Adapting the Growth Framework for Product Teams
After we rolled out the engineering growth framework at Hypercontext, the product team asked the obvious question: where's ours?
It didn't translate directly. Engineering growth is mostly about widening and deepening craft, so track-based milestones fit. Product growth is bound to role — what "good strategic thinking" means for an Associate PM and a Director of PM aren't different milestones on one track so much as different jobs. So the product version leans on roles.
What changed
- Competencies are tied to roles. The rubric runs Associate PM → PM → Sr. PM → Lead PM → Director of PM, with concrete expectations at each step.
- Strategy is the spine. Contributing ideas usefully, structuring the strategic conversation, then owning strategy at squad level and across squads.
- Autonomy is measured explicitly. Each competency progresses from "does this with help" to "does this without help." Blunt, but it made growth conversations concrete: never "are you strategic enough," always "which of these do you still need help with."
What stayed the same
Everything that made the engineering version work: milestones anchored in real scenarios, a monthly growth conversation with the rubric as the shared map, levels derived from the rubric rather than negotiation, and a written appeals process. The two frameworks were deliberately compatible — PMs and engineers grow inside the same squads, and the conversations should feel the same.
The documents and tools
Growth Framework (.docx)
The shared foundational doc: principles, structure, and how milestones and levels work.
Product Growth Rubric (.xlsx)
Competencies like strategic thinking, roadmap ownership, and squad leadership, laid out across Associate PM through Director of PM.
Download Product Growth Rubric
Story of You (.docx)
The narrative template: milestones reached, evidence, and where to focus next.
Growth Framework Appeal Template (.docx)
The structured appeal template, shared with the engineering framework.
Download Growth Framework Appeal Template
Snowflake Growth App
Medium's growth-visualization tool, adapted for our frameworks.
Snowflake Growth App GitHub Repo
git clone https://github.com/Hypercontext/snowflake
cd snowflake
npm install -g yarn # if you don't have yarn
yarn && yarn dev # dev server; `yarn export` builds to out/