Short Stuff: Product Managers should not be Yes-Men!
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The job of a product manager can sometimes be unrewarding, hypercritical and downright frustrating, especially when something goes wrong with the company. When a product flourishes, it’s because everyone on the team did what they needed to do. But when a product fails, it’s the product manager’s fault.
For example, when Kuda’s announcement of their 2021 losses broke out last month, product managers were at the forefront of the conversation.
Given the delicate nature of our profession, it was easy to throw a finger at the product managers at Kuda without considering whether the PMs might be working in silos and building based on what they are mandated to build by an exec or a HIPPO. An oga-driven culture.
Now I am in no way saying that is what happens in Kuda. However, over the past year, I have had the chance to speak with a lot of product managers. One constant thing that keeps coming up is the process and culture of where they work. It is not conducive enough to encourage innovation and growth of the product talk less of the product manager or the product team. There is no defined structure or process for how the product teams work, and things seem gung-ho. Product discovery is non-existent, and the feature factory is full flow.
What results in taking this approach is having an oga-driven culture or any other culture instead of product culture, and the product managers essentially become yes-men.
Establishing a product culture means that a company recognize the value of product management and consistently allows the product managers to deliver excellent results that’ll help the business grow. It is an environment where product management is practised and respected, where PMs can succeed and grow.
Product culture is the opposite of an oga-driven culture or any other culture. A lack of product culture creates room for PMs to be demoralised at their jobs and leave them wondering why they were brought in the first place.
In a characteristic non-existent product culture, you will notice a couple of things:
Unclear product priorities. When you constantly shift roadmaps, strategies, etc, you leave room for uncertainty and instability for the product team. There is a lack of confidence in the tasks that are worked on and a lack of clear direction.
Executives and sales strongly dictate culture. Because of this, you will see product teams stopping sprints that could have a huge impact on existing users to satisfy a ‘big’ client or close a deal.
This big company cannot close without us providing this feature. This existing customer says if we don’t change this page or build this functionality for them, they will end their subscription.
Collaboration is non-existent with other departments across the organisation. There might be times when a feature is built, and the other departments are wondering when this became a part of the product.
Engineering is at the forefront of decision-making rather than product managers.
Taking excerpts from Empowered, for a product culture to be instilled and thrive, leadership must first value the position of product management in the company. In respecting that, you create an ecosystem where product managers can flourish and put their best foot forward. If product management is not at the forefront of things at a company, the Head of Product or the CPO (especially if the person has a strong executive influence) needs to push for these changes. A lack of strong product influence stifles the product and disfavors PMs. You hired these PMs for a reason. Let them do their jobs.
Also, leadership should present a strong philosophy as to why this problem is solved. What is the ‘why’ of the business? What do we exist for?
First, the company vision must trickle down to the product managers before the product vision and strategy can set in.
Great product culture is nothing without empowerment. Allowing PMs to take the responsibility and initiative to recognize and resolve problems and give them the freedom to make their own decisions based on intuition and experience is very important in building a product culture.
Great product culture is born where product teams are healthy, and the product managers are allowed to become strong and entrusted to make decisions. You cannot expect a PM to be strong if they are treated like a side piece.
Without a product culture, PMs will remain yes-men, product growth will fail, and the cycle of blaming the PMs will begin again.
If your company practices any culture that isn’t a product culture, something needs to change quickly.
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