PM Specializations

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Open this lesson in your favourite AI. It'll walk you through the why, explain the demo, and quiz you on the try-it list.

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Why this matters

Beyond core PM, specializations matter: Growth PM, Platform PM, Data/AI PM, B2B vs B2C. Each variant has different daily work, skills, success metrics. Choosing a specialty (or staying generalist) shapes your career.

Demo

The major specializations.

Try it yourself

Identify your PM type (or aspiration).
List the skills that specialty requires.
Gap-analyze yourself.
Plan to develop the missing skills.

Prompt your AI

Use these three in order. Each builds on the one before.

1. Basics & terminology

Explain in one paragraph the major PM specializations.

2. Why it works (the mechanism)

Walk me through choosing between Growth PM and Platform PM at a similar-scale company.

3. Advanced — application & what's next

Given a generalist PM with 5 years of experience considering specializing for senior+ roles, what's the framework?

References

CORE / GENERAL PM:
  Owns end-to-end product or feature.
  Skills: discovery, specs, launch, metrics.
  Companies: most.

GROWTH PM:
  Focus: acquisition, activation, retention.
  Skills: experimentation, funnel analysis, A/B testing.
  Companies: SaaS, consumer apps, marketplaces.

PLATFORM PM:
  Focus: internal/external developer experience.
  Skills: API design, SDK, dev docs.
  Companies: API-first (Stripe, Twilio, Auth0), AWS-likes.

DATA / AI PM:
  Focus: ML/AI products.
  Skills: model evaluation, data quality, ground truth.
  Companies: ML-heavy (OpenAI, Anthropic, Databricks).

B2C PM:
  Focus: consumer apps.
  Skills: UX intuition, viral growth, retention.
  Companies: Spotify, Snap, Duolingo.

B2B / ENTERPRISE PM:
  Focus: businesses as customers.
  Skills: sales cycles, procurement, compliance, integrations.
  Companies: Salesforce, ServiceNow, most SaaS.

MARKETPLACE PM:
  Two-sided products.
  Skills: balancing supply + demand, network effects.
  Companies: Airbnb, Uber, Etsy.

FINTECH PM:
  Money + regulation.
  Skills: compliance (PCI, AML, KYC), risk, fraud.
  Companies: Stripe, Plaid, Robinhood, Mercury.

HEALTHCARE PM:
  Regulated health products.
  Skills: HIPAA, FDA, clinical validation.
  Companies: Hinge Health, Color, Cerner.

HARDWARE PM:
  Physical products (Course 1 of this track).

GENERALIST PM:
  Cross-cuts specializations.
  Skills: broad.

WHEN TO SPECIALIZE:
  - You love a domain.
  - You want a clear narrative (interview/promo).
  - You want premium compensation in a niche.

WHEN NOT:
  - Early career: try multiple.
  - At a small startup: generalist works.

OPENPED PM SPECIALTY:
  Hybrid hardware-software PM. Specialized but rare role.
  Skills: hardware PDLC + software craft.
  Compensation: premium (scarcity).

PM JOB:
  Identify your specialty (or commit to generalist).
  Build the skills.
  Position your career narrative around it.