What I Have Learned in my First Year as a Product Manager
By: Chris Ferrante
Tags: Careers, Product Development, Product Manager, Young Professionals, Product Management

Although the product management community is, unique in a number of ways, what stands out most to me is the culture of support within it, the willingness to share experiences and advice, and the collective push for constant improvement. I guess that’s why there are so many PM blog articles…

Seeing so many of my peers give back to the community in one way or another has really challenged me to ask myself “How can I give back? What advice can I give?”.

As a young professional who has only worked in a product role for a year or so, I didn’t feel that I could bring anything to the table. There are so many amazing resources on the internet, how could I possibly provide something of value?

That must have been the imposter syndrome kicking in. I’ve actually learned SO much over this past year and it’s all so fresh in my head! That’s why I’ve decided to share my most important learnings and observations from my first year as a PM in this blog.

No amount of prep could prepare me for a product role

While graduating from business school, working in a marketing role, taking some PM related courses, reading tons of material and binging product podcasts did prepare me at a high level for what to expect as a product manager, nothing compared to what I learned about the profession and myself while actually working within the pressure of the role.

Taking on my first PM role reminded me a lot about that famous Mike Tyson quote “Everyone has a plan ‘till they get punched in the mouth”.

The principles of agile product development that make so much sense written out in a course booklet are all of a sudden so much more complex when put into practice. The tradeoffs you knew you were going to face when prioritizing your backlog are suddenly so much more impactful than you thought. Putting the customer front and center becomes more and more difficult as you hear from more and more stakeholders. Despite all of your best attempts, you simply don’t have enough time in the day to do everything you want to do.

What I am getting at with all of this, is that you (and I) shouldn’t expect things to go according to your original plan for the team and product. Over the course of this year, I’ve learned to fail fast, be willing to pivot (not only with the product, but with the approach), stay objective when making decisions, and focus on outcomes. Also, surround yourself with smart people. Especially as a junior member of the team, I am extremely thankful to have been able to work with smart people and learn from them all along my PM journey.

The last thing I’ll say on this, is that I’ve really gained a new appreciation for the importance of developing your soft skills. When every day is new and uncertain, or when things aren’t going to plan, I’ve learned that ones ability to think critically, communicate, show leadership, and collaborate will always bail you out.

2. Decision making is hard

Product decisions should be a result of a lot of hard work. A solid understanding of the customer, the market, time and resource constraints, legal obligations, and the expectations of management are all fundamental in making good product management decisions. You need to be an expert in the space your product lives.

Just because decision making is hard work, does not mean that it needs to be time consuming. It is important as a product manager to learn to weigh what is important enough to require considerable time, and what decisions can be made quick without all the information required.

The beauty of working agile is that making a wrong decision about a particular feature doesn’t mean a catastrophe. If you have a quick feedback loop, and you build incrementally, you can watch the results of your decisions and quickly pivot if needed.

Jeff Bezos categorizes decisions in two buckets, either a decision where you can’t go back and have to live with any consequences (type 1) or a reversible choice (Type 2). Here’s an interesting article on this. Looking at decisions this way help you as a PM categorize which decisions require more of your time and effort.

I’m not going to pretend I’m an expert in decision making, but here are a few resources and blog posts I found interesting that I have learned a lot from this year.

· Decisive by Dan Health + Chip Heath

· Outsmart Your Own Biases — Harvard Business Review

· How I Approach the Toughest Decisions — Barack Obama

· Making Good Decisions as a Product Manager — Brandon Chu

Through my research so far, I’ve learned that it is important to make sure you’re set up with all the data you need to make decisions, even before a decision is ever required. Make sure your analytics are up to snuff, interview and record customer interviews regularly, keep important market information in a safe place, and keep a close eye on your competition. With a full toolbox, it becomes convenient to consult your resources and you’re more likely to use them in your decision making.

3. Your team is your competitive advantage

No matter how good you may be as a product manager, if your team is not clicking, you aren’t going anywhere.

Product teams have a horizontal organization structure. As a product manager, you have no real authority over a developer, QA analyst or designer. Despite this, you need everyone to buy into your strategic vision, and work together in a cohesive way to deliver awesome work for your customer.

I’ve noticed that good product managers give really clear direction and empower the team to make their own decisions around the path laid out. In order to help empower your team, you need to have a fundamental understanding for each discipline’s motivations and way of thinking. As I learned, this helps ease the path of communication, and leads to more productive product conversations.

Designers will naturally believe their new proposed UI changes are going to make the biggest effect on the customer, and QA will insist that every single bug is dealt with. Ultimately it is up to the product manager to prioritize this stuff, but the best way to approach this is with the help of your team. When your designer understands the common goal and feels empowered, they’ll help you see the design implications as it relates to new features, bugs and defects. When your QA developer is on the same page, they’ll learn to rank bug and defect severity relative to the outcomes we are building for the customer.

At the end of the day, the success of the whole team should be measured off of the success of the product, instead of individual agendas. That way, everyone can win.

Final Thoughts

Nobody makes product management out to be easy or straightforward, but I think that it is exactly that challenge which attracts a lot of the right people to the position.

If you’re looking for a career where you can grow as a people person, solve real problems, and work with incredibly smart interdisciplinary teams, product management is a profession to be considered.

I’m excited to see how these learnings hold up in year two of my career!

Thanks for taking the time to listen to my thoughts and observations. Please don’t be shy to leave comments, I would love to know what you think. You can also connect with me on Linkedin.