Product is Product is Product, isn’t it?
Last week I became a Product Manager at OVO Energy, the energy company (sustainable energy, so that puts me on the right side of the good/evil divide).
I’ve never joined a company as a Product Manager, yet I have product managed before. At my last company, an AI audiobook startup, I joined as an Audio Editor (someone who “edits” the audio i.e. plays with the emotion and intonation, to make it sound more human, before it’s returned to the customer). I gained respect and trust, and, crucially, the backing of a senior member of staff who believed in me and my capabilities, and, eight months in, ended up as Programme Manager, and later added product management to my ridiculously long list of responsibilities (classic start-up).
But at OVO, I swanned in with the title “Product Manager” on my email signature. It felt really good, actually, to be joining with a very defined role and my very own team of developers to boss around. Sorry, did I say that? I mean, lead, collaborate with and support 😏
When joining a new company, there is always an element of feeling a little unsure of how you’ll fit in, in so many different ways. If we ignore the vast majority of them (will I fit into the team, will I fit in with the culture, will I fit with their ways of working?), and focus on my particular product anxiety (this is my blog and I get to make it all about me, after all): will the way that I “do Product” fit in with the way I’m expected to do Product?
Like most product managers, we learn on the job, piecing together the vast reams of experience that most of us have gained, from all sorts of random jobs, as there is no one route to Product. For example, my route went something like this: management consultant > entrepreneur > sales > sponsorship > marketing > operations > programme management > product. A beautiful mish mash of disciplines, I think you’ll agree. Not only that, I was the only Product person, other than the CTO, who wasn’t technically a Product person, and so — in the words of Beyoncé — it was just “me, myself and I” and a whole load of fuck ups, naturally, that I had to learn from when I first owned and built a product.
It seems only natural to me, therefore, that I have a fairly sizable amount of doubt around whether or not any of the ways that I manage product is a) normal, b) as effective as could be and c) compatible with any other Product team or environment. Thankfully, I back my intelligence, quick learning and pragmatism sufficiently that I a) know that I probably haven’t made up something that is totally weird af, given that I tend to ground my decisions in facts and good sense; b) I am, as a person, generally quite aware of when stuff works well or when it’s just a big old time drain; and c) well, actually, I have no idea if any of the ways that I manage product are compatible with other Product teams because I’ve never been in one!
It is with this, shall we say, Product emotional baggage, that I start my new role as Product Manager at OVO. Don’t get me wrong, that’s not to say that I’m not confident. I know I’m a fast learner, can be good at fitting in (when I try and I’m not being stubborn), but I’m also not afraid to make changes and go against the grain where I think it adds value. So, even if on day one my version of Product isn’t the same as their version of Product, I feel confident that in a few weeks from now, we will have reached a happy point of compromise. I will have learnt their ways of working, I might have introduced some of my own methods that they are happy to take on, and I will have binned those of mine that don’t fit with things and don’t add value.
Of course there will also be bad habits I’ve picked up in my last role, corners I probably cut when left entirely to my own devices, or just things I don’t do because I didn’t have the opportunity to learn from other PMs (plus I didn’t read Marty Cagan until I was preparing for interviews for this role!). I will have to keep a critical eye out for these and assess where I need to drop certain behaviours and methods in order for me to build good Products with best practice.
I’m a week in. Is it normal for me to question whether my version of product management will be the same as their version of product management? Of course! I’ve only ever seen my version. But do I intend to go in with an open mind and adapt and be flexible where needed? Absolutely. I’m excited to see where there are points of beautiful symbiosis — and an opportunity for me to say: “well, what do you know?! I made that shit up in my last role, but it was exactly the right thing to do”— and where there are areas that need change.
I can’t wait to see how different my version of product management looks in just a few months from now.
