In Product Management in Practice by Matt LeMay, LeMay provides an in depth exploration of the practice of product management.
One part that particularly resonated with me, even through I haven’t worked in a product management role, was a level of insecurity that led me to spend long hours working on my project both in and outside of the office. It took me a while during my last internship to find my stride, and even when there were aspects of the project that simply needed to be set up for me as part of my internship, I found myself searching for ways I can continue to be productive and bring work home. It wasn’t until I was churning my to-do’s out at what I felt was an acceptable pace that I began to feel comfortable taking less work home. I would love to ask LeMay the process he went through of learning to set boundaries and prioritize his time. Was there a turning point where he learned this lesson, perhaps from an incident of burnout? Or was this a practice that had to be gradually improved?
It was also interesting to get a look at the different profiles of a bad product manager, some of which included the jargon jockey, the overachiever, and the product martyr. I wonder how a PM who has found themself falling into one of these habits can fix their behavior and go about improving their relationships with their team members.
