If you’re a PM, you’re more likely to follow Silicon Valley PM thought leaders to learn about the latest trends in product management. You may even have taken up a few PM courses to learn a thing or two about best product management practices.
I can relate.
What I’ve observed being a part of the same bubble is that most advice related to product management that sounds like an eye-opener is primarily theoretical. It sounds great and might make us believe this new information is empowering. But our reality vastly differs based on our company’s culture, goals, stage, and the mindset of the people.
For context, if you’re a PM at an early or growth stage startup, your focus will be more towards,
- Solving your domain’s core problems by developing your own viewpoint or mimicking your competitors, or it could be both,
- Aligning with your stakeholders,
- Speeding up product execution,
- Improving the product offering iteratively, which means instinctively knowing what needs to be prioritized now versus later,
- Working with the sales and marketing teams to enable them to sell and market the product better.
All of these responsibilities are equally important and need to be planned well. This means project management is an integral part of product management, especially for organizations at their early stages. Time-boxing what you want to build and being agile in execution is the only way to grow.
Amidst these commitments, if we have to validate whether external advice makes sense, we have to take into account the following:
- A strong understanding of our product vision and business
- Company culture
- Clarity on the working style of the key stakeholders and learning what’s valuable to them,
- A sense of the priorities of the GTM teams, and
- An insight into the gaps in the existing processes that lead to poor outcomes.
Without a firm understanding of the above points, it could be counterproductive if we try hard to implement a new framework or process.
I do not deny that many seasoned PMs offer a goldmine of valuable advice, especially those targeted at individuals and how they could do better versus advice for an entire organization. We can take bits and pieces of relevant suggestions that work for us and are within our control to improve our quality of work consistently.
However, it’s important to note that most product management advice often stems from a specific company’s weaknesses or unique context. Applying it unthinkingly without understanding its relevance to our organization could be unproductive.
Hence it’s always best to evaluate generic wisdom on product management and take it with a grain of salt.
Akkshaya Varkhedi 