The Clever PM

Tips, tricks, and hacks that help you to be a better, more clever, Product Manager.

Yes, You Really ARE That Good!

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One of the aspects of Product Management that can be really hard for people to internalize and adjust to is just how thankless the job can be at times.  When things are going badly, the Product Manager is almost always the first person to shoulder the blame — your requirements weren’t clear, the strategy wasn’t well-articulated, the documentation wasn’t sufficient, you didn’t provide marketing or sales with the proper positioning…stop me if you’ve heard these before.  And, when things are going really well, your role winds up falling into the background — nobody notices the facilitating and maneuvering, planning and plotting that backlog, nailing the estimates and schedule.

But it’s not just the fact that there’s no party thrown in your honor, nor that you’re the first one pilloried during the management meeting following a failed release.  It’s the fact that all of this negative attention can seep into into our own self-image, and can turn slowly and insidiously into something known as “imposter syndrome”.

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Curiosity NEVER Killed the PM

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One of the primary predictors of successful Product Managers that I’ve seen in my time is the amount of curiosity that they are willing to express in their work and in their lives.  This makes a lot of sense when you think about it, given that Product Management is all about having a broad swath of experience and ability from which to pull in their daily lives.  A well-rounded person is nearly always more likely to be a more effective Product Manager than someone who strictly focuses on one or two disciplines.

Here are some of the reasons you, as a Product Manager, should be as curious as possible…

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Improving Your Relationship With Sales & Marketing

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The relationship between Product Management and the Sales and Marketing teams in some companies can be unnecessarily strained.  Often, this shows itself in such counter-productive behaviors as sales reps making promises to prospects or renewing clients based on their own interpretation of the roadmap, or the marketing teams creating collateral that materially misstates the capabilities of the product.  Unfortunately, when left unchecked, these behaviors create a self-fulfilling prophecy on the part of both the Sales/Marketing teams and the Product Manager.

The good news is that there are some things that we can do as Product Managers to both proactively minimize these situations, as well as to respond to them when they occur in a way that stops the vicious cycle of bad behavior and centers everyone on the same goals — to create a product that delights the buyer and users who are out there looking for solutions to their problems.

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How to Minimize Workplace Disruptions With One Easy Trick

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How often do we as Product Managers complain that we’re constantly bombarded with all sorts of distractions as we try to do our jobs on a daily basis?  What if I told you that there’s one clever trick that you can use to minimize those disruptions and secure more time to focus on doing your job how you want, when you want?

It’s called “operant conditioning”, and the fact is you’re already doing it — though you’re probably doing it wrong and actually increasing the distractions you’re exposed to, rather than minimizing them.

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