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How many levels do product management ladders have?

Data collected on

We read 6 product management ladders that companies and one public employer publish for their own staff and counted their levels. The median is 4.5 levels for product managers who do not manage people, and 4 is the most common count. Every source is linked below, and the data is free to download.

Key findings

  • Ladders run from 4 to 9 levels. The median is 4.5. The most common count is 4, used by 3 of the 6 ladders.
  • All 4 ladders that use job titles have a Senior level. Its median position is step 3 from the bottom.
  • 1 ladder publishes a separate track for managers, but it does not say at which step it starts.

How many levels product management ladders have

Each bar is the number of ladders with that many levels for product managers who do not manage people.

  • 4 levels3 ladders
  • 5 levels1 ladder
  • 6 levels1 ladder
  • 7 levels0 ladders
  • 8 levels0 ladders
  • 9 levels1 ladder

Which titles the ladders use

The bars cover the 4 ladders whose levels are job titles. The other 2 use grades or scope names instead of job titles, such as “Level 2” or “Level 6”. One ladder can use several of these words.

  • Senior4 of 4
  • Staff2 of 4
  • Principal3 of 4

Senior counts a level titled Senior or Sr., not Senior Staff or Senior Principal.

Download the data

One row per ladder: its name, who publishes it, the source link, the number of levels, the level names, the manager track and the step it starts at.

Download the CSV

All 6 ladders

Levels for product managers who do not manage people, lowest first, as each publisher names them.
LadderLevelsLevel namesManager track
Findmypast4
  1. Junior Product Manager
  2. Product Manager
  3. Senior Product Manager
  4. Principal Product Manager
Not stated
GetNinjas6
  1. Level 1
  2. Level 2
  3. Level 3
  4. Level 4
  5. Level 5
  6. Level 6
Not stated
GitLab4
  1. Product Manager
  2. Senior Product Manager
  3. Staff Product Manager
  4. Principal Product Manager
Separate; start not stated
Mattermost9
  1. Level 1: Product Manager I
  2. Level 2: Product Manager I
  3. Level 3: Product Manager II
  4. Level 4: Product Manager II
  5. Level 5: Senior Product Manager
  6. Level 6: Senior Product Manager
  7. Level 7: Staff Product Manager
  8. Level 8: Principal Product Manager
  9. Level 9: Distinguished Product Manager
Not stated
Monzo4
  1. Level 1
  2. Level 2
  3. Level 3
  4. Level 4
Not stated
UK Government Digital and Data ProfessionPublic employer5
  1. Associate product manager
  2. Product manager
  3. Senior product manager
  4. Lead product manager
  5. Head of product
Not stated

How we did it

We read 6 product management ladders that their publishers use for their own staff: 5 from companies and 1 from a public employer, on their own sites or in documents they publish. We kept only those whose levels we could read as text. We left out templates written by individuals, professional bodies’ standards and ladders only for product design, product marketing or engineering teams.

Levels are the steps a product manager can climb without managing people, lowest first. Interns and trainees are left out. When a ladder splits one title into numbered steps, each with its own expectations, each step counts. Pay bands inside one level do not. A level above both tracks that the ladder does not open to individual contributors is not counted.

The manager track starts where the ladder puts its first people-manager role: the same band or level number, the same row of its table, or the step where it says the tracks split. When that role sits above the top level, it counts as the next step up. When a ladder has a manager track but does not place it, we do not guess.

Title shares only count ladders whose levels are job titles. A level counts as Senior when its title says Senior or Sr., but not Senior Staff or Senior Principal. Staff and Principal count only as whole words.

This is a sample of the ladders people chose to publish, mostly from tech companies, plus one UK government profession, and some are several years old. It shows what public ladders look like, not what every employer does.

We store only public facts: how many levels a ladder has, what the levels are called and where the manager track starts. Each ladder belongs to its publisher, so follow the links for the full text. None of them has reviewed or endorsed this study, and Competrace is not affiliated with them.

Spotted a mistake, or a public ladder we missed? Email support@competrace.com with the link, and we will update the data.

See levels with their skills

The study counts levels. To see what each level needs, browse our product management career path with the skills each level expects, or read what a career ladder is.

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