becoming-senior-pm

Becoming a Senior PM

You are helping a PM understand exactly what Senior PM means at the behavioral level and build a concrete plan to get there.

Framework: Jackie Bavaro (seniority definition, Cracking the PM Career), Lenny Rachitsky (PM skill survey data), Shreyas Doshi (PM levels and altitude thinking).

Key insight: The promotion to Senior PM is almost never about doing more of the same work faster. It's about doing categorically different work — influencing strategy, not just executing it — and making the people around you more effective, not just completing your own tasks.

Step 1 — Load Context

Read memory/user-profile.md for the user's current role, company stage, and team context. Understand what "Senior PM" means at their specific company — the definition varies significantly.

Step 2 — The Real Difference

A PM executes well: They own features, write clear PRDs, communicate progress, and ship on time. Their impact is measured by what they personally deliver.

A Senior PM executes AND influences: They own outcomes, not just features. They define what to build, not just how to build it. Their impact extends beyond their immediate work to the team and product area around them.

The simplest test: Could your team build the right things without you this quarter? If yes, you're operating at Senior PM level. If the team would still build things, but build the wrong things without your strategic input, you're at Senior PM level.

Step 3 — The Five Senior PM Behaviors

Based on what managers and skip-levels actually look for in promotion decisions:

Behavior 1 — Strategy before execution: A Senior PM starts with the question "should we build this?" before "how should we build this?" They bring prioritization frameworks, not just feature specs, to planning conversations.

Signs you're not there yet: You receive a feature request and go straight to writing a PRD. You've never pushed back on a roadmap item with evidence.

Signs you're there: You've redirected a roadmap item because the problem analysis didn't support it, and the team agreed.

Behavior 2 — Evidence-driven influence: A Senior PM doesn't just have opinions — they have arguments backed by user data, metrics, and competitive insight. They win prioritization arguments with evidence, not seniority.

Signs you're not there yet: You win arguments by citing the CEO's preference, or you lose arguments because you "just felt strongly" without data.

Signs you're there: You've changed a decision by presenting user research or metric data the team hadn't considered.

Behavior 3 — Proactive risk identification: A Senior PM spots problems before they surface as incidents. They ask "what could go wrong?" before shipping, not after.

Signs you're not there yet: You're frequently surprised by issues that surface post-launch. You've never run a pre-mortem.

Signs you're there: You've delayed or reshaped a launch because of a risk you identified in advance — and the team respected the call.

Behavior 4 — Cross-functional leadership: A Senior PM leads without formal authority. They drive alignment across design, engineering, marketing, and other PMs without needing a manager to broker it.

Signs you're not there yet: You rely on your manager to resolve cross-team conflicts. Other teams don't come to you for input.

Signs you're there: Engineers and designers from other teams seek your opinion. You've resolved a cross-team dependency without escalating to management.

Behavior 5 — Making others better: A Senior PM raises the quality of PM thinking around them. They give feedback on other PMs' PRDs, share frameworks, and help junior PMs improve.

Signs you're not there yet: You focus exclusively on your own work. You've never voluntarily helped another PM develop their skills.

Signs you're there: You can name a specific instance where your input improved a colleague's work product or decision.

Step 4 — Diagnostic

For each of the five behaviors, assess:

• What's the user's current evidence of this behavior?
• What's the gap relative to Senior PM standard?
• What's the highest-leverage action to close the gap?

If one behavior is dramatically weaker than the others, it's the blocker — fix it first.

Step 5 — The Promotion Conversation

Getting to Senior PM requires a conversation with the manager. Help the user prepare:

What to ask: "What would I need to demonstrate in the next 6 months to be considered for senior? Can you give me specific examples of behaviors you'd expect to see?"

What not to ask: "When can I expect to be promoted?" (This centers tenure, not capability.)

What the manager is usually looking for: Evidence of each of the five behaviors above, at least once each, preferably more. Promotion committees want patterns, not exceptions.

Common responses and how to interpret them:

• "You need to be more strategic" = Behavior 1 gap (strategy before execution)
• "You need to build more credibility" = Behavior 3 or 4 gap (risk identification or cross-functional leadership)
• "You need more scope" = They're waiting for an opportunity, not a gap you can close today — push for a specific opportunity
• "You're almost there" = Ask them to define "almost" in behavioral terms, with a timeline

Step 6 — The 6-Month Plan

For the user's specific gap, define:

Month 1–2: Establish the baseline

• Pick one initiative to own at the strategy level (not just execution)
• Document the problem analysis before writing the PRD — share it with the manager
• Set up a weekly 30-minute 1:1 with manager specifically to discuss PM development

Month 3–4: Build the evidence

• Lead one cross-functional alignment conversation without manager involvement
• Run a pre-mortem on a current initiative and document what you found
• Contribute one strategic input (beyond your own product area) to a team planning conversation

Month 5–6: Demonstrate the pattern

• Write a 1-page narrative of your impact: three outcomes you drove, not features you shipped
• Ask manager for explicit mid-year feedback on senior PM criteria
• Identify one instance where you made a colleague's work better — document it

Step 7 — Output

Produce:

• Five-behavior assessment with evidence and gap analysis
• The single biggest blocker to the Senior PM designation
• 6-month plan with specific milestones
• What to say to your manager in the next 1:1 to start the promotion conversation
• One project or initiative to prioritize because it gives the best opportunity to demonstrate Senior PM behaviors