Perfection and Imperfection in Product Management
As product managers, we tend to be frustrated when we don't feel like we're doing product management the 'right way'. Here are some thoughts on how to thrive in an imperfect world.
Introduction
Product management is a complex and often stressful job. There are many frameworks and best practices that are taught to product managers, and it can be frustrating to not always be able to follow them to the letter. This is especially true in non-product-led organizations, where the role of the product manager can be unclear and the opportunities for making a meaningful change can be limited. In this post, I will explore the definition of imperfect situations faced by product managers and why it can be difficult to work in a non-product-led organization.
Being a Product Manager
The 'right way' to do product management is often seen as a lengthy research, development, and testing process that leads to a perfect and flawless user experience. While this may be the ideal, the reality is often quite different. Product managers are hired to manage products, which includes managing the imperfect and out-of-control situations that can arise when trying to do so.
Imperfect Situations
Here I’ll outline the most common imperfect situations I’ve faced in my career. I’ve tried to outline them in the most unbiased way possible, as I’m aware they might be influenced by the companies I’ve worked at and the roles I previously held.
Company Internal Politics: These are an inevitable part of any organization. Even in organizations with a great culture and excellent people, there will still be conflicts over direction, focus, ideas, and resources. In addition, non-product-led organizations tend to have their own unique issues, which I’ll cover in the next bullet point.
Product Culture: These organizations can be divided into three main archetypes: Business-led, Sales/Marketing-led, and Technology-led. Note that as with everything, these cultural archetypes are a spectrum and what I’m trying to describe are the extremes where it’s not comfortable for a PM to work on.
In a Business-led organization, the product manager is seen as a 'translator' between the business and the engineering team. The Business team gathers insights and proposes detailed solutions that the product manager then needs to implement. A Product Manager working in this environment can feel disempowered and their opinions are constantly overridden as they are expected to just write user stories.
In a Sales/Marketing-led organization, the product manager is seen as a filter for customer feature requests or a factory that needs to generate ideas for sellable features. What usually goes wrong in this type of environment is that product plans and strategies are constantly changed when important customers ask for a feature which causes a lack of consistency and coherence between the company strategy, product strategy, and business outcomes.
In a Technology-led organization, the product manager is again seen as a translator between the business and the engineering team, but there is greater pressure from the engineering team to understand the strategy and how their work is having an impact. This scenario is not necessarily bad as working with an engineering team heavily connected with the product is one of the best things that can happen to a product manager, but this sure creates additional pressure that can be hard to manage.
I must say, these archetypes are not always negative and there are many successful companies that operate in those ways, as mentioned earlier I’m trying to outline in a simplified and short way how working in those environments creates friction for Product Managers.
Engineering Bandwidth: Engineering teams may not always have the capacity to be split into many teams to match the number of product leaders. This can lead to a bottleneck in the development process, as product managers may have to wait for resources to become available before they can start work. In addition, non-product-led organizations may have limited resources available for product management, which can mean that product managers have to spend more time on operational tasks or compete with each other to get valuable engineering time.
Willingness to Innovate: This is a concept I’ve thought about when writing this article and I’d define it as the set of signals and attributes that describe how easy (or hard) it is to push innovation within a company. To clarify this, here are some ideas:
Investment in R&D: as a percentage of payroll costs or headcount.
Experimentation culture: Is the company trying new ideas with MVPs? Do they have a structured experimentation process? Are they actually producing learnings from experiments or just ‘spray and pray’?
C-level commitment: This means the level of engagement and interest they have in innovation initiatives versus keeping the status quo.
Managing Imperfect Situations
Before jumping in recommendations you can do a quick exercise to gain perspective about your current situation.
Identify your non-negotiables: This is valid for job seekers and people already working at a company. Try to identify the imperfect situations in your company and pick which ones are the most unbearable or hard to manage.
Reach out to other product managers: both to strengthen your network and to understand how these imperfect situations are present in their companies, as ‘the grass is always greener’ outside and it could be a good way to gain perspective on the topic.
Assess if the imperfect situations are toxic or really unbearable: Make a decision to take calculated risks as the tech hiring market is slow and facing a crisis.
After this exercise, here are the top things that I’ve done throughout my career to manage imperfect situations:
Adopt a high-agency mindset. One thing I learned is that there’s more in your control than what you really think, as Product Managers our day-to-day job is to solve problems and find solutions so an imperfect product culture shouldn’t be treated differently. Here’s a thread from Shreyas Doshi about high agency for product managers in case you want to dive a bit more into the concept.
Learn how to manage your peers and managers: A great resource Managing Up by Mary Abbajay really useful to understand your boss's work personality archetype (and your own) and how to actually manage that relationship.
Be empathetic: Remember that even at the top of the product organization, change can be slow, unless the CEO is supportive. So, try to speak up and push for change but also empathize with your manager/leader, as it can be difficult to navigate for them, too. Realizing this is liberating, and puts a lot of pressure off your shoulders when managing change.
Doing Product the right way <> Personal Worth: As Product Managers, we find pride in our craft, and working in a non-mature product culture can hinder our motivation and also make us even question our proficiency or personal worth. Here my recommendation is to learn to enjoy the process of navigating difficult situations and view the ideal way of doing product as a toolkit that you can use depending on the situation and constraints instead of chasing a unicorn that might not even exist.
Conclusion
Product management is a complex and often difficult job, and the pressure of managing imperfect situations can be hard to bear. However, by adopting a high-agency mindset, learning to manage our peers and managers, being empathetic, and understanding that the ideal way of doing product is not always possible, product managers can find ways to navigate difficult situations and continue to strive for product excellence.
If you are interested in having me as a product mentor or coach, hit me up for a free consultation call. Let's talk about how we can team up and tackle your challenges together!