Product Management in Practice

Prior to taking this class, my perspective on a product manager’s job was “someone who sets up a lot of meetings and does a lot of communicating, but doesn’t build anything or do much actual work most of the time.”. Those perspectives were most definitely shaped by the caricatured depiction of product managers by those on the internet. After reading the first sections of Product Management in Practice, my perspective has shifted. Not completely uprooted, as product managers do have to communicate with so many different people, but this reading unearthed the mountain of ambiguity product managers have to navigate through, the responsibility they have for business success, and ultimately what purpose they have and what value they contribute. I definitely learned things about product management that I have to consider when thinking about whether being one is right for me. In particular, understanding that there is no single definition of a product manager and the day-to-day actions of every product manager differs vastly. Additionally, recognizing that nobody is going to tell you everything you have to do—it is your job to move in a direction to figure that out yourself. I think the biggest thing that I didn’t realize (and am a little scared about) is that product management can be a brutal trigger for insecurity, and it is all too easy to fall into one of the bad product manager archetypes without realizing it. Overall though, because there is no single definition of a product manager and things are always moving and changing quickly, there seems a lot of excitement in being a product manager. One question I have for the author is: “What are good ways to recognize and learn from mistakes as a product manager?”