Season 2 - Newsletter 04 --> Micro-edition | What Makes a Good Product Manager
Friends,
Last week ProductHustleStack (the website) celebrated its first anniversary. We’ll have a special edition just to walk through some milestones and the content that folks loved the most.
This edition is what I am calling a micro edition, dealing with one specific question to make it easier for folks to consume, process the content, and get on with their day. A special thank you to our reader Vineet A. for the suggestion.
As always we appreciate you sharing this newsletter if you think it could help a peer of yours improve their product skillset.
So on to the content and the answer to how we make an impact in an organization that seemingly only cares about optics. Newsletter 04 let’s go 👇
Q: I work at a non-high-performance organization. I feel the work is optimized for optics and not impact. How do I change that?
And so was the question John Cutler’s tweet inspired. If you are not familiar with John, he is a product evangelist for Amplitude. He consistently puts out great content on demystifying product roadmaps and his tweets are a great way to escape the build trap.
Now back to the question, and it’s a complex one that my peers, my coaches, and I have spent a lot of time dissecting. Let’s first dissect the various layers of this question and then address each one.
The topmost layer is the assumption that there isn’t any space in an optics organization to do impactful work for our customers.
The next layer is that by definition, we must operate within the organization’s mandate or culture to do what is right.
The last layer is that the organization must be aware of the optics vs some other approach.
On #1, in a non-high-performing organization, there is actually quite a bit of gray area to operate in. The larger the organization the more gray area exist. The key here is to create a sub-culture (your team) of like-minded individuals that want to make an impact. And not everyone on the team needs to be outcome-driven, but you need to limit the number of detractors.
On #2, again especially in an optics org, often how you deliver is much less important than something is delivered. In either case, “Act first, Ask for forgiveness later” can be leveraged to your advantage.
On #3, and perhaps the most important point is that the job of a good product manager is to find a way to make an impact with the customer and translate that into a language that makes sense for the organization and the senior stakeholders. As John Cutler put it “align the perception of impact, with actual impact”
Agree or disagree violently? reply or leave a comment and let us know
One last thing!
Before you go, please help us by completing the Three Actions:
1) Share this edition with others! It will help spread the word and get more upvotes. We like both of those things
2) “Star” this edition! Click the heart icon near the top or bottom of this edition 👇☝️.
3) Reply! It only takes a few seconds, but the feedback is invaluable