Roman Rossov: Product manager evolution in a high growth startup UA Online PMDay 2021 Website - https://pmday.org/online Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/startuplviv FB - https://www.facebook.com/pmdayconference

1. The operating system
for the solo economy
April 2021
PM online day

2. About me
Roman Rossov
Growth Product manager @Xolo
13 years experience of PM
Ex-Prom.ua, Ucoz,
Depositphotos, TransferWise

3. Xolo is a pioneer in global
freelance-tech industry
70,000
solopreneurs
Unique company-as-a-service concept:
Legal entity + banking + business SaaS +
accounting + tax support
● Our mission is to reduce the disproportionate
hurdles of solopreneurship by 10X
● The only truly global player in freelance-tech
● Based in Tallinn, Estonia
● Total fundraising so far €10m
119
countries
11 MLN EUR
investments

4. Product manager evolution
in a high growth startup

5. Evolution
Designer/Support/Engineer/Analyst etc
Product specialist
Product manager
Senior PM
Group PM
Product director
Senior Product director

6. Level 1
Being a product specialist

7. Being a product specialist
● Moved a metric at least once
● Communicates with mother team in a clear
way
● Can do simple analysis (Excel+SQL)
● Finished 10+ small fixes
● Can-do attitude
● Found a mentor from PM’s

8. Level 5
Being a product manager
10-200 employees
5MLN ARR

9. Being a product manager
● You build a KPI structure for your respective team/area.
● You have a realistic understanding of which KPIs are addressable and which ones
are not doable within your team or remit.
● You can link projects in a roadmap to actual KPIs and you’re able to explain how
your projects move these KPIs.
● You create dashboards for monitoring progress, and your team/s are actively
measuring and optimising the impact of projects.
● You’ve delivered 1 large or 2 medium projects with Engineers as part of a product
team.
● You’re able to frame problems and solutions clearly and communicate to the wider
team.
● You coach your team members and help give feedback to other teams regularly.
Your detailed feedback might result in a deliverable action point.
● You can effectively run structured monthly and quarterly cross-team small-scale
planning/discovery sessions to align on our mission. You proactively seek feedback.
● You can connect your project delivery to wider goals and objectives and can
effectively measure the impact through appropriate OKRs and or KPIs.
● You can build coherent and realistic delivery plans for medium scale projects.
Salary: 3-4k EUR

10. Level 10
Being a Senior PM
200-500 employees
20 MLN ARR

11. Being a Senior PM
● You’re able to explain how your team’s projects move the KPIs across your
domain.
● You can significantly move one of the 4 pillars of our mission or volumes. You
might do so with sub-KPI’s directly linking to the mission pillars.
● You’ve executed at least 3 or 4 projects with significant impact. You have a
clear idea of what opportunities you want to take moving forward.
● You develop strong execution methods that can be shared and used by wider
teams.
● You make sure your team is accountable in their delivery.
● You’re capable of optimising the best technical solutions to avoid over- and
under-engineering problems, making sure that the effort of Engineers focuses
on the right areas. You do so by using data and insights.
● You can build coherent, achievable and realistic delivery plans for large scale
projects. You know the difference between being customer-let in figuring out a
solution vs the ability to step back and evaluate if we can actually deliver to the
market in a different way.
● You coach your team members and consistently offer feedback for your
immediate and other teams.
● You coach the wider team across different functions.
● You can lead the hiring and onboarding of a PM – running the process from job
ad creation to a candidate accepting our offer. You make sure your new joiner
has a clear onboarding plan and milestones.
Salary: 4-5.2k EUR

12. Level 30
Being a Group PM/Principal PM
1000 employees
20-100 MLN ARR

13. Being a Group PM/Principal PM
● You are able to lead PM’s or you are highly specialised in a specific metric or
function
● You contribute with making hiring plans for the organisation
● You own and get buy-in from the broader team at Wise to build a 12-month
vision for your area. You also help the sub-teams you lead to set up their plans
and goals.
● You ensure that your teams have clear measurements for how they solve
problems that lead up to the goals of the product area you’re working on and
the Wise mission pillars.
● You influence studies taking across user research, product analysts and
consumer insights teams to collect insights in uncertain areas.
Salary: 5.2-6.2k EUR

14. Level 50+
Being a Product Director
2000+ employees
100+ MLN ARR

15. Being a Product Director
● You lead upwards of three PMs and delivery teams, with scope across a region
or a broad area of the product (i.e. verification, Asia Pacific)
● You resolve blockers across the tribe and relevant sections of the organisation to
ensure that the teams have the optimal environment to to execute their plans.
● You build a strong momentum for delivery across multiple teams.
● You work cross team to reduce dependence on product teams, by building up
strong operational teams.
● You define a hiring plan for at least 5 teams and hires and onboard at least 5
PMs – running the process from job ad creation to a candidate accepting our
offer. You make sure your new joiner has a clear onboarding plan and
milestones.
● You contribute to the development of our PM culture – creating new frameworks
and approaches, contributing to Wise’s strategy together with other leads.
Salary: 6.2-7k EUR

16. Level GODLIKE
Being a Senior product director
100 product managers

17. Being a Senior product director
● You manage and account for the impact of upwards of 5 PMs and
tribes that contain multiple sub-teams.
● You help unblock and resolve barriers across the all functions of the
tribe and large sections of the organisation. You ensure that the teams
have the optimal environment for performance and impact.
● You own and move metrics of a tribe within Wise (i.e. Regional
Expansions, Customer Journey, Crime Fighting)
● You work at the organisational level to understand if there are any KPIs
that are missing or whether we’re correctly measuring the impact in
certain areas.
● You define 12-24 month objectives for your tribe, a longer term vision
and a feasible strategy to achieve it.
● You make sure the teams in your tribe/area understand how to set
objectives s and make sure they have key results to support these.
● You lead upwards of 5 PMs, with at least one of them being a “Lead of
Leads” (Senior PM or a group PM).
● You lead initiatives outside of your tribe/area that contribute to the
Wise mission.
● You have a clear plan for how to grow and scale your organisation over
the next 2-5 years.
● You initiate and drive cultural change where needed to make sure that
the teams have the best environment for creating impact.
Salary: 7k+ EUR + significant stock

18. Thank you!
Roman Rossov
rossov.roman@gmail.com
FB: roman.rossov.5
Telegram: @Roman Product