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...

A Feature-Based Roadmap Is Not Evil Read on my website / Read time: 5 minutes I stopped worrying about whether I or my teams were in a feature factory years ago. My reasoning was simple: If those features are delivering value to customers and growing the business, keep on keeping on. If they’re not, then move to delivering things that do. I get the concern - that we may be prioritizing quantity of features over quality, outputs over outcomes, short-term delivery over long-term value. That we...

Writing a PRD Read on my website / Read time: 3 minutes If you're like me, you're a busy person. That's why I like simple approaches. When I had to learn how to write a Product Requirements Document (PRD), I downloaded all these complicated, detailed templates that had all these "fill in the blank" sections that were meant to be helpful, but only ended up overwhelming me. And the worst part was after spending days writing it, no one would read it! However, as one product manager recently...

Shut Up and Listen Read on my website / Read time: 5 minutes So you've landed your first meeting with a bigwig stakeholder. You want to make a good impression. And you're eager to establish alignment as quickly as possible. After all, you've got a product to run and goals to accomplish. Wait. Not so fast. The first meeting with any stakeholder is not about alignment. It's about how well you LISTEN. Often I see less experienced product managers rush to explain themselves, showcase their...

Managing Executives Read on my website / Read time: 5 minutes Last week, I talked about how to get executive decision makers to actually make decisions. That naturally leads to the question of how to manage "up" to executives. Because so much of what we do in product management is resource intensive and impacts customers directly, product management has unique access to executives that many other groups in the company don't enjoy. (Sales is the other group.) This means managing up to...

"Can I Get a Decision, Please"? 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 fast-growing community of over 3,600 product managers and leaders. Book Your Sponsorship Today So you finally got that meeting with key executive decision makers that you've desperately...

The Sky is Falling Read on my website / Read time: 5 minutes Thank you to our sponsors who keep this newsletter free for the reader: Learn AI: Expert ChatGPT Prompt Guide Join 650k+ people from companies like Apple, OpenAI, NASA at the Rundown.ai to get free access to our expert ChatGPT prompt guide. Get The Guide For Free The emergency request. This is a special type of request in the form of, "We MUST do this Super Important, Cannot Be Delayed, Drop Everything Else thing and we must do it...

Our Job Isn't To Say "No" 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 over 3,300 product managers and leaders. Book Your Sponsorship Today “Yesterday, I was talking to Big Industry Player and they mentioned how they have Shiny Object. I think we...

Preventing Alignment Decay Read on my website / Read time: 4 minutes Thank you to our sponsors who keep this newsletter free for the reader: Quick 5-Minute Time Savers With AI Learn how to save time and money with AI. Join 530k+ readers benefitting from the latest AI tools and insights for personal and professional growth. Get the AI Tool Report Track the Latest in AI and How it Impacts You Relevant. Interesting. Viral. Join 450K+ professionals from Google, EA, PWC, and more staying ahead of...