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Product career map

Career maps are a tool we use to map out all the different levels within a team. They give clarity on what we expect at each level and help our people know how they can progress in their team. They also help us evaluate impact and pay our people consistently and fairly.

We’re sharing our Product team levels to give you an idea of where you might fit, what’s expected at each level and how you can progress at Wise. 

While career map frameworks are a useful guideline, they should never replace one-to-one career development and coaching conversations. All our employees go through an annual 360 feedback review, where we refine our individual development plans. This framework helps our Product leads have more structured conversations with their team members about progression and understand what they need to do to increase their impact on our mission.

When you’re thinking about your skills in relation to these levels, always remember it’s not a tick box exercise, but rather a guide to show the kind of impact we expect from our people as they progress in their journey at Wise. Different roles and teams have varying expectations on certain areas, but on the whole these expectations are common across all roles.

Keep in mind the compensation amounts shown below exclude stock we give to every employee at Wise. The amount of stock you get is set by your role and level — as you progress in your career and increase your impact, you can get more.

Impact

Product Manager 0: Demonstrated high performance in another role that has impacted product.

Product Manager 1: Runs a product team and prioritises roadmap effectively, while operating with minimal guidance.

Product Manager 2: Drives a long term vision and strategy that unites and motivates the team.

Product Manager 3: Developed and executed long-term product strategies and roadmaps that align with business goals.

Product Lead 1: Leads teams and PMs in multiple domains.

Product Lead 2: Leads multiple squads across multiple domains.

Product Lead 3: Influences and guides company level plans and execution.

Ownership

Product Manager 0: Owns individual features/projects.

Product Manager 1: Owns the roadmap of an entire product/country. Trusted to run the team, but not required and not expected to lead it independently.

Product Manager 2: Owns the roadmap of an entire product/country. Expected to lead a team independently, with minimum support from the squad/tribe lead.

Product Manager 3: Owns the roadmap of an entire product/country with a level of scale/complexity we would expect only at this level to independently manage OR owns the roadmaps for multiple products/countries. Required to lead a team. Trusted to lead multiple teams but not required.

Product Lead 1: Required to lead a group of teams.

Product Lead 2: Required to lead a squad (more than one squad expected for high L2).

Product Lead 3: Required to lead a tribe.

Management

Product Manager 0: Does not manage.

Product Manager 1: Does not manage.

Product Manager 2: Trusted to manage, but not expected. Expected to mentor, but not required.

Product Manager 3: Expected to manage, but not required. Required to mentor. .

Product Lead 1: Required to manage 2+ PMs.

Product Lead 2: Expected to manage 4 - 6 PMs (7+ expected for high L2). Expected to manage managers (required for high L2).

Product Lead 3: Required to manage managers.

Problem solving

Product Manager 0: Capable of solving well-defined and structured problems with minimal complexity. Frames clear problem statements and is able to sensibly define scope and impact of potential solutions.

Product Manager 1: Able to break down complex problems with structured frameworks and solutions. Demonstrates structured/effective methods for discovery and is skilled at synthesising and quantifying customer feedback. Defines accurate forecasts/targets with clear KPIs. Is hypothesis-driven and validates problems/solutions before investing. Able to synthesise problem statements, asks, and impact analyses into a clear, structured, and coherent roadmap for the product/country/team. Throughput: expected to structure and execute 1 complex problem each quarter.

Product Manager 2: Authors and socialises an inspiring long-term vision/strategy for their product/country/team from which the roadmap is derived. Influences actionable studies in user research, analysis, and consumer insights to turn areas of uncertainty into actionable opportunities. High domain depth in at least one domain. Throughput: expected to structure and execute 2+ complex problems each quarter.

Product Manager 3: Trusted to solve the hardest problems in the company. Considered a domain expert. Influences squad-level planning and prioritisation.

Product Lead 1: Accountable for vision/strategy for their group. Defines team-level priorities and is able to contextualise team objectives within the broader context of Wise, helping their teams understand their role & reason for existence. Is able to identify large opportunities for incremental growth/cost reduction and verify their assumptions ahead of building a team/investing significant development time. Able to make decisions and create clarity even in the most difficult and opinion-heavy situations. Trusted to lead squad-level rituals and planning processes (e.g. squad all-hands, quarterly planning, squad days).

Product Lead 2: Authors and socialises long-term (12-month+) vision/strategy for the squad. Ensures alignment between all functions in the squad on squad strategy. Defines overall priorities and drives the planning process for the squad. Directs focus across the squad to the most important problems. Contributes to planning and prioritisation for the tribe. Influences overall strategy/priorities for the company.

Product Lead 3: Combines a deep understanding of customers and market dynamics with a high awareness of product development throughout the company to align priorities/roadmaps across teams/squads/tribes to focus on the most important problems across all of Wise. Communicates the vision, strategy, and plans for their tribe in an inspiring and clear way across multiple organisation-wide touchpoints. Initiates and challenges the largest opportunities prioritised across the company.

Execution

Product Manager 0: Consistently delivers features/projects on-time with acceptable quality. Able to identify and remove blockers (usually with guidance/support from manager). Communicates clearly with stakeholders about progress, incidents, and operational changes. Authors and maintains high-quality project-level documentation.

Product Manager 1: Understands all aspects (e.g. technical, commercials, regulations, data, design, operations) of the product. Able to independently evaluate the quality of products and actively ensures the work delivered is of high quality. Proactively identifies and removes blockers with minimal guidance/support. Effectively prioritises to drive focus.

