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...

We're Not 9-1-1 Operators. We're Product Leaders. Read on my website / Read time: 9 minutes Here was a typical day for me as a Product Manager: It would start with a flood of pings—emails, Slack messages, calendar invites, "quick" requests. Before my first coffee even hit: Someone needed a bug fix. Someone else needed a status update on the latest release. Someone wanted to discuss a "cool new" feature idea. Design wanted my feedback on their latest Figma. Sales was asking if that one feature...

We Can't Feature Our Way To Product Success Read on my website / Read time: 5 minutes You can't feature your way to market fit. What do I mean by "market fit"? It means your product or feature solves a critical need for a specific group of customers, and needs to do this so well that they adopt it, stick with it, and - ideally - advocate for it. It's that feeling of a strong "pull" from the market. When this happens, the sales process becomes less about justifying the product to customers,...

Emotional Intelligence Read on my website / Read time: 4 minutes Product Management happens through people. As Product Managers, we know we have to influence without authority. Even product executives - VPs, SVPs, CPOs - can't dictate to the rest of the organization what to do, because they don't report to them. (Unless they are specifically in a P&L GM type role.) We have to deal with lots of people in different parts of the organization who don't report to us. But we have to influence them...

Justifying Your Existence Read on my website / Read time: 9 minutes Harsh truth: As Product Managers, we need to be generating 3x-50x returns on our compensation. If not, we'll find ourselves diminished to task-based delivery work, sidelined, ignored, undervalued. Ultimately, we risk losing our job and - worse - stagnating in our careers as we struggle to communicate our impact in job interviews. "But, Shardul," I can hear the protests now, "we're not sales or marketing, so we can't be...

Stop Whining Read on my website / Read time: 3 minutes Every company has problems. Startups. Large companies. All of them. Customer problems.Product problems.Process problems.Operational problems.Organizational problems.Management problems.Team problems.People problems. Especially people problems! Product Management is hard enough. Sometimes, it gets to be a bit much, and we need to blow off some steam. We didn't get the outcome we wanted.A decision is made that we disagree with but is out of...

Title of Newsletter Issue Read on my website / Read time: 5 minutes Today, I'm going to share the #2 reason product managers don't get ahead. Every week, I talk to product managers across the world. In the US, Canada, India and South Asia, the UK, mainland Europe, Africa, South America, Australia - you name it. They come with all kinds of titles - Product Manager, APM, Technical Product Manager, Product Owner, Senior Product Owner, Senior Product Manager, Lead Product Manager, Lead Product...

The Product Team orOur Product Team 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 There's a difference between using "the" and "our". "Our" is personal. Part of a tribe. A feeling of belonging. "The" is distant. Them. Those...

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,...