Traditional PM vs Product Engineer: Which Path Should You Choose?

Five years ago, this conversation was simple: “Do you want to be a Product Manager?” The answer came with a clear job description.

Today, it’s more complicated. There are two paths forward, and they require different skills, different mindsets, and lead to different careers. If you choose wrong, you’ll spend years frustrated in a role that doesn’t match how you work.

The Traditional PM Path

What you do: You decide what to build. You write specs, run meetings, manage stakeholders, and coordinate teams.

Your day looks like:

Strategy sessions with leadership (2 hours)
User research interviews (1 hour)
Writing and refining specs (2 hours)
Standing meetings with engineering, design, marketing (2 hours)
Roadmap planning (1 hour)
Email and Slack (2 hours)

The skill set you need:

Written communication (specs, memos, roadmaps)
Political navigation (managing up and across orgs)
Meeting facilitation (keeping teams aligned)
Stakeholder management (saying yes and no strategically)
Data interpretation (understanding what metrics mean)

Where these roles exist: Big companies, established mid-size companies, any org with clear functional silos.

Career trajectory: Junior PM → Senior PM → Group PM → Director of Product → VP/C-suite

The honest truth: This path is stable. You can have a 30-year career doing this. But it also means you never code, rarely prototype, and spend increasing time in meetings as you grow.

The Product Engineer Path

What you do: You identify customer problems and build solutions. Fast. You’re a hybrid between PM and engineer.

Your day looks like:

Customer interviews (2 hours)
Building prototypes or features (4 hours)
Shipping code or designs (1 hour)
Slack with your small team (1 hour)

The skill set you need:

Coding or design (ability to build)
Customer empathy (talking to users directly)
Technical judgment (knowing what’s possible)
Speed and iteration (shipping fast, learning from users)
Self-sufficiency (you don’t need permission to test ideas)

Where these roles exist: Startups, AI-native companies, design studios, anywhere with flat hierarchies and fast shipping cycles.

Career trajectory: Product Engineer → Lead Product Engineer → Founder or senior leadership at small companies

The honest truth: This path is more intense and less stable. You’re constantly learning new tools. You can’t hide—users immediately see if your decisions were wrong. But you also see the impact of your work directly.

How to Choose

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Do you want to build things or decide what gets built?

Traditional PM: You decide, others build
Product Engineer: You do both

2. What energizes you?

Traditional PM: Aligned teams, clear strategy, stakeholder buy-in
Product Engineer: Shipping fast, talking to customers, iterating rapidly

3. Where do you want to be in 10 years?

Traditional PM: Senior leadership in large organizations
Product Engineer: Technical depth or founder/startup leadership

4. How much ambiguity can you handle?

Traditional PM: High (but structured by company processes)
Product Engineer: Very high (you’re figuring it out as you go)

5. Do you want to code?

Traditional PM: Not required, often discouraged
Product Engineer: Essential (code, design, or both)

The Catch

Here’s what’s important: you can’t do both equally well.

Some people try to be a traditional PM with coding skills. They code a little but do PM better, so they end up doing mostly PM. Now they’re a traditional PM with outdated coding skills.

Others try to be a Product Engineer with full PM processes. They build quickly but get bogged down in approvals and meetings. Now they’re frustrated because they’re not actually shipping fast.

You have to pick one and commit to it.

The AI-Era Twist

AI is changing this equation. A traditional PM can now prototype much faster using AI tools. A Product Engineer can now validate ideas with ChatGPT and Claude instead of lengthy user testing.

But this doesn’t blur the lines—it just makes both paths more efficient. Traditional PMs still need teams. Product Engineers still need speed.

My Honest Take

Most people think they want to be a Product Engineer. They love the idea of shipping fast and seeing impact directly.

But when you talk to them for 5 minutes, they actually want to be a traditional PM. They want to influence strategy, build teams, and lead bigger organizations. They like meetings and strategy more than they think.

Similarly, many people who should be traditional PMs end up as Product Engineers because they’re technical and everyone assumes that’s the path.

The real choice isn’t “which is better.” It’s “which is better for you, right now, in this company, at this stage of your career?”

And that answer can change. I spent 15 years as a traditional PM. Now I spend half my time as a Product Engineer because AI made that possible. Both are valuable. Both are legitimate.

You just have to know which one you’re choosing.

“How to Be a Top Product Manager” devotes Part I to the traditional PM path and Part II to the Product Engineer model. If you’re at this crossroads, the book walks through exactly what each path involves, what skills you need to develop, and how to position yourself for success in either direction.