What do product managers do?
TL;DR Product Managers LEAD by {Learning, negotiating and communicating}.
Product managers learn. They learn their product area, they learn the customers and the market, they learn the people around them. They learn their product, otherwise they cannot represent the user as well as they need to, in order to optimize the user experience and achieve product fit. They learn (subjectively and through data) what is the behavior of their end users. They learn through controlled experiments. Through trial and error. They also take a peak at what’s under the hood and especially who owns those pieces. They need to learn and adjust how product management is done and optimized to the situation you’re in. It’s not static, there are innovations (agile, agile metrics, feature teams just to name a few) that are important. Acquiring this knowledge is core to success. They need to know the competition, and what every announcement means. Because this will inform your product direction. Further, and maybe more important, if you don’t know/understand what your competition is doing, your sales/presales will start establishing their own perspective.
Curiosity is critical and infectious. If you are demonstrating curiosity, so will your team (both PMs and your squad). They will be much more customer focused and will want to engage customers. This will be in your benefit, so take advantage of it.
And obviously, never stop learning. If you stopped, it’s time to move on or take a break.
Product managers negotiate, everything, all the time. You will find yourself continuously thinking how to find the middle ground between your team ability to deliver and the current-screaming customer requirement. Between the strategic direction you believe your product area should grow into and assisting sales be able to achieve deals with what they want tactically. Between a different set of meetings on your calendar, between too many things you need to personally deliver and last (but not least) your own personal priorities (work-life balance): what are you going to NOT DO?
Negotiation is one of the key, continuous elements of this role. It MUST be thoughtful and empathetic. It doesn’t matter who or what is on the other side, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a quarterly review or negotiating a feature, you need to keep your cool, show that you care, and negotiate thoughtfully. Remember that nothing is black or white, somewhere in the middle is always better (even though inside you are screaming “we are NOT doing THAT”). Sometimes all that is being asked is to come to a customer meeting and share with them why you believe their ask is not in their or your benefit. There is good literature about negotiation, one that I personally like is “Never split the difference” by Chris Voss.
Product managers communicate (their questions, decisions, successes, failures,….) continuously, with great emphasis. Why? because product managers are central to the entire organizations. Whether you are in data collection mode, or communicating a decision, roadmap, update, EVERYONE is impacted. From sales, presales, marketing, finance, support, R&D, design, techdoc etc etc. Reason #2: Most of them aren’t listening when you’re communicating. Why? because their focus is in their product area.
How you communicate is an art in itself. I recommend for everyone to think about communication like telling a story to the uninformed. They will probably not get the details, but if you gave them the headline, they will remember you talked about something and go back to read/see the recording when the topic comes up for them. Under the story are all the details. These are important, as this is the core of what you’re trying to communicate. Make sure you cover those time and again so it becomes a known reality. Make sure to record the sessions so that people can come back and consume later. Be as clear as you can and do not make assumptions that people know things or people would take the time to research further pieces you decided to omit. They are busy, too, they won’t.
How you communicate is important. I mentioned earlier in negotiation, communication needs to be thoughtful and empathetic. You need to listen, lead, convey and demonstrate that you care and are open. Even during feedback sessions when people are saying things you disagree. How you represent yourself is key to your success and everything around you. Calendar blocks, offensive comments, no shows, it all tells something about you. Not saying don’t have a work-life balance, but allow people to reach you is the point. I can’t emphasize enough how important this is.
Collecting input, feedback, and providing update is placing you at the center of your product area. It provides you an opportunity to grow, as well as centers you as the “Go To” PM for this and other topics. Use this opportunity, for yourself, for your team, for your organization and for your users.
Most importantly, product managers lead. Many are confused between management vs. leadership. Here’s one quote I like:
Leading people vs Managing work. Management consists of controlling a group or a set of entities to accomplish a goal. Leadership refers to an individual’s ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward organizational success. Influence and inspiration separate leaders from managers, not power and control. (Source)
When you take your first time product management job, look around you. Everyone is looking to see what direction you’re going to take them. You ARE the leader of this team, product area. Sure, there will be people around you who (soft or strong) know what needs to happen. If you do not take the leadership for that team, someone else will take it, there is no vacuum.
How to take leadership? By doing the things mentioned above. Learn, all the time. Negotiate in an informed and consistent manner. Communicate thoughtfully and empathetically. Clarify that this leadership is your role and at the end of the day, you are taking some decisions. But that does not mean someone’s opinion is not important or that you are in some way superior to them. That a feature is more important than handling tech debt because it’s your idea and not someone else’s.
When you meet a customer, listen to them. Facilitate the conversation. But interleave your informed opinion in a confident manner that demonstrates command of your area and your conviction. Same thing when you meet anyone else.
What about management? I believe product managers who demonstrate good leadership (and want to), find themselves in a management position. If you are successful with your product and on your own, growth will happen and there will be opportunities for you.
So when you ask yourself about your career path and management, start by looking at your leadership style. Are you knowledgeable? are you curious? are you collaborative? do you have a vision and direction? do you have an informed point of view? are you the person to inspire your team and people around you? are people wanting to collaborate with you? It’s in your hands.
Thanks for reading, comments welcome ;)
