Managing a Lack of Credibility
The core problem most PMs confront is “How do you get people to do what you want without formal control?”
Gayle “Laakmann” McDowell puts out a good starting model in Cracking the PM Interview (a must read imho). The methods of persuasion range from data and logic exemplified by a spreadsheet on one end, and charisma on the other. There’s a point somewhere in the middle she defines as credibility, “the currency of a PM.” Credibility in this context is belief you can do the job at hand. While to some degree credibility can be borrowed from previous experiences or credentials, in this model it’s largely from expressed personal conviction. PMs advocate for the company to place bets. They can put more “currency” into a bet by expressing higher levels of personal conviction. (Should go without saying this conviction should be backed up by something other than whimsy.) If the PM bet pays off in the form of company/team success, the PM gets some return on the bet.
This model has a few useful implications. At the basic level, when arguing for a product change, building and blending together Data, Charisma, and personal conviction is a useful way to do it. It pushes the PM to think about how they can enhance each area — what would improve the way the message is received? What data would change your personal levels of conviction?
The true value of this model though is as a way for PMs to evaluate what they want to push for and how forcefully. Thinking in bets (which would a good name for a book), is a good way to evaluate risk/return on political side of things. Is it worth betting big on something most people don’t believe in? That will increase your risk, but also your return. Do you even have enough “currency” to push for the risky thing you believe in, or do you need to borrow some from specific people by convincing them first?
This model is good for getting your stories/epics on a sprint/roadmap. It works less well on other elements of Product work.
PMs have to do more than get ideas on a roadmap to succeed. PMs are responsible for making their products into successes. whatever that takes. Linda Zhang said it best, “There’s an under-appreciated chasm between a brilliant idea and a real product. Making things is the real trick.”
Making things requires a thousand tiny things to happen. If you are the PM, you are responsible for making sure they happen, even if you can’t do all of them. Getting people to do those things requires more than charisma. Colloquially, charisma is how much people value your presence. This mix of charm and confidence encourages people to do what you want.
Junior PMs may or may not have this. One piece of good news is a better definition of charisma is context-dependent and can be increased over time, but that’s for another post. The better, more relevant news is that wowing people with confidence and vision is not required. You’ll want to get there eventually, as it’s extremely helpful, but you can squeeze a surprising amount of mileage from cheerful persistence.
Sometimes, people do things because you ask a the right moment. Or because you’ve asked them three times, it’s clear you will keep doing it, and it’s easier to just do the darn thing than say no again to you tomorrow. Or because you are standing/sitting by their desk as long as it takes for them to do the thing or promise you a date it’ll be done by. Don’t be a jerk. You can’t demand they do it, because you don’t have that power. But if it matters, keep asking. As long as it takes.
