A free tool · Product management
The product manager competency framework.
Most PM career ladders are a list of adjectives. This one gives you fourteen competencies with five written levels each, so you are picking the paragraph that sounds like your week rather than guessing whether you are a three or a four.
Score yourself, then hold it against the profile of the role you want. The gaps come out ranked, and you can take the top two or three straight into a development plan.
Free, and it stays free. No sign-up, no email, no paywall halfway through. It runs in your browser and nothing leaves this page unless you choose to share it.
Fourteen petals, one per competency. The pale outline is the role you are aiming at.
What it covers
14 competencies, each with five written levels, so you are picking the paragraph that sounds like your week rather than guessing at a number.
- Customer and market understanding
- Data gathering and analysis
- Business acumen
- Product design
- Technical aptitude
- Agile product delivery
- Domain expertise
- Leadership
- Collaboration
- Building relationships
- Effective communication
- Deliver on commitments
- Own the results
- Developing others
What you measure against
Your scores get held against the real profile of each role, so the gap you see is the gap to a job rather than to an average.
- Junior Product Manager
- Product Manager
- Technical Product Manager
- Senior Product Manager
- Senior Technical Product Manager
- Principal Product Manager
- Group Product Manager
- Director, Product
Who it is for
PMs who want a straight answer about what is between them and the next level
Anyone going into a review or a promotion conversation without much evidence
Managers preparing a development conversation for someone on their team
People moving into product from another discipline who want to know what is missing
What you walk away with
A ranked list of your gaps against a real role, not a vague sense of weakness
Language for the conversation, taken from the level descriptions themselves
A shareable link so your manager can score you and you can compare
A direct handover into the development plan, with your scores carried across
Who made this
I spent nearly twenty years building product teams, most recently as VP Product at the 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchisor, and I now work with businesses and people on product, AI and careers from Vancouver. These are the levels I used to run real development conversations, refined over years of using them, not a framework I found in a book.
Fill it in and send it to me if you want a second read. I read them myself and reply.
Next in the same garden
The development plan
A choices exercise, not a wish list. Bring in your competency scores and your goals, pick the two or three that are actually blocking you, and set the measure, the named people, the real steps and where each sits in the sequence of now, next and later.
Use it for yourself, or with someone you are developing.
Open the toolUX competency framework
For UX and product designers. Twelve competencies across the double diamond, discovery, definition, develop and deliver, plus process, agile delivery and the human side. Scored on the five-rung ladder and held against seven roles, junior UX through Director.
Use it on yourself to plan your next move, or across a design team to see where the craft is thin and who should be teaching whom.
Start the check-inThe AI Individual Diagnosis
The same review, pointed at one person. Seven areas of your working week (writing, thinking, research, making things, numbers, admin, people), four questions each, the same five-rung ladder. Ask your manager or a teammate to score you too and merge the views.
Use it on yourself before you sign up for another AI course, or on your team to see who needs support and who can lead.
Start the diagnosisKnow exactly where you stand.
It takes about the length of a cup of tea, and nothing is stored anywhere.