There’s been a nagging feeling in me to start writing again, but there’s absolutely nothing to write about.
What would I write about?
- The fact that being cooped up here in my room for these months has not contributed much to my mental health?
- How governments play a part in overall society and it is in crisis that leadership shines, or absolutely sucks. In the Philippines, a country I dearly love, it unfortunately has taken a global pandemic for people’s voices to start calling for better government. Filipinos have such patience for such bad service. Some have even compared us to battered housewives, and I do feel like one. Moreover, I feel like I incited this upon myself, because I, like many Filipinos, did not vote in the previous election. This is a fact that I will have to deal with. 4 years have passed with absolutely nothing POSITIVE to show for, save for a cleanup of Boracay (something a MAYOR can do), and better P2P buses (something the DoTr can do ON ITS OWN).
Okay, brain fart done. Time to start writing for real.
This is the true article.
/START
I wanted to start writing here because I feel like I had something to contribute in the messy world of tech product management.
I, as a practitioner for over 5 years (a lifetime in Philippine product management, believe me), felt like I could muster enough lines to be able to help more people find their way. The world of product management has so many paths towards success and failure, that it’s so hard for one to really begin. But let me try talking about what I’ve learned so far.
The 5 Things Product Management has taught me:
1. Product Managers are a necessary part of a tech product organization
Most people would probably say, duh, of course, isn’t this common knowledge? Allow me to explain.
I do not know about other people, but there is an inherent imposter syndrome for product managers, especially for ones who just “fell” into the role. Let me tell you, someone who was just assigned a product manager role does not know what he/she signed up for. There were days early on in my journey as a product manager (I was even called Product Head — shudders) when I kept asking myself if I really knew what I was doing, and if my role was really important to keep the ship afloat.
If you’re feeling this, yes, it’s normal and 5 years later, I still struggle with this syndrome. Just remember #1, you are where you are supposed to be, right in the middle of the chaos, and making sense of it.
2. User testing works — do it right away.
I have been with companies that conduct regular user tests, and companies that did not prioritize it. The difference is night and day. There are minute fixes that these companies notice that make for a world of difference. Product managers (and maybe founders need to hear this too) need to understand that everything introduced in the product will not be loved automatically unless you give users a reason to love it. First time experience is a very important part of this. Understanding the nuances of what words users are looking for, even why they hesitate clicking the next button of your conversion process, or even the icons they are used to with their mental model allows comfort and familiarity with the user.
You will never know if you do not ask the user, or setup ways to do so.
3. The people you should talk to everyday are the people on the ground (sales, customer success, account managers, operations — whew this is a lot), and the ones implementing your features (tech and design).
There is a lot of noise outside, and it’s tempting to listen to everyone and say yes because although I term it noise, most of them are valid and make sense if you take it from the angle of the person talking. However, the job of the product manager is to focus on value — both on the user end and the business end. Paying attention to what your users and your stakeholders are saying, and aligning this with the people who help you execute and understand, are the backbones to any successful product.
Another thing, do not leave your operations teams behind. The system that you are creating for the end user includes them too. They will not be able to do their job effectively if you keep de-prioritizing them because they are “internal”. Your job as a product manager is to keep everyone in mind. Notice how that sentence makes you cringe, but it’s the truth. Note that you keep them in mind, but it doesn’t mean you follow their lead.
You listen, and decide. If you don’t have the authority to make this call, I’m not sure if you’re really a product manager.
4. Don’t call your users stupid. Understand where they are coming from. Empathize.
It’s tempting to call people who don’t understand how your product works as stupid, or complain about how “the product is so simple”, but that’s the lens of the product manager and the company.
When your ear is on the ground and you do see these complaints, be the first to take a step back and understand where they are coming from. I have found myself in these situations and have chosen to react negatively. Which is why I can safely say, this does not help (though sometimes there are people who really don’t get it — then maybe they aren’t the intended users). Product managers need to remain neutral, even if the rest of the company isn’t.
What you can do it try to setup a real time feedback loop is essential so that the scenario where they make a mistake can be understood better and can be remedied faster. Marty Cagan in his book Inspired said that no matter how good the product is the first time, it really requires several iterations to get to a stable point.
This is true for my experience. We’ve probably had around 2 design changes and around 5–6 major feature rollouts in a span of the year I’ve spent with Bukas and Danacita, and these iterations lead to other user problems we didn’t foresee. It’s really a push and pull and a give and take.
5. If you feel like you’re in the middle of everything, that is correct.
There is a sense of chaos that goes into the work of the product manager. This is my take, at the start, it’s better to be over involved than not involved. It’s better to be in more meetings than less meetings. It’s better to talk to everyone than talk to no one.
Why?
It’s your job in product to educate everyone about the product process. No one knows the process at the start except you. You might also be at a disadvantage not knowing the product or the industry and everyone in the meeting does. It’s your job to ask the stupid questions. It’s your job to clarify. It’s your job to call out things are not aligned. Otherwise, people will automatically think that everyone understands. Which is why the product manager needs to be involved heavily in everything at the start, and then slowly wean off certain processes that are not needed anymore.
My take is being involved helps everyone understand each other’s role in implementing the product, and the main point person for this is the product manager.
All in all, product management is hard. It’s a thankless job, but I absolutely love it. Talking to users, getting into debates with stakeholders, crafting implementation plans with the teams is something I thoroughly enjoy, and everyday is a new challenge.
Note that these are purely my views and are in no way to be taken out of context. As I said, the path of product management has many twists and turns, and people have various ways of getting there. The important thing is users love your product and it returns value for the business to sustain itself.
If you’ve managed to reach this part, and find what I say useful, feel free to check out my medium page at Dino Alcoseba.
