🛠️ The SEO Product Manager Skills Matrix
A path to becoming an SEO Product Manager
The path to becoming an SEO Product Manager isn’t clear.
It’s a new role, and although there are plenty of broader development plans for SEO professionals, the path to SEO PM can be unclear.
It’s a combination of hard and soft skills that must be balanced when working with engineering and product teams.
This is why I created the SEO product manager skills matrix.
To help other SEO professionals understand what they need to focus on to become an SEO PM or learn skills to work in a tech team.
In this newsletter, we are going to cover the following:
🤷 A Lack of Career Direction
🛠️ The SEO Product Manager Skills Matrix
📝 How I identified the top 10 skills
😎 How I created the skills matrix
🤹 Top 10 Skills of SEO Product Managers
🤷 A Lack of Career Direction
There are a lot of public career ladders and personal development plans for product managers. However, there aren’t any for SEO product managers.
As an SEO, it can be hard to understand exactly what you must do to advance your career, especially if you want to break into being an SEO product manager.
The SEO product management role is an individual contributor role. If you are an in-house SEO manager or technical SEO it’s potentially another career path if you like to work with engineering/product teams and get sh*t done.
If you’re an agency or in-house SEO wanting to become an SEO PM, you’ll probably ask yourself:
What soft or hard skills do you need to learn?
What do companies expect from you when you work in these roles?
What are the gaps in your skill stack?
What skills or knowledge do I need to improve?
As an SEO professional who stumbled into product management, and has really enjoyed it, I wanted to create a clearer path for others to follow.
This is why I created the SEO product management matrix.
🛠️ The SEO Product Manager Skills Matrix
You can find the SEO product management matrix below:
Note: Thank you to all those who reviewed and gave feedback on this skills matrix document, including: Tory Gray, Heather Kaeowichien, Alec Bertram, Craig Harkins, Paz Iriarte, Antoine Eripret, Abby Gleason (Riemer), Holly Miller Anderson.
The skills matrix is based on an analysis of real SEO PM job descriptions from companies like G2, Reddit and eBay (see analysis below). As well as my experience working in product and engineering teams.
It is broken down into 10 key skills, each with three skill categories, across three levels:
Level 1: SEO professional
Level 2: SEO Product Manager
Level 3: Senior SEO Product Manager
You’ll notice that the scope of your work and your responsibilities increase as you go higher up the levels. For example, a senior SEO PM helps to:
Help construct multiple strategies and roadmaps
Work across multiple teams and projects
Able to identify market and customer trends, and adjust the SEO strategy.
How do you become an SEO product manager or senior SEO product manager?
Simple. Practice, practice and practice.
Just like learning SEO, product management is all about learning new skills, applying them and adjusting what you’ve learned. You’ll stumble and fall, but eventually, you’ll see what works.
If you want to learn these skills and level up to become an SEO product manager, take the Think Like an SEO Product Manager course.
It is designed to help you learn the skills, mindset, and tried-and-tested techniques used in product teams to build enterprise-level software.
📝 How I identified the top 10 skills
To create this skills matrix I found and analysed 10 publicly accessible SEO PM or adjacent job descriptions from the web.
I copied and pasted each job description into the SEO PM skills matrix sheet (see “SEO PM | 10 Job Descriptions” tab).
I then copied and pasted all the content in the job descriptions and put them through Word Cloud. This gave me an overview of the different responsibilities of SEO PM job roles based on keywords:
I grouped each of these keywords into categories based on product management career ladders (see below) to create the top 10 skills. I also grabbed a quote from the job descriptions to ensure they were grounded in reality.
😎 How I created the skills matrix
Although having a list of “top 10 skills”, it seemed a bit meta.
Although this list gave some direction, it didn’t provide a clear path for anyone wanting to improve their skills to get this type of job. When I viewed the list I asked myself:
What are the actual skills within each category?
How do I know what to focus on?
How can I tell if I have gaps in my skill stack?
