Stefan
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Many folks I chat with during my coaching sessions would like to enter the PM domain from a different role. For some, the role they are currently in has a strong individual contributor (IC) character, i.e. they are a project manager and are looking to get into the PM role to gain more direct product ownership.
As a Product Manager, you are always a manager. Whether you manage a team of PMs who report into you, or your x-functional teams, you always have to rely on a strong set of managerial skills. In this post I am examining and summarizing some of the concepts I found useful in my career, and provide some color from my own experience as a PM.
Moving into a manager role is complex & challenging
No matter what you have done before, and how well you did it, if you are now in a position where you manage projects, you are playing a different game. This means that you need a strategy how to deal with the situation. Going into it, and hoping for the best works some of the time, but less often than we would like. Also, it is less fun to expose yourself to so much risk, only to find yourself struggling. I found that people who are successful with such a transition manage to acknowledge their struggles, and find a way to externalize them with control. That means to be vulnerable, without appearing weak. A good tactic is to define a time and place where you let your steam off, and this can be with your manager in private, or during a run, or in the gym.
Make sure you allow people to help you
Many of us identify with the value and acknowledgement that comes from doing a task really well. Especially a critical task, under pressure. This is often what got us far in our careers, and made us really valuable team members. As a manager, your value is not defined by how well you execute a task. It will be defined by how well you can manage others to complete a task. It is much more about enabling others, and building a successful team. That is often in conflict with solving complex things yourself. The process of letting go, and accepting the new identity is difficult.
The connection of success has changed
When you were an IC, it was clear: you do a job, within a given time limit, and you do it well, and it was a success. Now things are dramatically different. What will make you successful as a manager is very different from what made you successful as an IC. Seek the conversation. Lean on your manager to understand how your success (and the team’s success) relates to her success, and the success of the broader org.
You are a steward of your teams culture
While as an IC you could do a lot of things, and if you still managed your task they didn’t have a broader effect, this will change once you are the manager. Even in a x-functional setting, your tone, the way you handle yourself under pressure, the way you respond when senior leaders put you on the spot will be looked at differently. You will carry the whole team in the way you respond. That is a big responsibility, and it is important to be intentional about it. The magic phrase here is to be prepared. If you do something for the first time, or you aren’t sure, ask for help & prepare as much as you can. Even senior product managers religiously practice their presentations for a big event. It is important, they represent the whole team, their division, and sometimes the whole organization.
Become more strategic
I used to hate this statement. I used to shout in my head: ‘What does it even mean?!?’ Well, there is meaning to it, and I think Carol A. Walker helped a lot when she wrote ‘Rookie managers commonly focus on activities rather than goals.’ That made the shoe drop for me. This is exactly what I did for so long, and had such a hard time snapping out of. Carol further suggests to ‘ask for written goals that clearly distinguish between the goals and their supporting actions.’ This reminded me a lot on the OKR process we have at Google: write the objective down, make it as measurable as you can, and then define key results which support the objective.
Be honest with people, and fast
You can’t afford to avoid the difficult conversations as a manager, you got to embrace them. This is key, and also important as a x-functional leader. Big problems are small problems left unattended, and nowhere this is more tru than with problems in a small team that needs to deliver under pressure. It is important to set the stage for honesty and sharing your feedback with your team. This isn’t just something you can ‘do on the side’, and making a plan and having a consistent structure of how to give and receive feedback is critical. Personally, I found the McKinsey way simply incredible: state what you observed, state how it made you feel, suggest a change that should be considered. It avoids my common pitfall of trying to psychologize the person or persons who I have this feedback for. It also significantly reduces the ‘stories’ I tell myself to rationalize what happened, most of them aren’t very productive anyways.
Related readings:
- ‘Saving Your Rookie Managers from Themselves‘, by Carol A. Walker which appeared in HBR April 2002
- ‘What got you here won’t get you there‘, Marshall Goldsmith (book summary)
- ‘3 phrases to give hard feedback so your colleagues don’t resent you‘, Caroline Webb, Business Insider
- ‘How to give McKinsey-style feedback: The McKinsey Feedback Model‘