Product Manager 2: Uplevels the velocity, quality, and impact of their team on all aspects (e.g. technical, commercials, compliance, data, design, operations). Consistently meets and exceeds forecasted targets for impact. Highly effective cross-team collaborator.

Product Manager 3: Capable of independently developing and executing a roadmap on the most complex problems in their Tribe. Considered a domain expert. Is widely considered exceptional on some characteristic, driving outcomes bigger than expected. Influences squad-level planning and prioritisation (top end of L3)

Product Lead 1: Actively monitors performance within the squad, proactively taking action to resolve issues. Identifies and rectifies underlying reasons for poor velocity and/or quality. Pushes and challenges the boundaries of current execution in their domain (e.g. challenging regulation, setting new UX standard for the industry, innovating through new system design) and has a long-term vision of how this part of the industry should evolve.

Product Lead 2: Builds strength across not just product but all functions in their group. Provides guidance, support, and coaching to ensure their teams are making appropriate trade-offs between risk, security, ops, customer experience, growth, and economics.

Product Lead 3: Defines criteria for evaluating the performance of squads and acts quickly on performance issues within the tribe. Can get to necessary depth quickly to help their squads move faster. Leads on unblocking and resolving drags and blockers across the tribe and large sections of the organisation (e.g. design, compliance, people team).

Leadership

Product Manager 0: Trusted to operate independently but not required.

Product Manager 1: Operates independently with little to no guidance/supervision. Trusted to run team ceremonies (planning, retros, etc), but not required. Trusted to represent their product/country/team in large-scale company forums (e.g. Squad Days, Demo Days, Team Calls), but not required. Able to objectively assess a PM's skillset in an interview process giving high-quality feedback/assessments.

Product Manager 2: Expected to represent their product/country/team in large-scale company forums (e.g. Squad Days, Demo Days, Team Calls). Actively contributes to building a healthy team culture. Able to confidently and independently run an objective interview process, holding a high bar for talent. Regularly shares valuable learnings and best practices with the broader team on internal channels (e.g. Slack, Wikis, Team Calls, etc).

Product Manager 3: Required to represent their product/country/team in large-scale company forums (e.g. Squad Days, Demo Days, Team Calls). Trusted to manage an PM0/PM1/PM2, helping them to navigate and structure their domain while acting as a forcing function for them to make good decisions.

Product Lead 1: Owns team health and culture. Demonstrated ability to hire and retain high performing PMs. Actively defines shared approaches or frameworks that raise the bar across multiple teams/squads/tribes. Plays an active role in organisational development for Product Management at Wise (e.g. hiring processes, learning and development, competency map).

Product Lead 2: Takes active ownership of processes within our product organisation and creates meaningful impact (e.g hiring, onboarding, interviewing, improving diversity in the org). Has a large internal network with a high degree of influence throughout the company. Effective at creating and getting support for team structure changes and scaling plans, as well as executing on those plans to grow teams. Proactively builds network of long-term high-potential candidates. High PL2 expected to demonstrate an ability to hire and develop high PL1/PL2.

Product Lead 3: Leads on developing PM culture, including new frameworks, new approaches, and contribution to overall company strategy. Leads and drives organisational changes in structure, teams, roles, and/or skills, including connections to the product org where it is missing or slowing impact. Contributes to hiring strategy across all disciplines (e.g. Product, Design, Analytics, Engineering, Banking, Compliance, etc). Hires and retains high-performing senior leaders. Acts as a steward for the broader company picking up unowned topics outside of product, and working with peers across the company to address, unblocking where needed.

Salaries in each career level

Heading

  • 55,000-70,000 GBP
  • 125,000-148,000 USD (in Austin and New York)
  • 90,000-120,000 SGP
  • 42,000-52,800 EUR (in Estonia)
  • 12,000,000-15,000,000 HUF
  • 70,000-88,000 GBP
  • 140,000-185,000 USD (in Austin & New York)
  • 120,000-156,000 SGD
  • 52,800-67,200 EUR (in Estonia)
  • 15,000,000-19,200,000 HUF
  • 145,000-175,000 AUD
  • 88,000-110,000 GBP
  • 185,000-230,000 USD (in Austin & New York)
  • 156,000-216,000 SGD
  • 67,200-84,000 EUR (in Estonia)
  • 19,200,000-24,000,000 HUF
  • 175,000-220,000 AUD
  • 110,000-130,000 GBP
  • 230,000-265,000 USD (in Austin & New York)
  • 216,000-240,000 SGD
  • 84,000-105,000 EUR (in Estonia)
  • 24,000,000-30,000,000 HUF
  • 220,000-240,000 AUD
  • 115,000-145,000 GBP
  • 230,000-280,000 USD (in Austin & New York)
  • 216,000-276,000 SGD
  • 95,000-120,000 EUR (in Estonia)
  • 27,000,000-34,000,000 HUF
  • 220,000-265,000 AUD
  • 145,000-185,000 GBP
  • 280,000-360,000 USD (in Austin & New York)
  • 282,000-360,000 SGD
  • 120,000-150,000 EUR (in Estonia)
  • 34,000,000-42,000,000 HUF
  • 265,000-330,000 AUD
  • 185,000+ GBP
  • 360,000+ USD (in Austin and New York)
  • 360,000+ SGD
  • 150,000+ EUR (in Estonia)
  • 42,000,000+ HUF
  • 330,000+ AUD
List #1

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