How I see a product manager’s job?
I see the product manager’s job as ambiguous; not that I have not read books or taken courses about it, but for the very reason I have done these, I came to the conclusion that the product manager’s job can vary broadly from one company to another, from creating the main product for the company and overseeing every cycle of it or being responsible for a very niche product that will be a small part of bigger product development.
Also, after reading the stories from product managers, I also understand how soft skills are used hugely in a product manager’s job and determine the product’s success. Therefore, I see a product manager’s job is to sometimes be a supporter, cheerleader, and mediator. But, with this mediating comes a great stress of being in the middle of most things; usually they’ll be conflicting perspectives; executives will push for revenue growth, engineers will want to build something robust, and designers will want to create a wowing user experience. Product managers would have to find the common ground that satisfies everyone—or, at the very least, disappoints everyone equally.
I remember reading about Jeff Bezos talking about Amazon’s success, and he said it came from being customer-obsessed. I see the great product managers also similar to this—they are obsessed with their customers, always gathering user feedback, and sometimes face the harsh reality of customer criticism of the very product that they’ve been working on for months. However, I see product managers as someone who is humble enough to let their ego aside and let the user be the guide and flexible enough to pivot if needed.
In this ambiguity and breadth, it looks like a product manager’s job is to turn chaos into clarity and cross-functional teams into unified forces; it’s messy, it’s challenging, and it’s often thankless. However, I also think that it’s one of the most rewarding jobs out there because product managers get to see a product grow from concept to reality, shape how people experience it, and ultimately, make a meaningful impact on users and the company. And I think that’s what makes it all worth it.
My questions to the author Matt LeMay:
What struck me in the chapter is the author saying “you have lots of responsibilities but little authority,” so I would ask the author about how, as a product manager, you can incentivize your team members to be sustainably on top of their game.
Also, I would ask how to set boundaries in assigned tasks since a product manager’s job description is very broad; it can cause the product manager to overwork and handle things outside of their responsibility, like it was also mentioned in the chapter.
Lastly, I would ask that with the increasing specialization of roles like “growth PM” or technical PM,” do you think the generalist product manager will become less relevant, or will it continue to be the foundation of the discipline?
