What you least expected as the first Product Management Hire
Being the first PM hire is exciting. You were promised that you can “build your own team”. You took the job cause you get a more senior title. You get to work alongside the founders to co-create the vision.
But be prepared for the surprises — especially if your last role is in an established company — and it is your first time working in a startup.
1. Prove that the company needs a PM even after you are hired
Misconceptions
Since you are the first PM, there is nobody before you whom they can compare with. It must be easy to prove your value right?
Reality
Your team or stakeholders don’t know what value a PM would bring. Small companies often hire people who are early in their careers with less experience working in tech. You are very likely the first PM some stakeholders (including the CEOs) have ever worked with. Before you joined, the company was running “just fine”. They may wonder why the company needs a PM now.
Unrealistic expectations about what a PM should do. They may have heard about what an ideal PM should be like from podcasts and friends working at large corporations. But their expectations may be unrealistic for the stage the company is at. If they had experience working with PMs in their previous jobs, they will also carry the same preconceptions of what PMs should do.
What to do
Clarify their expectations of a PM role. If they are not new to collaborating with PMs, ask them to reflect on what it was like working with the PMs in their previous jobs. For example, the marketing department had a dedicated PM to bounce ideas on what experiments to run on the website. Expect them to ask you to do the same.
Ask them what they liked and disliked about those experiences. This is more powerful than asking “what do you think a good PM does”. People are better at reflecting on their past behaviors — rather than predicting what they want in the future. For example, they hate it when every release is a surprise. Make sure you schedule demos and communicate feature releases.
Discover your most valuable activities based on your strengths. Even if they have never worked with PMs, ask them what problems they are facing now? Which of them fall under the PM’s responsibilities and you are good at solving? Prioritize quick wins after interviewing each stakeholder.
Deliver what you promised in the interview. Reflect on why they hired you in the interview. They chose you because your previous experience proves that you are the person to make things better.
2. Take on “entry-level” work with a more senior title
Misconceptions
Since you are heading the department, you should focus on the strategies — rather than the nitty-gritty, such as writing stories.
Reality
Expect to do more tactical work. As the first and only PM, you will definitely be the one managing the backlog. You will also need to fill in the empty roles that the product team doesn’t have — but are necessary to ship the next release. You will be the user researcher, designer, and QA all in one day.
What to do
See this as an opportunity to brush up on the basics. Don’t think of taking on junior PM tasks is a downgrade — but as a stepping stone to be a better manager. When you onboard a new PM, you can help them avoid the mistakes you made and warn them of features that are built on top of risky technologies. This shows that you are not just a talker and earn the new hire’s respect.
Be strategic about building process. Since nobody was heading the department, there will be broken processes that can be streamlined. This is where your seniority becomes valuable. Pick the frameworks you’ve learned in your career that are best suited for the company culture. For example, most companies adopt scrum that works off a two-week sprint. Given the fast-paced nature of a startup, you may choose to go with Kanban to give your team flexibility to work on the important task on a given day.
3. Split up product role with founders
Misconceptions
Being the first PM means you will have more say on the product strategy.
Reality
Share product decision-making with the founders. Before you join, the founders may likely be the Product Manager. All product decisions have to go through the founders to ensure the product is built the way they envisioned. They may even be the ones writing the stories and prioritizing the backlog.
They won’t unlearn their old habits to get out of the weeds right away. It will take them time to trust you enough to give you complete control. Before then, you will feel like being micromanaged. I’ve shared more tactics on first PM hire can work effectively with founders in this article.
What to do
Predict when founders tend to tighten the grip. Is there a pattern when they tend to micromanage — so you get ahead of them? Typically, when they feel they are in the dark, they want more control. Find the balance between communicating proactively and bogging them down with every single update. For example, the founders start digging into the backlog when nothing new is released because all the effort was spent on bug fixing. I’ve learned to squeeze in small enhancements every sprint.
Identify your skills that will complement the founders. Most founders are visionary and don’t have the time to think through the details. I know my ability to break down complex scenarios and manage dependencies would help execute their visions faster. Showing that I can deliver earns trust quickly.
View the founders as subject matter experts. The founders have a wealth of knowledge on who their competitors are with a deep understanding of the market and users’ needs. Pick their brains to speed up your ramp-up time. To stay ahead of the industry, ask them what are their go-to resources.
Getting them to talk about their passions and opinions is also a great way to build rapport with the founders. It shows that you care about what they think as well.
4. Be the only PM for longer than you think
Misconceptions
In the interview, you are told that you will get to build out the PM team as the first PM hire. You took the job cause you want to coach other PMs.
Reality
Managing large team(s) of engineers on your own. If the company is at an early stage, the money will be poured into hiring more engineers to ship faster and accelerate finding product-market fit.
Once the companies in the growth stage, bringing in more leads and deals has a more direct impact to the bottom line. So the budget will be allocated to sales and marketing. It is hard to justify hiring another PM when the company is not profitable.
What to do instead
Spot talents from other departments that have the potential to become a Product Manager. This saves you time from getting them ramped up on product knowledge and user personas.
For example, one of the customer support leads I work with possesses key transferable skills. He writes very detailed issues that make it easy for developers to troubleshoot. He is able to back up his feature requests with strong user feedback given his daily interactions with customers. Most importantly, he has user empathy that is the hardest to teach.
He has been indirectly job shadowing me through our frequent interactions — which peaks his interest in becoming a Product Manager. I was able to negotiate with his manager to split his role, as she wants to be a good manager that supports her team’s career growth. This lets him “try out” the role and for me to further test whether he is trainable.
Related articles
Download my book How to work with Engineers
