I really liked that this author really focused on how this is a role that defies clear definition and that, in essence, it is about taking on whatever the team needs to be done in order to achieve their goals. I think that this more dynamic concept of taking on whatever is needed at a certain time also leaves space for the reality that at different companies and at different stages of a companies growth, the role of a project manager can look and feel very different. I also thought it was particularly important to note how a project managers job is ultimately to take responsibility for the success of the entire project. While this is sort of counterintuitive, it is actually incredibly important as most other members of the team are only responsible for their specific parts of the project and, without the product manager, the birds eye view might be lost on the project. While I agree that this type of value add is less tangible than other roles, I think that it is incredibly important.
I thought it was particularly helpful to note the types of bad product managers and to explicitly say that the cause of many of these bad product managers’ failures was their own insecurity. I think it is really natural to feel insecure in a role in which indicators of success are less tangible, but I also think that by naming this phenomenon it makes project managers much less likely to fall into this trap. However, I think I would ask the author for some more tangible suggestions or examples about how to overcome that insecurity, which they mentioned they had personally experienced at certain points in their career.
