A (Product) Human Being, pt. 1
Like many people in Product Management, I didn’t initially set out to do exactly this. But here’s the short version of how I got here:
When I was a kid I did a project about what I wanted to be when I grew up and like every other normal 10 year old, I said I wanted to be the CEO of a software company. Another thing I did as a kid was literally talk to walls (as several of my family members will happily recall for you), so naturally, I started selling software when I needed a “real” job after college. After a few years of doing that, I realized I wanted to be more involved in the process of building the products that people interacted with instead of convincing them our stuff was better. Thanks to the guidance of some great mentors and an opening for a role with a research team at my company, I was able to sort of get my first taste of being on a Product team (We were in the team picture, anyway).
My wife and I decided to move and I needed a job in our new home (Atlanta). I wanted to work at a startup, so I took another sales job because working at an early-stage company was more important to me than a title. By this point, though, I had settled on the fact I wanted to do Product Management so I signed up for a 10-week course through General Assembly last fall. About a month after the course wrapped up, I started as an Associate Product Manager at another company in Atlanta.
In the 70 days since that first day, I’ve already learned a lot more than in all the reading and YouTube video watching and course taking I’ve done about what actually being in Product means. I wanted to start this blog to document the failures and successes I will inevitably have as a relatively new person to the world of Product. Here goes nothing.
Since lists seem to be popular on the internet and because people think in threes, here are the three biggest things I’ve learned so far:
1. I’m still selling things all the time
One of the things my wife got really tired of hearing after I accepted my current job was “Yeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaah I don’t have to sell things anymore.” To be fair, she was probably less annoyed about my professional triumph and more annoyed that I was doing the DJ Paul “Yeeeeeaaaaaah!!!” every time I said it, but the point remains.
This also turned out to be very far from the truth.
While I have escaped the blackhole of Salesforce and I think I’ve maybe sent 10 emails since I’ve been here, I still utilize a lot of the skills I’ve learned during my time in sales. Whether it’s selling ideas to other internal teams, selling the importance of something to our developers, or selling a customer on why this ridiculous customization they’re asking for can’t happen, I’m still selling all the time.
2. “Be curious” is even more important advice than everybody says it is
Another fun fact about my childhood is that I was an annoying little shit who asked a lot of questions. Fortunately, the American public school system didn’t drub that out of me, so now I’m an annoying older shit who asks a lot of questions.
My general willingness to ask stupid questions has let me protect my curiosity like a larva in a chrysalis with the hopes that it’ll burst out into a butterfly of insights and that this metaphor will end. It’s also helped me dig out of the It’s the way we’ve always done it trap that’s so deadly for organizations.
Most of the resources on being a good Product person talk about how important it is to question the world around you. It’s one of those things that we know we should do and we would benefit from doing more of, but we just don’t. Plus, asking questions can seem like a luxury in a world where we’re bombarded with requests and meetings and 15,000 other things. In addition, nobody likes to feel like an asshole, so it’s usually easier just to go with things than ask questions that seem dumb. It’s remarkable how many times bad practices continue to exist because nobody asked questions.
3. I’m probably wrong
For a decently argumentative person, I’ve come to enjoy the freedom of accepting that I’m probably wrong. The older I get, the fewer sacred cows I have, which ultimately means that more of my opinions and beliefs are on the table for discussion. It’s kind of scary sometimes to wade into the deep end, but vulnerability breeds vulnerability and I’ve found people are willing to share more if I don’t act like an insufferable know it all.
Plus, if you just assume you’re wrong, a) you learn more than you would if you assumed you were right all the time and b) actually being right feels more like finding $20 in your jacket pocket from last year — an incredibly pleasant surprise.
Being wrong is embarrassing (assuming you have the ability to feel shame) so I understand why it’s uncomfortable for people. But fortunately, for me…
This blog exists mostly because writing about things is the best way I learn about them (recall the ‘talking to walls’ thing) and partly because I feel like my writing muscles have atrophied. I’m hoping most of it will be passable, some of it will be good, and a lot of it will be ramblings. If you’ve made it this far, thank you. If you see things in this post or in future ones you think are dumb, tell me and honestly, I’ll probably buy you a cup of coffee so you can tell me why I’m wrong (see, Point 3).
And because apparently this is what you do on Medium now:
