We’ve heard significantly more talk recently about the Super IC in the product management world. The term is commonly used to describe a highly experienced product manager who remains an Individual Contributor (IC) and doesn’t manage others. In addition, it’s another way of talking about a hyper-efficient, highly strategic, and tactically masterful product rockstar who can do it all and do it well while simultaneously being a likable, trusted partner. They’re a person of all trades you can put anywhere and they’ll crush any task or challenge they face.
There are many reasons the term has been trending. But before we dive into what’s behind that, there’s one important thing to be clear about. The Super IC is not a new type of Product Manager or a new version of the role. They have always existed, before there was a moniker for it and before it was acceptable to take a non-traditional product career path. They existed before Product Operations had a unique designation and likely took on lots of that work before so that it didn’t fall through the cracks and descend into chaos. They were around before Product Marketing was separate from Product Management, and may have written some copy, too. Super ICs aren’t new, in fact, you’ve probably worked with many of them before. Now we just have a good name for them. Better late than never.
Quick author’s note - I’m a huge fan of the Super IC and identify as one myself. I’m so glad to see this role finally having its moment and getting the attention it deserves. Not everyone thrives in climbing the traditional product ladder and ‘back in my day’ there was no alternative path. I remember making the tough decision to step back into an IC role after being a Director and thinking it was going to be career suicide. It wasn’t. And I was much happier.
Now that we have some context on the Super IC, let’s dive into why the role is getting so much attention.
Super ICs are getting more air time lately due to traditional product career paths changing significantly over the last decade. Product has evolved as a discipline and more Product Managers have discovered they prefer to stay closer to the product development lifecycle rather than moving into leadership roles where they manage others. Because of this shift, the once-linear career ladder is not as much of a straight line as it used to be.
It’s not hard to see why more product folks are gravitating towards the Super IC role. Product management is stressful due to its cross-functional nature and high-pressure development cycles. While there are stressful aspects to being an IC, such as tight timelines and hotfixes, it is not generally taxing in the same ways as product leadership roles can be. IC roles stay more involved in the product work rather than shifting to people-management and HR issues that can bog down leadership roles.
Product leadership is even more complex depending on the size and stage of the company, its vision/strategy (or lack thereof), and how well product management is understood by the rest of the organization. The skills and temperament required to effectively manage up and down, lead a team, balance future planning with delivering value this sprint, mentor and grow others’ careers, handle issues between team members, deal with product escalations, and have a personal/family life.… it’s a lot! And, it might not be right for everyone.
Not all Product Managers find this work as rewarding or interesting in the same way as being embedded in the details of building and growing a product, so the Super IC path offers an excellent alternative to leadership. As the Super IC path has grown in popularity, the traditional career ladder has started to look different and is not as linear as it once was. Several titles after Sr. Product Manager have made progress towards solving this. Titles like Lead, Principle, Expert, and Head of Product (depending on the org size and structure) are all IC roles that are senior and don’t involve directly managing others. These Super IC roles allow Product Managers who excel as strategists and executors to benefit from career growth while remaining individual contributors.
This shift also enables Product Managers to more confidently own their preference to remain an IC with less fear or uncertainty around career progression or growth potential. Historically, spending too long as an individual contributor was viewed negatively. It looked bad on a resume or gave the impression that you weren't advancing or growing in your product career. “Why has this candidate been a Sr. Product Manager at their last three companies? They haven't been promoted for 6 years?” The assumption was negative because until more recently, there wasn't a clear way to advance in your title if you didn't take the traditional path.
The rise of AI and related unknowns is the other key reason we see the rise of the Super IC label. We don’t know what it will mean for the future of product roles or how it will impact them over time. With the pace of advancements in AI and ML, everyone from product to engineering to creative is considering how they use and integrate AI in their daily lives and work and how to ensure it doesn’t eliminate them from the workforce.
As product managers, AI should drastically increase our efficiency and the ways we work:
AI will continue to advance these things in the coming months and years, and the best of the Super ICs are going from being wildly efficient to being masterfully AI-powered. It’s also where those inclined to learn new things are doing so quickly and adding even more ammo to their arsenal of skills.
This likely means fewer Product Managers will eventually be needed to do the same work, and the most efficient Product Managers will shine. This is where Super ICs stand out and one of the reasons they’re entering the conversation more and more.
