Build or Sell: Which Experience Matters More in Product Management?

One of the most common questions I’ve been asked throughout my product management career is:

Which background is more important for a product manager—development or commercial?

Product management is, at its core, a cross-functional role. My quick definition of a product manager is someone who gets development to build something sales can sell—and gets sales to sell something development can build. And those aren’t always the same thing.

Developers have their view of the market and its needs. Sales teams often have a very different perspective. Bridging that gap is the true challenge of product management.

So, when hiring product managers, I often ask myself: Which type of experience matters more—building or selling?

Looking back on my time managing scores of product managers, I’ve seen a wide range of backgrounds. Some came from R&D or technical roles. Others rose through sales or marketing. But nearly all had a distinct leaning—what I like to call a kind of “handedness” in product management. Some were naturally stronger on the build (development) side, others on the sell (commercial) side.

Despite that natural preference, the job requires influence across many functions—not just development and sales, but also operations, regulatory, legal, and quality. Whether you’re a “build” or “sell” product manager, you have to be able to work across all these domains.

So which is more valuable: building experience or selling experience?

In my view, both are essential—but they can be acquired at different points in a career. I’ve seen highly successful product managers who started in technical roles, moved into sales, and eventually transitioned into product management. These individuals used their technical grounding to understand development constraints and leveraged their commercial experience to appreciate the realities of selling, forecasting, and hitting revenue targets.

There are many career paths into product management, but the most effective product managers I’ve worked with have all shared one quality:

They’re ambidextrous.

They respect both sides of the equation—building and selling—even if their background leans toward one. They understand both worlds, speak both languages, and know how to translate between them.

So, if you’re asking which experience is more important—development or commercial—the answer is: Yes. Be a switch hitter. Respect both. That’s what makes a great product manager.