7 Career Moves PMs Regret in Hindsight (And What to Do Instead)
Every product manager’s career is shaped by a series of moves—some strategic, others driven by urgency, curiosity, or plain survival. With time, a few of those decisions stand out as forks in the road where things could’ve gone differently.
We asked a handful of experienced PMs across startups and scale-ups what they regretted most in their journey—and what they wish they’d done instead. The goal isn’t to critique the past. It’s to spot patterns, avoid missteps, and design a more intentional PM career.
1. Chasing Titles Instead of Scope
What happened
Many PMs, especially in the early-to-mid career stage, jump at “Senior PM” or “Lead PM” titles. The mistake? Joining orgs where the scope is narrower, or decision-making is blocked by layers of hierarchy. What looked like a step up on LinkedIn turned out to be a growth plateau in reality.
What to do instead
Optimize for scope, not labels. Ask: Do I own the roadmap? Am I accountable for outcomes? Do I have access to leadership conversations? Scope creates compounding returns, and titles will follow.
👉 Some GrowthX members have shared how they reset their career trajectory not by jumping titles, but by choosing product problems worth solving. GrowthX programs help PMs realign toward high-leverage roles that compound over time.
2. Ignoring Business Fundamentals
What happened
Many PMs get stuck in the “feature factory” mindset—shipping JIRA tickets without owning metrics. Years later, they realise they can’t speak confidently about revenue, retention, or CAC. That limits career mobility.
What to do instead
Get closer to revenue. Learn to read a P&L. Ask your marketing or growth teams how acquisition works. One PM shared how building a simple revenue model on Excel helped them join strategy calls—and later move into a head of product role.
3. Over-indexing on Big Names
What happened
Working at a marquee tech company looks great. But many PMs report spending years on internal tools or projects that never ship. Worse, they struggle to tell a compelling product story during interviews later.
What to do instead
Focus on narrative, not name. Would you rather own a 0 → 1 launch at a scrappy Series A startup—or coordinate button placements on a billion-user product with no autonomy? The best hiring managers look beyond brand names to evaluate depth of thinking.
4. Skipping Customer Time
What happened
PMs often rely on dashboards, sales notes, or secondhand feedback. Over time, this builds a distorted view of the user. They ship features that technically work—but don’t resonate.
What to do instead
Block time every month for direct user calls, even if you’re not in a UX-heavy role. Ask: What frustrated you most last week? Patterns emerge. One Growth PM we spoke to makes it a rule: “No roadmap decisions without 5 real user conversations.”
5. Not Building a Strategic Network
What happened
Early PMs often treat their careers as solo journeys. They rely on their current company for mentorship. But if your manager isn’t great—or too busy—you stall.
What to do instead
Invest in a thinking community. Not just for jobs, but for perspective. A strong peer group will challenge your assumptions, share frameworks, and expose you to opportunities you didn’t know existed. That’s why communities like GrowthX matter—they act as a career compounder, not a one-time course.
6. Saying Yes to Everything
What happened
Eager to prove themselves, many PMs say yes to every stakeholder request. Soon, they become project managers for everyone’s wishlist—without a clear product thesis.
What to do instead
Learn to prioritize with ruthless clarity. Tie every feature or request to a goal: revenue, retention, expansion. Push back with data, not ego. The ability to say “Not now, and here’s why” is what separates good PMs from strategic ones.
7. Delaying Craft Skill Development
What happened
Some PMs focus so much on execution or firefighting that they neglect the craft itself—product thinking, discovery frameworks, storytelling, system design. Over time, this becomes a ceiling.
What to do instead
Block structured time for craft. Read case studies, join teardown sessions, write PRDs for fun. A great place to start is learning from teardown-led communities like GrowthX or even reading deconstructions on Lenny’s Newsletter to see how seasoned PMs dissect product moves.
Final Thought: Career Is a Product
The best PMs treat their careers like a product roadmap. They build in public. They test assumptions. They iterate intentionally. And they surround themselves with people who raise the bar.
The next step isn’t to regret past choices—it’s to design better ones from here on. Start by asking: Where am I compounding? And where am I stalling?
