What do you think Product Managers do?
"Product Management is all about soft skills," he told me with a big smile on his face "but those soft skills become hard in this role." he continued.
I still vividly remember the first conversation I had with an experienced Product Manager (PM) - a very charismatic man with a great sense of humor who had just been hired as a VP of Product.
During our introduction, I mentioned him that I had been eagerly anticipating the opportunity to speak with him for over a month and that I had been closely following his every move.
Yes, you read that right. I was shadowing him.
Every time I finished my work, I spent extra hours each day observing what the PM did that day. This was possible because of the remote environment where I was working in, with lot of transparency and a strong culture of writing.
I wanted to absorb everything in order to connect the missing dots and finally become a PM, a journey that took me over 3y to formally enter into the role.
I was excited for this chat, with many questions about the role, and eager to learn more about his past experience.
Me: "It's the first time I've seen a PM in action, but honestly, it's slightly different than what I expected."
Him: "What do you think Product Managers do?"
I rambled and put together common quotes from PM leaders that came to mind.
He paused for a few seconds, looked down, and took time to articulate his next sentence. This was a behavior that I adopted from him.
Then he gave me an answer that I will never forget.
"Product Management is all about soft skills," he told me with a big smile on his face "but those soft skills become hard in this role." he continued.
He couldn't have been more right.
I had been observing him for over a month, and with his lots of questions - both “good” and “bad” ones - he was everywhere, but he never felt ashamed of that.
Despite his ubiquitous, it was always really pleasant to have him there, even when there was disagreement and tension. Of course, he had opinions, but I never felt there was an ego conflict.
He provided a lot of genuine and thoughtful feedback, came up with simple product doc proposals, over-communicated the reason WHY some works were important for WHO and WHAT was expected of people to do, and by WHEN.
He was really interested in hearing other people's thoughts and gave them space for disagreement, because he wasn't looking for universal consensus or being right.
The most impressive thing to me was his ability to align people together, even when it seemed really hard.
On more than one occasion, I remember thinking, "I'm certainly ready to do the same!”, and “Everything he does seems so obvious and easy!"
In particular, for this last sentence, I couldn't have been more wrong!
Him: "There isn't really a consensus on what PMs do. It is such an amorphous discipline shaped by the context and needs of the organization. But here's what I think PMs do.
PMs set up the vision for the product and sequence it in smaller incremental steps. They constantly zoom in and out, which is a phrase to say that they work on the details without losing track of the big picture and how changes reflect in the whole system.
PMs are truth-seekers. They have an irrepressible need to learn the truth, so they question a lot of the WHY behind things.
I also believe that Product Managers should be ready to do more product than management, meaning that they should be willing to jump in and do tasks outside of their usual job description if it doesn’t align with their core skills.”
This last concept, also referred to as wearing multiple hats and/or getting things done, is something I was familiar with, having spent many years in early-stage startups where every team member contributed to product growth by working on tasks outside of their core function/skillset.
For example, software developers running customer interviews, tech leads managing the blog, and designers trying to upsell to enterprise customers.
"Lastly, being a PM is a job that often goes unrecognized for its hard work. If the team succeeds, you succeed, but if the team fails, it's on you," he concluded.
That last sentence deeply influenced my leadership style, as I took full responsibility for every failure of my team and celebrated our victories together.
Although working in an early-stage startup means failing 90%+ of the time, so we use to celebrate learnings as leading indicators of success.
When our conversation come to end, he surprised me again, by asking for sincere feedback.
"Did I do well?" he asked me with a warm smile and a chuckle.
"Absolutely, you didn't disappoint me," I replied with a grin.
That conversation left a profound impact on my product management philosophy and the way I approach the role today.
So, what do you think product managers do?