Playbook

Choose your path

You don't have to know yet. Month 1 is a taste test: do one small, real task of each role, talk to people who do the job, then score each path. Here TPM means Technical Product Manager — a product manager for technical products like APIs, platforms and AI features. (Not Technical Program Manager, which is mostly delivery and scheduling.)

1. Software Engineer

   You build the thing, and you own how it works.

   • You'll love it if deep focus, hard problems and seeing your code run make you happy.
   • You'll hate it if you want to decide WHAT gets built, not only how.
   • Your next level: senior or full stack — back end, system design, and interview algorithms.

2. Product Manager

   You decide what to build and why. You own the outcome, not the code.

   • You'll love it if you enjoy talking to users, choosing between ideas, and moving numbers.
   • You'll hate it if you need to build with your hands every day. Most of a PM's week is meetings and writing.
   • Hard part for you: proving product skill without the title. Teardowns, a PRD and a shipped v2 help.

3. Technical Product Manager

   A product manager for technical products: APIs, SDKs, platforms, data and AI features. Engineers are often the users.

   • You'll love it if you like both "why build this" and "how will this work", and engineers trust you.
   • You'll hate it if you can't let go of writing the code yourself.
   • Your edge: 1,500+ merged PRs on a real trading platform. Few PMs can talk architecture with engineers.

4. Coffee chats: 5 questions

   Ask for 30 minutes. Send the questions first. Write notes right after.

   • What did you do last Tuesday, hour by hour?
   • What part of the job drains you?
   • What surprised you in your first year?
   • How did you get your first role in this job?
   • If you were me, what would you do in the next 6 months?

   Hi [name], I'm a software engineer at Technance and I'm deciding my next career step. Could I have 30 minutes of your time to hear what your work as a [role] is really like?
   
   These are the 5 questions I'd ask:
   1. What did you do last Tuesday, hour by hour?
   2. What part of the job drains you?
   3. What surprised you in your first year?
   4. How did you get your first role in this job?
   5. If you were me, what would you do in the next 6 months?
   
   Any day next week works for me. Thank you!

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5. Scorecard

   At the end of Month 1, score each path from 1 to 5. Multiply by the weight and add up. The highest total wins — unless your gut strongly disagrees. Then ask yourself why.

   • Energy ×3: which taste task made time fly?
   • Fit ×2: which one uses your strengths?
   • Market ×2: how many good jobs, local or remote?
   • Money ×1: likely pay in 3 years.
   • Life ×2: does it fit the life you want (hours, stress)?

               SWE   PM   TPM
   Energy ×3    _     _     _
   Fit    ×2    _     _     _
   Market ×2    _     _     _
   Money  ×1    _     _     _
   Life   ×2    _     _     _
   Total        _     _     _

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6. My suggestion

   Lean toward Technical Product Manager — but do the taste test honestly.

   It keeps your engineering strength and adds product skill, which is rare and valuable. It also has a realistic first step inside Technance: own one technical feature end to end.

   The cost: you will code less, and you must prove product skill before you have the title.

   If the engineer taste task was the one that made time fly, pick Software Engineer. That is a real answer too.