It also means that as product managers we must evolve rapidly, continuously study the impact of AI on our users and our world, and integrate these tools into everything we do. It’s not just about using them to do our jobs more efficiently, it’s also about understanding how people live differently; how to build better, more useful products; how to create more innovative solutions; and how to gather better insights. Because Super ICs already tend to move fast, many are a step ahead on the AI journey.
The effectiveness of these Product Managers combined with the added efficiency increasingly gained by AI is causing many companies to question the need for middle management layers within product organizations. Add recent economic conditions, layoffs, and funding cutbacks, there’s even more fuel for the Super IC fire as of late.
Let’s look at an example.
Our Example Company had a small product team with three PMs and two UX Designers reporting to a Director of Product, who reported to a VP of Product. The VP had been struggling for some time. They eventually hired a Chief Product Officer after experiencing additional growth, and shortly after the CPO came on board, the VP exited.
It was clear to the CPO that the PMs on the team were very junior, so they tasked the Director with putting together a plan to assess and upskill them. After several months of effort, it became clear that the PMs were not improving, nor was the Director adequately upskilling or leading them in delivering results for the organization.
Additionally, with the size of the engineering team and product roadmap demands, the CPO thought a Super IC model could be a better alternative. Rather than continue with three PMs and the Director, they moved to a model with three Super ICs and two UX Designers, all reporting directly to the CPO. This model eliminated the need for the middle management layer. In addition, it improved efficiency and velocity and produced far better results across the product team.
We’ve seen increased instances of teams testing models similar to this with successful results, but there’s always a caveat. A strong CPO or other senior product leader is essential to succeed. Product leadership is too important to be absent entirely. A lack of strong product leadership is one of the primary reasons that product teams fail, so we recommend avoiding gaps whenever possible. The CPO in this example was a seasoned product leader and had the bandwidth to support the Super ICs when needed, leading to successful outcomes.
The recent instability in the economy and what has felt like endless rounds of layoffs since 2020 have made for a rough few years in tech. The job market has been unpredictable, and many teams have been operating with gaps or forced to adapt to leaner resourcing.
The Super IC comes out on top in these situations, too. Hiring people who can do more in less time benefits any business. They can be utilized for a larger variety of tasks and to solve more complex problems. It only makes sense in this market, when companies have a vacancy, they’d strive to make this type of hire. If an organization is laying people off, this is who they’ll retain. In the tech industry over the last few years, Super ICs have emerged as an in-demand resource given the market conditions.
Author’s note: While Super ICs are valuable for these reasons, they can also be a double-edged sword. Some companies will try to take advantage of this and pile far too much on one person’s plate. It’s important to be aware of burnout, see the point of diminishing returns, and set clear boundaries and scope for these roles.
It’s clear why Super ICs are getting some well-deserved and long-overdue time in the spotlight. Now let’s dive deeper into some scenarios where they’re most effective and can make the biggest impact. Organizations of any size can benefit from having Super ICs on the team, but there are situations where they are especially critical and where they stand out. It depends on where you look and whether or not they’re in the right environment to thrive.
For example, an enterprise organization with slow processes, tons of red tape, and a top-down prioritization model would be underutilized and frustrated by their inability to demonstrate the majority of their value-added potential. But they would be rockstars for an early, mid, or growth-stage startup. This is where Super ICs are the most beneficial and add the most value overall.
This is where the ‘person of all trades’ comes in the handiest. Someone who can ‘wear all the hats’ is the most useful. This is where having someone who knows how to do it all and do it well is essential.
This might be the most important scenario in which a Super IC is not only essential but almost necessary. Depending on how small or early-stage the startup is, you may only need one part-time (fractional) product manager. Product Management Consultants are an attractive option for startups that aren’t ready for a full-time hire. You can learn all about them in our detailed guide here.
When it comes time for a startup to hire their first product manager it’s usually because the Founder/CEO can’t do it themselves any longer. In my experience, they’ve been acting in the product role up to that point but their plates have gotten too full, they need to focus on other things, and the company has grown to the point that it’s time to mature and establish the foundations of a true product and tech org. This is a common inflection point in a startup’s journey and one we’ve seen countless startups encounter.
It is also very common for these leaders to be uncertain whether or not they need someone full-time, how senior this first hire should be, what type of background they should have, and much more about the specifics of this nuanced role. They know the role is critically important and will interface cross-functionally with nearly every part of the company, so they want to ensure they get it right.
Author’s note - This is normal. Most founders and CEOs are NOT product managers. They aren’t supposed to know everything about product management hiring and how to make the ideal first product hire. Folks often seem ashamed when they ask us these questions, but this stuff is nuanced and we’re here to help.