Luckily, there are a whole host of public product management career ladders and development plans on the web to dig into. For example:
Each career development plan I reviewed broke down each skill category into a clear set of career goals. For example, Intercoms breaks down each skill area by the different levels:
Also, we can’t discuss the SEO career skills matrix without discussing Tom Critchlow’s The SEO Skills Maturity Matrix. I quite liked how this framework breaks down the skills into clearer categories for SEO professionals to focus on.
Using the product development ladders and Tommy T’s SEO matrix framework I created the SEO product manager skills matrix:
Each of the top 10 skills is broken down into three category skill sets which need to be worked on to improve the main “skill”.
Let’s take a look at the top 10 skills in more detail.
🤹 The Top 10 Skills of SEO Product Managers
The list of the top 10 skills is as follows:
🌀 Discovery - An SEO PM should be able to spot SEO opportunities to drive growth that aligns with business goals.
🧑🤝🧑 User-focused - An SEO PM is customer-centric and has the technical knowledge to advocate for search engine bot experience.
🌄 Evangelize SEO - An SEO PM educates and advocates for SEO best practices across the organisation.
🎯 Vision and Strategy - An SEO PM should be able to create a compelling SEO strategy and roadmap which overcomes a key challenge that will help drive the business forward.
📢 Communication - An SEO PM excels at communicating with other teams, from engineering all the way to senior management.
🗣️ Collaboration - An SEO PM builds trust, and lasting partnerships, and fosters collaboration with other teams to get things done.
📈 Measure Impact - An SEO PM's work delivers meaningful impact through experiments and setting goals to measure the success of initiatives.
📅 Planning - An SEO PM must be able to plan with different teams to execute the roadmap and create a plan to deliver the SEO strategy.
🤝Ownership - An SEO PM owns the SEO strategy, roadmap and works with the development team to get the strategy implemented.
🔄 Execution - An SEO PM works closely with other teams to drive the execution of the strategy and roadmap through to completion.
Let’s go through each and drill down on what is expected of an SEO in a Product Management role.
🌀 Discovery
An SEO PM should be able to spot SEO opportunities to drive growth that aligns with business goals.
The job descriptions highlighted that SEO PMs should constantly be “on the lookout” for new oppurtunities to solve impactful problems via organic search. This is in line with PM roles, where you have to think outside the box to constantly understand customer problems and ideas to solve them.
I’ve talked about SEO Discovery in a previous newsletter if you want to understand it in more detail.
The three skill categories in the section are:
💰 Business - You are able to understand the business model, team structure and the wider business strategy to other stakeholders.
📈 Opportunities - You can combine business goals, customer feedback, and SEO data to identify impactful opportunities.
⚠️ Problem Statement - You can create clear problem statements and articulate the impact if the problem is solved.
You can see the job description quotes wanting SEOs in PM roles to identify oppurtunities.
"Constantly be on the lookout for new SEO opportunities and use data to identify them."- eBay
"Measure opportunity and impact, and make data-driven decisions"- Wise
"Extensive use of data to understand users and search engines, analyze and make decisions."- eBay"
“Leverage a variety of test and learn approaches to discover what works."- CarMax
🎯 Vision and Strategy
An SEO PM should be able to create a compelling SEO strategy and roadmap which overcomes a key challenge that will help drive the business forward.
Not only do you need to discover and validate SEO oppurtunities, but you also need to create a polished plan that is aligned and signed off by the business.
I’ve talked about the SEO Strategy Stack framework in a previous newsletter if you want to understand vision and strategy further.
The three skill categories in the section are:
🌏 Strategy - You can construct a coherent and realistic SEO strategy that connects the problem statement with a coherent delivery plan.
🛣️ Roadmap - You can create a realistic roadmap that outlines the delivery plans for the SEO strategy.
🚦 Prioritization - When working with the engineering team, you can ruthlessly prioritize initiatives and quantify your decisions.
Quotes from the job descriptions:
"Create strategy and vision for best-in-class SEO solutions."- eBay
"Responsible for defining the vision, strategy, and roadmap of features for the SEO team and alignment with business goals."- Reddit
“Understand and utilize persona research to guide SEO strategy and optimizations” - Optimisley
📅 Planning
An SEO PM must be able to plan with different teams to execute the roadmap and create a plan to deliver the SEO strategy.
