Becoming an Effective Product Management (PM) Leader—by Shreyas Doshi

Growing your product influence
by becoming the best product leader you can be
@shreyas
© 2018 Shreyas Doshi

My PM Journey

The question I get most often
from Product Managers

“How can I get to manage
Product Managers?”

Let’s ﬁrst reframe this
question

“How can I get to manage
Product Managers?”
“How do I become an effective
product leader?”
Do the verb and the noun will follow

This presentation:
Understand the principles and
frameworks that’ll guide your
growth as a product leader

Observation:
Most PMs don’t understand
what it takes to grow as a PM
leader (and to get recognized
for it)

Let’s solve that… right now

1. Understand success drivers
2. Focus on the right priorities
3. Pick the right manager
You’ll need to

1. Understand success drivers
2. Focus on the right priorities
3. Pick the right manager

Impact
Competence
Potential
3 prerequisites

Impact → Past
Competence → Present
Potential → Future
3 prerequisites

Situations that often confuse
us as PMs

Situation 1
I have the credentials. My
PRDs are thorough. I’m usually the
smartest PM in the room.
I’m ready to manage PMs. What
should I do?
RESUME
3 years as a PM
Strengths:
Strategic thinking
Impeccable communication skills
Creativity
Education:
Stanford MBA, Cornell engineering

You need to be at the right level
on the PM ladder to be a
contender.

The PM scope & impact matrix
Unique
Impact
Scope
Small Medium Large
Low
High

Unique
Impact
Scope
Small Medium Large
Low
High
APM
PM 1
PM 2
PM 3 / Sr. PM
Sr. PM
GPM / Director

Unique
Impact
Scope
Small Medium Large
Low
High
APM
PM 1
PM 2
PM 3 / Sr. PM
Sr. PM
GPM / Director
You need to
reach here before
being
considered for
PM management

Situation 2
BOB ALICE
3 years with company
6 years as PM
Positives:
Works hard
Projects run well
Team loves him
Taking on more scope
Joined company last year
PM for 3 years
At same level as Bob
Recently promoted to PM
management
I don’t get it.
Why did Alice get the
promotion?

Bob’s situation is so common,
it’s wise to name it:
The PM Career Treadmill

To escape the PM Career
Treadmill, we need to
understand
The 3 Essential Senses of a
PM

The 3 essential senses of a PM
Product
Analytical
Execution

The ability to usually make
correct product decisions,
even in the presence of major
ambiguity
Product Sense

…Both macro-level
(“will this product work?”)
and micro-level
(“what is the right label for this button?”)
Product Sense

The ability to frame the right
questions, evaluate multiple facets
of a problem, derive solutions, and
simulate possible outcomes
Analytical Sense

…Based on available data (and
anecdotes)
Analytical Sense

The ability to align people
towards a particular objective
and orchestrate complex
projects
Execution Sense

…While exercising creativity,
empathy, and persuasiveness,
in addition to superb
organization abilities
Execution Sense

Now we can answer why Alice
has risen so fast while her
peers are stuck on the PM
Career Treadmill

Alice is a 10-30-50 PM

A 10-30-50 PM
Top 10%
Product Sense

A 10-30-50 PM
Top 30%
Execution Sense

A 10-30-50 PM
Top 50%
Analytical Sense

A 10-30-50 PM
Top 10%
Product Sense
Top 30%
Execution Sense
Top 50%
Analytical Sense

The actual order doesn’t
matter much, as long as
you’re top 10% in one of the
senses, top 30% in another,
and top 50% in the third

Becoming a 10-30-50 PM is
the surest path to PM
leadership
And will also place you in the top 10% compensation band across PMs of all
levels — an advantage you can hold through the rest of your PM career

Corollary: Once you are a
10-30-50 PM it’ll be very hard
to stay in an IC role

Observation: Rarely does a PM
start out as a 10-30-50 PM

The PMs who become
10-30-50 PMs consistently
break a popular rule of career
management

Focus on your growing your
strengths. Don’t worry about
ﬁxing your weaknesses.
Popular rule of career management

Focus on your growing your
strengths. Don’t worry about
ﬁxing your weaknesses.
Popular rule of career management
Not for PMs!

As an IC PM, you must
identify and address your
weaknesses. AND work on
growing your strengths.
This is essential for checking the “Competence” box

As a PM, you’ll have a “default
sense”—that’s where you
should strive to be within the
top 10%

And then, work towards
improving the other 2 senses

But how to do this?

No substitute for experience.
Seek out projects and
assignments that exercise
your non-default senses

Now, let’s talk about
The Product Sense
Advantage

Deciding to invest in your
Product Sense is among the
highest ROI decisions you’ll
make in your career

Empathy
The Key Elements of Product Sense
Domain knowledge Creativity
(Customers, Competition, Technology..)

Empathy
This is how the user
is likely to react

Empathy
is likely to react
This approach
gives us an advantage
over them

Empathy
is likely to react
This approach
gives us an advantage
over them
Here’s a novel
solution to this hard
usability problem

1. The right product
2. Mentoring PMs
3. Improving the PM function
4. Getting mentored
Allocate your time towards

Work on your company’s
“priority products”
tactic

Corollary: You can seldom go
wrong by working on the
company’s core business

Core:
has achieved product-market
ﬁt, is (ideally) growing like
bonkers, contributes
signiﬁcantly to the company’s
top 3 metrics
This is typically a reliable way to check the “Impact” box

Run towards trouble
Take on the hard, existential projects for the company
tactic

Stop asking “whom can I
manage?”

