have. Life is too short to delay our aspirations and dreams. Instead, let's strive to live our lives to the fullest, pursue our passions, and make a positive impact on the world around us, one step at a time. 

Bringing it all together

Finding career fulfillment is a personal journey that requires introspection, planning, and action. By understanding who you are, choosing the right role, designing a career ladder focused on skill development, and living your life without delay, you can break free from the constraints of external validation and truly thrive in your career. Remember, it's not about achieving a specific title; it's about building a career that aligns with your values and allows you to focus on what truly matters.