Product Management Principles
Mental habits and qualities of effective PMs
I’ve been a Product Manager (PM) for many years now and have seen the highs and lows of product management.
Over my career, I’ve developed a set of principles that have helped me think about how to be an effective PM. These principles are a level deeper than functional product skills—they are more about the qualities of mind that I value personally for product management and have found in some of the best PMs I’ve worked with. These aren’t the only way of doing product management, but they are my preferred way.
I wanted to share them here as the introductory post for this blog, since these principles will show up often in my writing. Hopefully they help clarify something for you as well, whether you are a PM, engineer, designer, investor, or just a general tech aficionado. Enjoy!
PM Principles:
1. Truth-seeking
Description: Great PMs think from first principles. They prioritize data, evidence, user feedback, and open inquiry over preconceptions or received wisdom.
Near enemies:
Overanalysis, where seeking the truth becomes a paralyzing force where the search for perfect information prevents timely decision-making.
Far enemies:
Confirmation bias, where decisions are made by selectively choosing data that supports pre-existing beliefs.
Decisions based solely on authority or opinion, which undermine an evidence-based approach.
2. Impact-orientation
Description: Great PMs are committed to driving meaningful outcomes for the business and its customers.
Near enemies:
Incrementality, where the team focuses too much on small but impactful improvements and loses sight of bolder initiatives that could drive significant impact.
Business-oriented decisions that are divorced from user needs.
Far enemies:
Optics-focus, where decisions are made based on how they will be perceived rather than their actual impact.
3. Customer-focus
Description: Great PMs prioritize the needs and feedback of customers in product development to create solutions that truly solve their problems.
Near enemies:
Not considering business context, which leads to prioritizing customer needs that are not aligned with the company's strategic objectives.
Trying to find a problem for a solution, which can appear as if it is customer-focused without solving actual customer needs.
Far enemies:
Focusing on other aspects of a business at the expense of understanding and addressing customer needs. This includes: tech-focused, sales-focused, process-focused, or competitor-focused.
4. High Velocity
Description: Great PMs move fast. They act decisively and deliver quickly in ways that maximize impact.
Near enemies:
Moving fast in the wrong direction, which can lead to wasted effort and resources on non-impactful initiatives.
Far enemies:
Sluggishness, characterized by slow decision-making and execution that hinders the ability to innovate and respond to market demands.
5. Low Ego
Description: Great PMs foster a culture where feedback is welcomed, personal growth is encouraged, and achievements are celebrated without arrogance.
Near enemies:
Not being able to celebrate success, which can undermine team morale and fail to acknowledge the hard work and success of the team.
Far enemies:
High ego, which manifests as an overemphasis on personal achievements, reluctance to accept feedback, and placing individual recognition above team success.
6. Clear Communication
Description: Great PMs articulate thoughts and plans in a straightforward, honest manner, ensuring understanding and alignment across the team.
Near enemies:
Focusing too much on advocating for your position clearly and not enough on listening, which gets in the way of truth seeking.
Far enemies:
Confused or unstructured communication, which results from unclear thinking and fails to convey necessary information effectively.
7. Team Player
Description: Great PMs build high trust within the team, are proactive in supporting others, and work collaboratively towards common goals.
Near enemies:
Decision by committee, where team members overly try to strive towards alignment, leading to inefficiencies and sluggishness.
Far enemies:
Self-centeredness, where people are more interested in advancing their own career, growing their own scope, or other self-serving behavior at the expense of what’s best for the team.
8. Self Care
Description: Great PMs strike a balance between work and personal life to maintain long-term productivity and well-being.
Near enemies:
Under-commitment, where individuals do not fully engage with their work, potentially compromising team goals and personal growth.
Far enemies:
Burnout, resulting from sustained overwork without adequate rest, leading to decreased productivity and health issues.
9) Innovation
Description: Great PMs encourage creativity, experimentation, and the pursuit of groundbreaking ideas to solve problems and create value.
Near enemies:
Overly focused on big bets and innovation, which can result in not paying attention to the core product or incremental work.
Far enemies:
Risk-aversion, where there's a reluctance to deviate from established methods or explore new ideas, leading to a culture that resists change and misses out on opportunities for improvement and growth.
10) Continuous Learning
Description: Great PMs embrace a mindset of lifelong learning, actively seeking opportunities to acquire new knowledge, skills, and insights.
Near enemies:
Perpetual preparation, where individuals becomes so focused on learning and gathering information that it prevents them from taking action or applying what they have learned.
Far enemies:
Stagnation, a state of complacency where individuals stops seeking new knowledge or skills, ultimately resulting in less impact and innovation.
11) Resourcefulness
Description: Great PMs find creative solutions to problems, adapt to challenges, and make the most of limited resources.
Near enemies:
Short-term fixes, which may solve an immediate problem but fail to address underlying issues, potentially creating more significant challenges in the long run.
Far enemies:
Reliance on abundance, where individuals always point to resource limitations as the reason why progress is not being made.
12) High Agency
Description: Great PMs believe they have the ability to effect change in their role. They believe they can shape their circumstances rather than passively accept them.
Near enemies:
Overconfidence, where one may underestimate challenges or overestimate their ability to influence outcomes, leading to poor decision-making, unrealistic expectations, and potential failures.
Far enemies:
Passivity, a state of inaction or the belief that one's efforts cannot significantly impact outcomes, resulting in missed opportunities and potential for personal and professional growth.
I hope you enjoyed the post! I’ll continue sharing thoughts on product management, exceptional products, and technology on this Substack—feel free to subscribe if you’d like to stay in the loop.
Love the learning! how would you suggest tackling situation where the team focuses too much on small but impactful improvements and loses sight of bolder initiatives that could drive significant impact 🤔?