Dear Junior Product Manager…
More and more, I get to talk to people who are just entering the Product Management field, and I find myself reflecting on my early days as well. I wish someone told me a few things. If you’re also new in the Product Management role, here are some things I wish someone told me at the beginning that aren’t so obvious.
Befriend the Engineering Manager
Often, people who find themselves wearing the Product Manager hat end up sticking with other PMs. At best, they might cozy up with the designer on the team. Actually, it’s essential to immediately befriend the Engineering Manager (or whatever that role is called in your team) as this is the person who can help you win the team over. Once you have a good relationship with the Engineering Manager, the other developers will become more comfortable with you and will be even more willing to help you out. You can then count on the team whenever you’re not sure how to tackle something, which will be often. Trust me; you don’t want to be in a situation where you don’t have a good relationship with the Engineering Manager.
Start writing
Your days will be chaotic, and your tasks will be wide-ranging. Structure is your friend, but it will be hard to structure your work. It’s even harder to structure your thoughts. Do it anyway. One way to achieve some clarity and structure for yourself is to start writing. You can read about the benefits of writing in Gregory Ciotti’s spot-on article, but in short, it forces you to structure what’s in your head, and it will help you see things more clearly. It’s such an understated practice for PMs. You can start by writing a recap at the end of the day or simply taking more detailed notes at workshops/meetings. There are different practices you can follow; just choose what works for you.
Make that decision
No matter how many times you might have heard this before, you’ll still be surprised by the number of choices you’ll have to make daily. It is a significant part of your role because it helps teams to make progress. Any decision is better than no decision as they say because it’s easy to lose track and wait for the perfect amount of information to make the decision, but you lost time and likely will still not get all the information you wish you had. Instead, get comfortable with making a decision based on partial data and smart estimations and learn from the outcome. It’s sometimes cheaper and faster to make the wrong decision, learn from it, and adapt than to wait and gather all data you need for the complete analysis. I can’t stress enough how vital decisiveness is for a product manager to be successful, so here’s Barry Davret advice on how to start practicing decision-making now.
But above all, if you are new to Product Management, don’t stress too much, you’ll do just fine. Enjoy!
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