Practical tips that guide you from first-time product manager to leader

"How do I prove my value as a product manager?" This is one of the most common questions I get. Heck, I've asked myself that question throughout my career. Still do. It's often articulated in different ways: How can I get more empowerment? How can I convince my boss / leadership / execs to "let go"? How can I get engineering to follow my ideas? How can I get sales to not just see me as "technical"? How do I help my boss understand my impact? How can I grow from being an order taker to a...

Stakeholder Control Read on my website / Read time: 5 minutes Thank you to our sponsors who keep this newsletter free for the reader: Want to Get In Front of 6K+ Decision Makers? Promote your product or brand to a passionate community of product leaders and innovators for one flat fee. No CPC, CPI, or CPM. Book Your Sponsorship Today Stakeholders with control issues. Let's be honest: They're so infuriating. They think they own the product. They think they're "customers" of the product. So,...

9 Habits of MillionaireProduct Managers Read on my website / Read time: 5 minutes Thank you to our sponsors who keep this newsletter free for the reader: Want to Get In Front of 6K+ Decision Makers? Promote your product or brand to a passionate community of product leaders and innovators for one flat fee. No CPC, CPI, or CPM. Book Your Sponsorship Today How do you have a successful career? For the purposes of this article, I'm talking about success in these terms: Career growth. Personal...

Prioritizing Tech Debt Read on my website / Read time: 5 minutes Ugh. Tech debt. I get asked about this so much. So, fine. Let's talk about it. The ugly elephant in the room. No one likes it. No one wants it. Everyone would rather it didn't exist. But it only gets larger over time. We all wish we could just take the blue pill and live in ignorant bliss. But it's time to swallow that red pill with a tall glass of water and dive in. The trouble with tech debt Intuitively, we all know the...

The 3 Product Manager Stories We Need To Master Read on my website / Read time: 5 minutes Thank you to our sponsors who keep this newsletter free for the reader: Support This Newsletter With A Sponsorship Product Managers lead buy recommendations and decisions for their companies. Promote your product or brand to a passionate community of 5,000+ product managers and leaders. Book Your Sponsorship Today In 2006, I had an opportunity to present a business case to the C-level. After listening to...

The 4 Levels of Product Leadership Growth Read on my website / Read time: 5 minutes 20 years ago, I learned a hard lesson. That a product will never grow past the growth of the product leader. A product goes through 4 levels of product growth. And if we, as product leaders, don't grow past these 4 levels, WE will be the ones holding it back. The levels are: If you're a leader, it's absolutely crucial you know what level you're at. Because that will define where your primary energy needs to...

Unlocking Product Success:5 Key Drivers Read on my website / Read time: 5 minutes Today, I'm going to give you a crash course in marketing and finance - two things most product managers ignore. Every product has performance drivers - the metrics that have a material impact on the success of our products. Unfortunately, most product managers - and product leaders - focus on lower-level local metrics (usability and heat maps) and process metrics (sprint velocity, burn down) and ignore the true...

Long-Term vs Short-Term Read on my website / Read time: 5 minutes One of the most classic challenges for product managers is balancing the long-term vs. the short-term. Innovation vs. existing product. Strategic initiatives vs. short-term fixes and enhancements. Here's an email I received recently that typifies this: In case the screenshot is difficult to read... “ I'm working on a brand new product that is a strategic initiative for our company. We are too early to know any revenue/cost...

Is Your Current RoadmapProcess Healthy? Read on my website / Read time: 5 minutes In 2017, I joined a startup as head of product and I'll never forget my first meeting with the CEO. "Shardul," he said, "We have to double revenue this year. But I don't see a path to do it. That's why you're here." "Our biggest challenge is we have no product roadmap," he lamented. "Product Management and Engineering have different ideas on what to work on next... "No one knows what is coming when... Sales and...