Product Manager’s Survival Guide: 5 Lessons for Success

Navigating the Product Management Journey in DaVinci.

Starting a career as a product manager can be an exciting adventure filled with both challenges and successes. After three years of navigating the dynamic world of product management during the scaling of DaVinci, I’ve gathered practical lessons that I hope can guide aspiring product managers. In this article, we’ll explore five insights to help empower your product management career. So, let’s dive into the exciting realm of creating and managing exceptional products.

1. Listen to the Users and………..Don’t Listen to the users!: Creating great products begins with deeply understanding your users. Immerse yourself in their world, engage in conversations, and grasp their pain points and desires. However, don’t just take their suggested solutions at face value. Instead, dig deeper to uncover the underlying problems. It’s a common mistake to blindly follow user-proposed solutions without seeking the root issue.I’ve learned this alongside my team during my time at DaVinci. Even when users or stakeholders strongly advocate for a specific solution, especially when they’re upset, it can be challenging to resist implementing it. To truly comprehend the problem, start by introspecting to ensure you have a comprehensive grasp of it, and then ask the right questions. This involves not just one-time inquiries but thorough, in-depth probing. Your goal is to uncover the problem hidden within the user’s request and avoid complying with every request
2. The Power of Saying “No”: The ability to say “no” is a crucial skill for a product manager, and it’s often more challenging than it sounds. Sometimes, you must reject certain ideas or requests, especially if they aren’t feasible or don’t align with the product’s vision. However, saying “no” should always come with a clear explanation to foster understanding and collaboration. It’s not about shutting down ideas but about making informed decisions. Continuously question assumptions and beliefs, and be open to discarding previous work to adapt to changing circumstances. Prioritization is an art in itself, focusing on identifying core problems before devising solutions, and there’s no one-size-fits-all formula. Leverage both qualitative and quantitative data, involve your team, genuinely listen to their input, and prioritize based on the solution’s impact on addressing user problems, technical complexity, and alignment with your main objectives.
3. Foster Creativity by Trusting Your Team: Trust is the foundation of a creative and productive team. As a manager, our main responsibility is to enhance creative processes rather than imposing our own ideas. Avoiding the imposition of our vision and ideas can be challenging. A helpful perspective on this behavior comes from the book “Essentials of Management,” borrowed from Alessia, one of DaVinci’s Product Marketing experts. In this role, our primary responsibility is to identify the users’ problems that need solutions, articulate the product’s vision, and encourage everyone to share their ideas and solutions freely. By fostering an environment where all team members can express their thoughts and contribute their solutions, we enable the creation of various potential paths to choose from. Embrace the idea that a good manager should facilitate multiple possibilities, with the goal of extracting the best ideas.
4. Power in Reasoning, Not Title: In a successful product management team, the best ideas should prevail, regardless of their source. Collaboration and teamwork are key, fostering a culture that values high-quality performance and I’m really glad that in DaVinci we cultivate an atmosphere of collaboration and teamwork. The conventional approach seen in large organizations, where team managers dictate and control every aspect of their team’s work, often leads to counterproductive dynamics and unhealthy competition among team members. Instead, DaVinci champions a different approach adopting a horizontal organizational structure. In a horizontal organization, roles and responsibilities still exist, much like the structure of the human brain, where each component plays a unique role in solving complex problems. Each team member brings a unique perspective shaped by their individual perceptions and thought processes. A skilled product manager must have the ability to consider these diverse viewpoints when relevant to assemble the complete puzzle. Remember that the initial solution that comes to mind is often not the optimal one and requires iterative refinement.
5. It’s 20% What You Do, 80% How You Communicate It: Building a fantastic product is only part of the equation. Effective communication is essential for success. Take the time to analyze your product’s performance, understand user interactions, and convey its value effectively to stakeholders, team and the whole company. Balancing feature development with time for analysis and iteration ensures that your product shines. Equally important is open and transparent communication within your team.

In conclusion, becoming a successful product manager is not just about managing products; it’s about empowering and inspiring, not only managing people and fostering innovation. Embrace the journey, learn from your experiences, and remember that the art of product management is a dynamic and ever-evolving craft. Enjoy your journey in the realm of product management.