All of the job descriptions outlined that, in some shape or form, you need to sync with different teams (developers, design, content, etc.) to align plans to deliver ideas.
The three categories in the section are:
🖖 Facilitation - You can run and facilitate planning meetings within the team and align the team around a common goal.
🍕 Web Dev Strategy - You can run and facilitate discovery meetings to work with the engineering and design teams to create a web dev strategy.
📄 PRD - You can create a clear product requirement document (PRD)/1-pager outlining an initiative's specifications.
Quotes from the job descriptions:
“Assess and prioritise growth opportunities and create a plan to execute on ideas."- Canva
"Own the product strategy, set the vision, and plan a holistic roadmap for a portfolio of SEO-centric frontend and backend technologies that power Zoro" - Zoro
“Serve as an interface between stakeholders to obtain product input and ensure awareness and comfort with plans” - CarMax
🤝 Ownership
An SEO PM owns the SEO strategy, and roadmap and works with the development team to implement the strategy.
This means, just like other PMs, you are accountable for the SEO performance of the SEO strategy and roadmap. The buck stops with you.
The three categories in the section are:
⛳ Independent - You can run an SEO strategy independently and are accountable for driving the roadmap forward.
📆 Ceremonies - You are able to run and facilitate team ceremonies for a project (planning, refactoring, reviews, etc.)
🤔 Decisions - You can identify and prioritize between impactful and urgent problems within the team without the need for supervision.
Quotes from the job descriptions:
"Be accountable for implementing, driving, and optimizing global SEO strategy & roadmap."- Optimizely
"Demonstrate fiscal responsibility in managing budgets and resource plans."- CarMax
“Responsible for defining the vision, strategy, and roadmap of features for the SEO team and alignment with business goals.” - Reddit
📈 Measure Impact
An SEO PM's work delivers meaningful impact through experiments and setting goals to measure the success of initiatives.
Creating clear SEO goals seemed to be a big theme throughout all job descriptions. As an SEO PM, you must connect the delivery work to the wider SEO KPIs or OKRs.
The three categories in the section are:
🥅 Goals - You can construct clear SEO goals that will help measure a strategy's success and connect it to wider business goals.
📊 Report Progress - You can connect goals to initiatives in the SEO roadmap, and you are able to explain how opportunities will move these goals.
💻 Monitoring - You can work with teams to create automated dashboards that track the progress of your strategy and roadmap.
Quotes from the job descriptions:
"Drive experimentation with the goal of increasing organic traffic, new users and business growth"- Canva
"Analyze feature/experiment results and communicate learnings to the team, executives, and the company."- Reddit
"Work with the Engineering Lead, SEOs + data to set goals, measures of success, requirements and roadmap to define and measure what success looks like."- Canva
"Ability to establish key performance indicators to measure success vs. key objectives."- Optimisley
"Measure opportunity and impact, and make data-driven decisions"- Wise
📢 Communication
An SEO PM excels at communicating with other teams, from engineering all the way to senior management.
A lot of the job descriptions highlighted that communication is key. As your job will be syncing and working with different teams, you must communicate your ideas in different ways.
The three categories in the section are:
Business Logic - You can articulate why the strategy, roadmap and execution work connects to the wider business strategy.
✍️ Writing - You can use written communication to articulate the SEO strategy, roadmap and goals to different stakeholders.
🎁 Presenting - You can coherently present the SEO strategy, roadmap and goals to different stakeholders during updates.
Quotes from the job descriptions:
"A natural leader with strong experience communicating, influencing and rallying a team of contributors."- Canva
"Very strong qualities in clear written and verbal communication."- G2
"You are a compelling influencer with great communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to align a diverse group of stakeholders towards a common goal."- Reddit
"Excels at communicating with team, partners, and senior leadership with clarity, salience, and urgency."- Zoro
🗣️ Collaboration
An SEO PM builds trust, and lasting partnerships, and fosters collaboration with other teams to get things done.
You need to work with other teams to get the SEO project executed. Building a partnership with engineering, product, or any business team is all about the ability to be proactive, listen and work with other teams.
The three categories in the section are:
🚀 Engineering - You are able to collaborate across the organisation with technical and business teams to deliver SEO initiatives.
🏃 Proactive - You are proactive in approaching other stakeholders within a business to get feedback on plans.
🔁 Feedback - You are able to run a weekly, monthly or quarterly planning session and get constructive feedback around SEO strategy and roadmap.
Quotes from the job descriptions:
"Collaborate with the product and engineering teams."- G2
"Foster a motivated, collaborative team culture."- Supplyhouse.com
“You have exceptional independent problem-solving skills, attention to detail, flexibility, and ability to collaborate with others and to work in a fast-paced environment.” - Reddit
🔄 Execution
An SEO PM works closely with other teams to drive the execution of the strategy and roadmap through to completion.
The ability to work with teams to get SEO projects executed is a skill that is critical to the SEO PM role. This doesn’t mean sitting back and letting others do the work. It means you need to deeply understand the delivery process, feasibility and how to scope SEO projects.
The three categories in the section are:
🔛 Execution - You have shipped SEO initiatives independently within the product development process.
🔭 Scope - You can prioritize specifications using examples and work with the engineering team to make decisions during the delivery of the strategy.
🖥️ Technology - You have a basic understanding of the technical side of the solution and can articulate how it works.
Quotes from the job descriptions:
"Work closely with engineers, designers, SEO specialists, and data analysts to drive the roadmap, from ideation, prioritisation, planning, execution through to analysis and reporting." - Canva
"Work closely with engineers, designers, data, research and other PMs on developing new features/specs and driving execution." - Reddit
“Support the SEO team in developing and executing big bets for our marketplace” - G2
🧑🤝🧑 User-focused
An SEO PM is customer-centric and has the technical knowledge to advocate for search engine bot experience.
Just like a PM role, an SEO PM also needs to be able to understand customers and tie SEO data with buyers’ journeys. Remember, this isn’t about shipping SEO features but maximising outcomes.
The three categories in the section are:
🎯 Target Audience - You are able to articulate who your target audience is, their wants/needs and the feasible solution to solve their problem.
🧪 Experiments - You are able to test risky assumptions on users by working with the team to conduct different experiments to learn.
📏 Quantify - You can combine customer feedback and SEO data to quantify opportunities that drive user and business results.
Quotes from the job descriptions:
"Understand the needs of the customer as well as the bot, and advocate for solutions that serve both."- CarMax
"Experience working with user data and customer research."- SupplyHouse.com
"Understand our prospective customers: who they are and what they are interested in."- Wise
🌄 Evangelize SEO
An SEO PM educates and advocates for SEO best practices across the organisation.
Finally, the job descriptions outlined that SEO PMs must “advocate” for SEO throughout the company. This means being proactive and providing training for stakeholders, updating the organisation on SEO news, and working with teams to implement new processes.
The three categories in the section are:
🔀 Process - You are proactive in working with product and engineering to ensure SEO best practices are integral to our delivery processes.
📰 News - You are proactive in updating the team on any new SEO news or developments that will impact the business.
🚆 Training - You're proactive in working with product & engineering to make SEO best practices an integral part of our delivery processes.
Quotes from the job descriptions:
"Evangelize SEO and work towards fixing legacy issues."- eBay
"Serve as an active SEO advocate."- Yell
"Educate and evangelize SEO and experimentation so everyone is across best practices across the business."- Canva
📚 Further Reading
If you want to check out more product manager or SEO career ladders I’d check out these resources:
The SEO Skills Matrix - SEO MBA
What is the Product Manager Career Path? - Product Plan
Wise Product Development Plans - Wise (Transferwise)
Intercome’s career ladder for Product Managers - Intercome
The Product Manager Role at GitLab - Gitlab
UK Governments Product Manager Ladder - UK Government
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