Why is Airbnb killing the PM function? 🥺

Airbnb's sudden move will change org structures for PMs.

Jun 23, 2023

Welcome to the 160th edition of the GrowthX Newsletter. Every Tuesday & Thursday I write a piece on startups & business growth. Today’s piece is going to 95,300+ operators & leaders from startups like Google, Stripe, Swiggy, Razorpay, CRED & more

2021 : Airbnb killed most of its paid ads 🤯
2023 : It reported $1.9 billion in profits 💸
Airbnb is making another disrupting move ⬇️

Quick context 🗓
It all started yesterday with Brian Chesky (CEO of Airbnb) announcing they are morphing the product management function into an Apple-style product marketing function.

Is he firing product managers? 🙈
Absolutely not. Airbnb PMs will now have to transition to a role where they will not just own building a product or a feature but also own the end to end success of it.

Why is this all of a sudden? ⚡️
It's not sudden. At GrowthX®, we have seen this happening across hundreds of internet companies. You can not build / launch a product without knowing how to market it - it's the atomic truth.

Airbnb's move has created a trigger 🕹
And you will see a lot more companies (especially large companies) follow this org structure going forward.

So, how should you navigate as a PM? ⬇️

1/ Understand the why behind the change ♥️
It's not being done with a malice. It's done to get product managers closer to revenue impact than before. You are not just technical managers, you own the end metric for "business".

2/ Get clarity for your own charter 🔍
Sit down with your pod leader - ask them if we are doing a similar change and will PMs also own distribution (marketing) with their marketing counterparts. Also, check how soon we might move to this model.

3/ Write down your skill gaps 📝
It's time to really think which of the "marketing" skill set you lack and segment them into softer and technical skills. As a PM you are not supposed to know say how to run paid ads - but you will definitely need to understand the channel.

4/ Speak to marketers in your team ❤️
They are going to be your buddies in this transition journey. Learn what they work on/ how they think & ask them deeper questions that you can learn from.

5/ Upskill yourself, ASAP ⚡️
As a PM, your life will go through a journey of compounding. You will no more be just someone who is building the product but also distributing it with your business teams.

Over 700+ curated product managers are inside GrowthX® community (which is 2,200+ member strong). They are compounding on the right structure to building products & also nailing their distribution play. They learn with peers who are growth leaders from top product companies like Airbnb, Razorpay, Netflix, Freshworks, Amazon, Google, Meta & more. Here’s how their learning experience looks like.

Transition from PM → PM growth

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