Lenny RachitskyHost of Lenny's Podcast | Author of Lenny's Newsletter

The 5 types of PMs

3 Jul 2025 · 1 min

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A short transcript from Lenny Rachitsky's YouTube video "The 5 types of PMs" describing five product-manager archetypes: consumer PM (design-focused), growth PM (data-first), business/GP PM (MBA/margin-focused), platform PM (builds tools for other teams), and research PM (research/engineering/product hybrid). Each archetype is defined by the mix of skills, typical mindset, and primary focus areas.

Chapters

There are five different types of product managers. Number one is the consumer. PM this is the person that's like half designer, half product person. Really obsessed over the details. Is it delightful? Is it crafted enough? Another type is the growth. PM half data scientist, half product person. Wired to think numbers first. And they have this air about them that's like, I'm really skeptical, show me the data. The third type is the GMPM or the business. PM Half mba, half product person. These are folks that are kind of naturally wired to think about what are the margins, are the opportunities, where's the value being created. Another one, actually more nuanced than you think, is the platform. PM someone who's like really deeply wired to build tools for other people. And oftentimes these folks are overlooked, but these are the people that are going to build the systems that are going to make you go faster. And the last one to research. PM half researcher, half engineer, half product person. These minds are amazing people who really have that product taste, but deeply understand the tech and the way the models are trained to go and build the most amazing product.