Ask “whom can I mentor?”

Being an effective PM mentor
is a prerequisite for being
considered for PM
management
Helps you check the “Potential” box as a leader

Get your mentees to write a
review during your
performance cycle
tactic

Take ownership of a key PM
team horizontal
tactic

Don’t have horizontals at your
company?

Creating horizontals is a
horizontal
tactic

You can’t be the best at
everything, but you can
always be the best at getting
people’s help

Get mentored by 1-2 of your
manager’s peers (they will
also be participating in your
promotion decision)
tactic

Treat your company’s
performance cycle just like
you would a project. Identify
fatal ﬂaws before the
promotion committee does
(and ﬁx them)
tactic

Don’t rely on the ofﬁcial
performance review cycles.
Get continuous feedback.
tactic

The feedback hack: just create
your own feedback cycle.
Send peers a feedback form.
You can just create it in
Google Forms.
tactic

Get an executive coach,
create your own Board of
Directors, ….
tactic

1. Has built credibility within
the org
2. Understands the difﬁcult
parts of your job
3. Cares about your growth
(and well-being)
4. Isn’t insecure
(when you can) Pick a manager who

Make your manager
accountable for your growth.
Jointly create a career
roadmap.
tactic

You’ve made it to PM
management.
Congrats!

Winning was easy, young man.
Governing’s harder.
— George Washington to Alexander Hamilton
in Hamilton: An American Musical

The question I get more often
from PM Managers

“How can I become a VP
Product?”

Let’s reframe this question
too

“How can I become a VP
Product?”
“How do I become the best
product leader possible?”

While that’s a vast topic by
itself, I’ll leave you with a few
principles and frameworks
I’ve found useful

Observation:
Most PM Managers take
several years to understand
their core job
(and their managers might
not understand it either)

1. Strategy
2. Prioritization
3. Editing
4. Execution
5. Coaching
The 5 core PM leadership
responsibilities

Strategy
This is how our products need to
integrate to meet our customers’ needs
and to beat competitor X
Messaging Video
Notiﬁcations Creator tools
Ranking …..

Prioritization
These are the top 3 Q4
priorities for our org. They are based
on company priority Y and the need to
support major initiative X on
another team.
1. ….
2. ….
3. ….

Editing
How does this UX achieve the
user’s goals? What are the user’s
primary goals? What alternatives
have you considered for this
design?
Team Member PM Manager

Execution
My team is focused on
priority Z right now. We need
support from the Data Science team
until February to ensure that the
project stays on track.
Data Science ManagerPM Manager

Coaching Thanks for the lucid
presentation on Messaging v2. We
got the outcome we wanted, however
there was some confusion within the
leadership team on X, Y, Z. Here are a
couple of suggestions for next
time.
Team Member PM Manager

The hardest adjustment for
new PM managers is making
the switch from Creating
products to Editing products
If you are a 10-30-50 PM, this adjustment will be even harder.

And until you ﬁgure this out,
your PMs are going to be
frustrated

Listen → ask Questions →
re-frame Problem →
explore Alternatives →
Direct or Delegate decision
A framework for effective editing

It’s important to establish
clarity with your directs on
the decisions they can make
on their own and the decisions
you’d like to make with them.

The PM delegation 3x2
impact
to
business
their confidence
Low Moderate High
Low
High

impact
to
business
their confidence
Low Moderate High
Low
High
3
6
2
5
1
4

impact
to
business
their confidence
Low Moderate High
Low
High
3
6
2
5
1
4
Always make yourself available
for and immerse yourself in
decisions in this box
Be clear with each direct report
about which boxes you’re
comfortable delegating and
which ones you want to be
closely involved in

The second hardest
adjustment for new PM leads
is managing their time
You’ll often have your own “IC projects” in addition to “Manager
responsibilities”

At any given time, execute
ﬂawlessly on:
3 things as an individual
5 things as a team
7 things as a company
The 3-5-7 framework for stellar
execution

In conclusion

“Manager”: a label others
have to give you
“Leader”: a label you can
assign to yourself
#1

Work hard to become a
10-30-50 PM
#2

Improving your Product
Sense is the the single-most
important thing you can do
for your PM career
#3

Stuck on the PM Career
Treadmill? There’s still a path
out of it.
#4

The only enemy lies within

Be intentional about the
products you choose to work on.
Consider working on your
company’s core business.
#5

Pick a manager who
understands the hard parts of
your job and cares about your
growth & well-being
#6

Get excellent mentors who
complement your strengths.
Ask them for complete candor.
#7

Strive to be an excellent
mentor for other PMs
#8

Take up horizontals that
improve the PM team and the
org in general
#9

Treat your growth as a PM
leader like you would any
project
#10

Once you have the job

Understand what the job
really entails:
Strategy, Prioritization,
Editing, Execution, Coaching
#11

Get really good at listening.
Learn delegation.
Improve your time
management skills.
#12

Grow your management sense
and strategic sense
#13

Become a student of
frameworks that’ll make you
more effective
#14

Coach others on these
frameworks
#15

Congrats. You now know what
took me many years to learn.

I hope you grow to become the
best product leader you can
be.

Thank you for being here.

Becoming an Effective Product Management (PM) Leader—by Shreyas Doshi

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