I’ve been in the same room with a number of product managers, and I think this reading really clarified what exactly their job entails. I always saw them arguing on the phone, joining back-to-back meetings, and never actually doing any programming. The nature of a product management job was really mysterious and unclear to me for a long time, but I took away a few key points of the role from the reading: it is a balance between being a visionary and a realist, it is a strategic and self-directed role, and it is glue that holds together teams of diverse individuals who may not necessarily always be pleasant to work with. I was particularly struck by the part of the reading that mentioned that a PM role is not for someone that has a “I’ll just do it myself” kind of attitude. Relying on others has always been a little bit nerve-wracking for me, but delegation and the cultivation of trust and robust relationships seem vital to being a successful PM. I think being a PM is being a people-person even when you don’t feel like it; it’s much more than sitting at a cubicle all day, or being a “Jargon Jockey” who tries too hard to make it sound like they know what they’re doing.
Even though the job description can seem ambiguous, the hours seem long! One question I would ask the author is how to have stamina in a PM role, day after day. How do PMs prevent burnout and Zoom fatigue from such an intensive job? How do they stay motivated enough to continuously motivate others?
