Your Product Career Is a Portfolio

Not a Perfect Job

Many product managers spend years chasing the perfect role—the one with the best team, the cleanest product, the ideal work-life balance, the biggest impact. The one that gives them status, influence, great comp, and a feeling of purpose every day.

It’s a beautiful vision. But it’s mostly a myth.

The truth is, careers in product—just like products themselves—aren’t perfect. They’re built incrementally, through a series of imperfect bets. Your career isn’t a single perfect job—it’s a portfolio of roles that, over time, compound into something powerful.

The "Perfect Job" Trap

Let’s start here: the idea of a perfect product job is often a trap. It keeps you from making progress, trying things, and learning.

I’ve seen incredibly talented PMs turn down opportunities because the company wasn’t “sexy” enough, the product wasn’t clean enough, or the org structure wasn’t perfect. But here’s the irony: the roles that stretch you the most usually aren’t the ones that look perfect from the outside.

Every Role Adds Something

When you stop chasing the one perfect job and start curating your portfolio, you begin to see each role for what it is: an investment in a different kind of career capital.

Here’s how different roles might serve you:

• Credibility Builders: These are brand-name companies or highly visible products that open doors down the road.

• Skill Accelerators: Roles that give you exposure to new problem spaces, methodologies, or technical depth.

• Stretch Assignments: Jobs that feel slightly above your level and force rapid growth.

• Stability Pillars: Periods that give you balance, especially after burnout or big bets.

• Network Builders: Companies or teams where the long-term relationships you build will be as valuable as the work you ship.

Every one of these adds value—even if the job wasn’t perfect.

Think Like an Investor

If you were managing a stock portfolio, you wouldn’t put all your money in one company, right? You’d diversify. You’d balance risk and reward. You’d think long-term.

Same with your product career.

• Take a big bet early on? Pair it with a more stable, structured role next.

• Need to deepen technical skills? Look for roles with strong engineering exposure.

• Burnt out from the last mission-driven role? Maybe the next one just pays well and gives you space to recover.

That doesn’t mean you take just any role. It means you assess the risk, understand the return, and ask: what does this add to my portfolio?

Stop Thinking in Titles

As someone who was focused on titles in the past, I can tell you they are overrated. They’re rarely consistent across companies and often misleading. A "Senior PM" at a seed-stage startup might do far more than a "Director" at a legacy corp.

Instead, look at:

• What did I learn?

• Who did I work with?

• What decisions did I own?

• What impact did I make?

These are the experiences that shape you—and that others will care about when hiring you.

Curating Your Own Path

If you want to build a meaningful product career, stop trying to find the one. Instead, build intentionally. Curate. Reflect. Ask:

• What do I want to learn next?

• What gaps do I want to fill?

• What tradeoff am I willing to make this time?

Your path won’t look like anyone else’s. It’s not supposed to. The best PMs I know have surprising, nonlinear careers. They’ve jumped between industries. They’ve taken steps sideways or even down to grow faster later. And they’ve owned those decisions with clarity.

For Managers and Leaders

If you lead PMs, remember: not everyone is optimizing for the same thing. Some want stretch. Others want stability. Some are playing long games. Others are recovering from rough bets.

Support your team in curating their portfolio—not the one you’d choose. That’s how you retain, develop, and empower real talent.

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Your product career won’t be a straight line. It will be a collection of meaningful experiences, each one adding something unique.

There is no perfect job. There are only roles that serve your growth in different ways. Some will stretch you. Some will stabilize you. Some will disappoint—and still teach you something priceless.

So stop chasing perfection. Start building a portfolio that reflects your ambition, your learning journey, and your unique strengths as a product manager and leader.

Because in the long run, your experience mix—not your title or company name—is your real career capital.