Early-stage product management is just different! #PathtoPMF | by Harsha | Lightspeed India | Medium

Product management at an early stage (seed, Series A) is very different from product management at growth stage which is different from product management at established companies with a steady user base. This is why I’m often troubled when people read about product management online and try to apply what they read to their startup journey. It just won’t work. It won’t work because a startup is dealing with a completely different set of constraints. You have fewer people: At an early stage, you probably have less than 10 developers. You can’t afford a product manager — one of the co-founders is probably the product manager. Best case scenario — there is maybe one product manager in the company. This product manager is also the designer, the analyst, the customer success expert, and the project manager. So net-net, limited resources. You are pre-PMF: This makes a world of a difference. When you are pre-PMF, you are unclear about who your customer is. You are in search for your customer,

Product management at an early stage (seed, Series A) is very different from product management at growth stage which is different from product management at established companies with a steady user base. This is why I’m often troubled when people read about product management online and try to apply what they read to their startup journey. It just won’t work. It won’t work because a startup is dealing with a completely different set of constraints. You have fewer people: At an early stage, you probably have less than 10 developers. You can’t afford a product manager — one of the co-founders i