Let's begin and dive right into growth and habits — Product Management (just_basics)
Hey, My name is Jaskaran. Folks know me as JB (i joke around with the abbreviations, hence just_basics). I love reading/ sharing/ talking about all things product management & growth. If you’re here — I’m assuming you’re either looking to learn about growth (career, habit building, or even Growth Product Management) or just browsing over PM content. You can read about my profile in detail on LI.
For this post, you can expect to learn about 3 habits that help PMs succeed:
a) Thinking, sleeping, breathing value creation.
b) Outcomes over everything!
c) Listen. Write. Inform. Share — Communication is my best friend!
Concepts of Habit Building (in the context of PMing)
Habits — a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.
As humans, we build many habits. Some good. Some bad. Some we are proud of. Some not so much. There is a lot on habits, the science behind habit building, what goes on in our brains when we stick to habits, and why building good habits are tough and bad habits easy to give into. If you’re really curious about the broader perspective of habit building — I strongly encourage you to read/hear Atomic Habits by James Clear and/or the Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.
Introduction:
As PMs (aspiring and/or experienced) — We all think about habit formation in many contexts. Enhancing individual/ team productivity, building habit-loops into our products, the role of habits in purchase/ usage behavior (triggers, motivations, intent, jobs to be done), etc. There is a lot to uncover, but for now — I’m going to focus on you — the PM (and the habits you can develop and why are they even relevant?). So here goes nothing:
a) Thinking, sleeping, breathing value creation.
PM folks are jack of all, master of none. But really they are high agency when they think about “value creation”. Again, contextually value creation could be relentlessly prioritizing value on roadmaps, communicating cross-functionally, applying value frameworks (example: value creation plain), and many other areas. One of the strongest habits PMs can build is understanding value creation and delivering on value consistently.
b) Outcomes over everything!
PMs are not feature (output) vending machine! They are outcome-generating engines. In plain speak, as a PM, I’m responsible for building great products and service offerings {output} that improve customer experiences. vs As a PM, I deliver exceptional customer experience {outcome} by eliminating friction points and roadblocks (irrespective of how I achieve this result). Another great habit is being able to understand, relate and advocate for outcomes vs outputs which results in better decision making (and some awesome problem solving)
c) Listen. Write. Inform. Share — Communication is my best friend!
PMs are the cheerleaders, motivators, negotiators, influencers, and all things in between. One of the things they do a lot (and I mean spend 40–50% of their time on is communication). PM success lies not only in knowing the problem but in being able to articulate it, communicate it and leverage it to their advantage. If you think about it, information is shared, perceived, and digested in many ways across the organization and stakeholders. The one thing that helps PMs is being able to find what information sticks (why, and how) and excite people about it. So third great habit is sharing information (relevancy & accuracy matters) to folks before they ask for it (think habit 1: value creation)
The above are solid foundations for great PMing and have successfully & consistently helped PMs be exceptional product leaders. These habits don’t form in a day. They are intentionally designed in your daily actions and require intent. So — taking the first step in reading about them, makes you 100% better than your 1-day previous self. Keep reading, keep learning and keep applying yourself! Until next time.
What to expect in my next post: I’ll share my thoughts on
b) Resources that help guide you towards better PMing
When? Where? How?
c) Growth Mindset (frameworks & daily applications)
Concept. Life principles. Inspiration.
If any of the above gives you something to think about (or questions) and you want to chat more about it — feel free to reach out on my LI. See you around. And thank you for reading. :)