At Multiverse, we help organisations from local councils to Fortune 500 companies close critical skills gaps. Our Learners master competencies that unlock their careers and the goals of their organisations.
We’re ambitious about the impact we want to create, and a key part of this is Multiverser’s development. With competency mastery at our core, we recently refreshed how we think about Product Management as a craft. Today, we’re sharing our new internal framework for Product Managers (PMs) at every level at Multiverse.
Our goal for the framework is that it’s fair, actionable, and measurable. It should create a pathway for great Product Management through clear expectations, speak to every aspect of the product development lifecycle, and help PMs—and Multiverse—grow.
The evolution of Product Management at Multiverse
Our team has experience across the spectrum—from seed-stage startups to public companies, including Google, Spotify, Meta, Hubspot, and more. With this wealth of knowledge, we initially adopted a simple way to understand Product Management: by asking four key questions (4Q) that focused on impact, speed, product expertise, and leadership.
- Are you achieving impact? It all comes down to this. You need to build software our users want and love.
- Do you ship at pace? We’re a scale-up and still have a lot to build. We need to be nimble and build fast.
- Are you the expert on our user and product? The more you understand user needs and the product, the higher the chance of building the right tools and features for impact.
- Are you leading and motivating your team, stakeholders, and organisation? If everyone shares the same mental model of the user and business goals and is excited about what you are building, the faster you can ship.
This simple rubric served us well during our rapid growth. It helped ensure that PMs delivered for users, shipped at a pace, and led their teams effectively. However, as Multiverse grew to 800+ employees and our product team matured, we needed something more robust.
Introducing our new competency framework
Our new framework uses the Driver Tree approach—a more dynamic, outcome-focused way to align every PM’s growth with business impact, rooted in the original intentions behind the 4Q approach. The Driver Tree links each category of competencies— shipping, mastery, and leadership—directly to role-specific expectations, making it clear how PMs at each level can create user value by driving the product's and the business's success.
Snippet of the PM Competency Framework
The framework avoids ambiguity by detailing the skills required at every role level. As PMs progress in their careers, they take on greater responsibility and more complex problem spaces. The framework will help them navigate this progression by clearly defining what success looks like at each stage. PMs can assess their standing and provide clear, concrete examples of what is expected at each level.
Try the framework yourself
We’re excited to open up this framework for anyone to use. Take a look at it here(opens new window), make a copy, and feel free to adapt it to your teams. As Multiverse continues to grow and evolve, so will this framework. We welcome any feedback and look forward to hearing how it works for you.
