The Detour
Reflections on moving from leadership to IC
I started leading marketing & growth teams early in my startup career. When presented with my very first leadership opportunity, I jumped at it—at the time, I was of the opinion that people leadership was the only real path to growing my career. The loudest voices in marketing all had VP or C-level titles, and working towards one felt like a natural goal.
So I transitioned from one people management role to the next, learning a ton along the way—until I eventually needed a time out. It was 2024, and the AI craze had hit; I started tinkering with Claude while trying to keep up with the news. It soon became clear that management would, very soon, look drastically different. Hierarchies were going to collapse, teams would get leaner, and managing headcount would be valued less (I was leading a team of 20+ with 11-ish direct reports before my break, so this felt very relevant). It would also be important for managers to stay closer to the craft, because the production of work would be re-defined as more AI products entered the market.
I decided that this was an opportune time to go back to being an IC. In the moment, it felt like a scary but also necessary decision. 85% of my days as a manager of a large team were spent on the act of management—not the act of marketing. That felt uncomfortable, especially in a world where too much was changing too fast. Cutting out the management time felt like an ideal way to sharpen my skills.
How I approached the decision
I didn’t think of it as a binary: I approached moving to an IC role as a temporary decision, one that would give me more time and space to get closer to the craft, learn new skills, and evolve my understanding of how work gets done. It was simply an opportunity to improve my skillset so I could be a better leader down the line, should I ever choose to take that path again.
This mental model gave me flexibility and optionality, and made the switch feel more safe.
I prioritized the company over the title: I had been in startups long enough to know that being at the right place can accelerate your career and knowledge like nothing else can. I prioritized interviewing only at companies where I felt like I could learn from others who aced their craft, and where I would have high degrees of autonomy in decision making and execution.
I did have doubts: This felt like a scary decision when I was making it. Thoughts ranged from “I’ve spent years honing my leadership skills – this feels like a step back!” to “Landing a senior leadership position while moving countries wasn’t easy. Why change now?!” etc. Even if I thought of it as a non-binary decision, I wasn’t entirely sure that the market would, and that was a contradiction that initially felt uncomfortable.
It’s now 2026, and we’re in the thick of AI redefining how work gets done. More people are choosing to take the IC path, and more startups are seeing the value in it. Management has also evolved—managers are now expected to spend more time producing.
Things worth considering
The advantages of an IC role are obvious: time back to execute and learn technical skills, fewer meetings, more getting sh*t done. This is all true, and they’re reasons why I love it. On the flip-side, there are a few caveats to be aware of:
A glass ceiling can exist: Marketing org structures in startups aren’t optimized for IC growth – startups rarely have the senior & staff levels that exist in big tech, especially within marketing teams. Many startup marketing teams still incentivize (with higher comp, more resources) moving into management—this is also why many stellar, ambitious creatives eventually choose the management path. Be conscious of this potential glass ceiling, especially if you work at an org that thinks about career growth more traditionally.
Your scope could get more narrow: ICs generally need to specialize, especially as the company gets bigger. For example, a PMM will focus on one key product area, a growth marketer will focus on a specific channel like e-mail or outbound, a social media marketer will focus on a dedicated platform like YouTube or LinkedIn, etc.
This is less true if you’re an IC at an early-stage startup that demands wearing multiple hats, but it’s important to know how your role will evolve as the company grows. Management provides a more defined opportunity to zoom out and see the bigger picture (across product lines, growth surfaces, marketing channels, etc.), and that’s the tradeoff.
You may also have less exposure to the leadership team in an IC role, but this is exactly why choosing the right company matters: optimize for a place that’s less hierarchical and encourages interaction with leaders, no matter your level.
Normalizing the “career rotation”
Every 6 months to a year, I seem to find myself in what I now think of as “career rotation” or in other words: a place where I’m trying something different. It started with moving from academia to founding a consulting business, transitioning into tech startups, then moving from performance marketing to PMM to growth (and now back to PMM). These varied experiences have taught me a lot, and I now think of management vs IC in a similar way; I can “rotate” between these two roles as the right opportunity arises, and learn from each one as I go.
Jumping into IC roles over the course of your career builds stronger leadership skills, and this directly benefits the org you work for—especially if they’re invested in growing their people. More companies will start to reward and encourage rotating between these two paths, and more people will feel empowered to do it. I’m looking forward to that future.
P.S: No AI was used to edit or write this post. I just love the damn em dash.