It seems that much of a PMs job lies in the ambiguity, creativity, and ambition to find what is needed before it is explicitly stated. What I found to be essential to the PM job is how close the PM actually is to the customer, which is often where people on the development side fall short. It integrates a diverse range of technical and managerial experience, with an understanding of every side of the business and every role that the team plays being essential to performing the job in an effective way. I loved the term used in the reading as “information brokers” meaning that those who perform the best at this role are the ones connecting all sides of the business together and allowing teams to communicate with one another. A large part of this role is to find what needs to be done and do it efficiently. It is not a job for those who need constant direction, and those hwo are lost without it may fall into the long hours and failed work bucket. In the end, I think the successful Product Manager is one that defined their own role, by finding what is needed of them, seeking out answers to unclear questions, maximizing their teams’ collaborative efficiency, and understanding their company’s unique goals to execute.
The main question I have for the author is whether a Product Manager can be successful having little experience in the industry, the company, or in a long term profession? They discuss how oftentimes hiring a PM from within can be done by looking at how they communicate across teams, but what considerations should be made when hiring externally? Does the PM need to have experience in management before? Or is a relationship with team members before an added bonus? I have found that even in performing exceptionally well in a role, the credibility of the worker must be validated, and ageism can be a hard factor to overcome in these cases. For example, if a company has hired a PM right out of college, is it realistic that more veteran developers and designers could heed the authority of someone entering into an introductory level job? And does a lack of knowledge about the product’s industry put the PM significantly behind that is too challenging to make up?
