The Art of Saying “I Don’t Know” Without Losing Credibility
Why the best product managers are honest about uncertainty and what they do next.
I was once in a room with a group of executives, a couple of engineers, and a very sharp product manager who was only a few months into her role. The CTO asked her a tough question about a potential dependency in an upcoming launch. Without blinking, she said, “I don’t know yet, but I’ll find out and get back to you before end of day.”
The room stayed calm. We moved on. And I made a mental note: she’s going to be just fine.
Too many PMs think their job is to always have the answer. But I’ve worked and conversed with many world-class product people, and I’ll tell you this plainly, knowing how to say I don’t know well is one of the most underrated skills in product.
Because if you do this job long enough, you’ll face questions you can’t immediately answer. That’s not a failure. That’s the nature of building in uncertainty.
The real test isn’t whether you know everything. It’s what you do when you don’t.
Why PMs Feel Pressure to Always Know
It’s easy to feel like your value comes from having the right answer at the right moment.
You want to look prepared. You want to project confidence. You want to reassure stakeholders that things are under control.
But here’s what often happens: instead of admitting we’re unsure, we try to bluff. We offer half-baked guesses. We deflect. We lean on jargon to stall. And while this might buy us a few minutes of relief, over time it chips away at trust.
Teams don’t lose confidence when a PM says “I don’t know.” They lose confidence when they start hearing answers that don’t hold up.
The Cost of Pretending to Know
There are few things more damaging than a PM who guesses with confidence and turns out to be wrong.
You mislead engineering into building on faulty assumptions.
You give leadership a false sense of certainty.
You commit to dates or capabilities that unravel during execution.
And when that happens enough times, people stop listening. Your team starts second-guessing you. Leadership starts bypassing you. Your credibility suffers, not because you didn’t know, but because you pretended you did.
What You Should Do Instead
Great PMs get comfortable with not knowing everything. They don’t view it as weakness. They view it as part of the job. But they don’t stop there.
They use “I don’t know” as a bridge to “Here’s how I’ll find out.” They bring structure to the unknown. They follow up quickly. And most importantly, they consistently show that while they may not have every answer in the moment, they own the problem fully.
Here’s what that looks like in practice.
1. Be Honest, But Confident
You don’t have to sound timid. Say it clearly.
“I don’t have that information yet, but I’ll follow up with the data team this afternoon and get you an answer.”
Or
“That’s a great question. I want to confirm the details with engineering before I give you a firm answer.”
You’re not dodging. You’re grounding the conversation in facts, not guesswork.
2. Show That You Own the Outcome
The moment you say “I don’t know,” immediately anchor it in action.
“I’ll sync with the infra team after this meeting and update the plan by EOD.”
Or
“Let me dig into that with customer success and circle back tomorrow. I’ll drop a note in Teams.”
This tells your team or whoever you are communicating to that you may not know now, but you’re on it and that matters.
3. Make a Habit of Following Up Fast
This part matters more than you think. The strength of your “I don’t know” depends entirely on your ability to close the loop quickly.
If you promise to get back to someone by end of day, do it. If you say you’ll look into something, don’t wait for them to remind you. Your follow-through is where trust gets built.
4. Build a Reputation for Clarity, Not Certainty
You’re not a search engine. You’re a product manager. Your job is to frame the problem clearly, gather the right inputs, and lead the team to a good decision, not to have every answer instantly.
Teams will trust you more if they know you’re thoughtful and reliable, even when you’re navigating unknowns.
When “I Don’t Know” Becomes a Red Flag
Of course, there’s a flip side. If you say “I don’t know” to everything, that’s a different problem.
Here’s where it becomes an issue:
You’re repeatedly surprised by questions you should have anticipated.
You regularly delay decisions that are already well within your scope.
You fail to turn unknowns into learnings.
This isn’t about perfection. But if you’re constantly on the back foot, it’s worth asking:
Am I close enough to the work?
Am I spending time with the data, the team, the users?
Am I thinking deeply about what’s coming next?
Being honest is critical. Being prepared is, too.
The Deeper Lesson Here: Product is Uncertainty
If you need everything to be known and tidy before you can act, you’ll struggle in this field.
Building products, especially good ones, means wading through ambiguity every day. Customers don’t hand you requirements. Roadmaps change. Data is messy. Tech shifts. Priorities shift.
Your job here is not to eliminate uncertainty. Your job is to move forward through it, with clarity, humility, and urgency.
And that’s why the ability to say “I don’t know” is so powerful. It’s the moment you stop pretending and start leading.
The Takeaway
Here’s what I want you to remember.
You won’t lose credibility by saying “I don’t know.”
You lose credibility by:
Pretending to know and being wrong
Guessing to look smart
Hiding gaps instead of closing them
Great product managers don’t have all the answers. They have the mindset, the habits, and the follow-through to go get them.
So the next time someone asks you something you’re unsure about, don’t panic. Don’t fake it.
Say: “I don’t know yet. But here’s what I’m going to do.”
Then do it.