This is why Super ICs are an ideal option for startups making their first product management hire. The breadth of skills and experience they bring will add value across the organization and they can work autonomously without requiring the infrastructure and support of a large team to succeed. Super ICs are proactive, efficient, and effective and can adapt quickly in a fast-paced environment. This is especially helpful in startups where things change quickly and teams run very lean.
A part-time Super IC is an additional option worth strongly considering if you’re a startup that isn’t yet ready for a full-time hire. In this case, some product management expertise is highly preferable over no expertise.
Depending on the scope of the role, it could be possible to start with a part-time Super IC Product Manager. Let’s say you have 1-2 developers and a part-time product designer. In this case, a half-time Super IC Product Manager is likely sufficient and will save you money on costs until the team grows. This depends on the velocity of your engineering team and how fast and experienced your Product Manager is, but we have seen this scenario succeed in many startups.
Super ICs are known for being hyper-efficient, so when companies do layoffs or run lean teams, Super ICs are an attractive option. Product leaders faced with making layoffs while being asked to continue to maximize results will keep their Super ICs the longest.
They require less leadership and oversight, can serve more needs, and can do more quality work in less time. They’ll bring strategic excellence and drive execution efficiency, a critical blend for any organization, especially a lean one. Similar to startups on a budget, companies in these tough situations need to get the most bang for their buck, and this is where the Super IC excels.
Super ICs are also especially helpful when organizations are missing product leadership for one reason or another. Whether it’s because hiring great product leaders is challenging, your organization struggles to find the right fit, sees a lot of turnover, whatever the reason, gaps in product leadership are hard on teams. This is another scenario where Super ICs can be useful and their experience can extend to be helpful on the leadership side. Now, this might sound counterintuitive because we laid out a compelling argument about Super ICs wanting to avoid product leadership but hear us out, we’d be remiss not to address this.
When product teams lack strong product leadership, it can lead to a myriad of negative side effects, all of which are costly for an organization and have longer-term impacts. If you’re lucky enough to have a few Super ICs on your teams, strategically (and temporarily) leveraging them to fill some of the most impactful leadership vacancies can be an effective stopgap. These could include things like stepping in to manage relationships with tough leadership stakeholders and attending strategic planning sessions to keep the product team informed of new goals and initiatives.
The key to this is ensuring the leadership scope and any temporary role expectations are clear to everyone. Nothing sets things up for failure faster than starting misaligned and on the wrong foot. The temporary nature and the limited scope aspects of this are equally important, or this defeats the Super IC notion entirely and bleeds back into a stressful product leadership role without the title or pay.
With product management being such a complex and nuanced role, onboarding someone new for a short-term need can’t always be justified. Many product teams leave those gaps unfilled or have other team members provide extra support in the interim. The fast pace at which Super ICs usually work is a huge benefit in these situations. They can onboard and immerse more quickly, enabling them to add value when providing gap coverage or filling in for short-term needs. This is hugely beneficial for things like parental leave for product managers or leaders, or when product teams are hiring for multiple vacancies.
This is another scenario where the option of a fractional or part-time Super IC product consultant is also relevant. Having even part-time coverage during a key role vacancy or gap rather than trying to have existing team members take on extra responsibilities, or white-knuckle a gap for four to five months is an excellent solution. It also adds incremental value - fresh eyes and ears on your product, processes, and team will yield new ideas for your roadmap and recommendations to optimize your product operations. Win-win.
It’s highly valuable and strongly recommended to have interim product management coverage and a Super IC product consultant is an ideal solution. They’ll deliver continuous product work, support your team, keep things organized, and provide recommendations to improve your org, rather than leaving these critical areas without attention. For more info on product consultants, check out our handy guide here.
No matter the scenario, Super ICs are supremely talented, hyper-efficient product rockstars that bring a ton of value to any product management team. It’s perfectly acceptable to remain an individual contributor, to enjoy staying focused on the work rather than moving into managing people, and to navigate the ladder differently.
I think I’ve said Super IC enough times to last us all a long time. These product folks are pretty incredible and I’m glad people are finally giving them (us) the attention they deserve. They are valuable in many use cases, like smaller startups making their first-product hire, when there are gaps in existing product teams, and when things get lean. You’ve probably been lucky enough to work with a few throughout your career so far, and if you haven’t, contact us. We happen to know a few and we’d be happy to SUPERcharge your product team. Pun intended.
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