How to have more visibility as a PM 🚀

My cultural background as an Austrian is one where self-promoting is looked us with scepticism. It is suspicious if you need to promote your own work. For Product Managers, promoting the work the team is doing is key. There are ways to do it well.

Outward looking visibility

This is the form of visibility where you like to give a view on what you do to the team, stakeholders, and sponsors. This form of visibility is concerned with the outputs of your work. Successful PMs do the following:

• Send updates to leads on a regular basis
• Connect with existing formats of distribution, such as newsletters
• Schedule your product reviews

Inward looking visibility

The visibility where you take in what matters and calibrate. This is used to calibrate the work you do, and how to position and frame the work. As a PM, you need to be dialed into what matters. Do this by:

• Attend Product Reviews on topics which are related to your area.
• Visit office hours of leads on a regular basis
• Join AMA discussions with leads, and ask questions
• Speak to folks who work in adjacent areas

Make it important

Not all news are important. Sometimes it is valuable to consider what makes new important, and lean in. If your project is considered critical, consider labeling this urgency. Tactic include:

• Raise the status of the project to ‘at risk’, if the data warrants that.
• Call a ‘code yellow / red’ if the project is truly in a bad shape and advanced measures need to be taken.

Ultimately, a big part of the PM role is to make sure work is seen by others. Always remember that you are not in it alone, you don’t need to remember everything. Give visibility into what matters and help will come to you.

Take Action 🎬

📅 Book a private coaching session with me to grow your PM career. I will share my 15+ years of experience as a Product Manager, all my learning and pitfalls, with actionable tips and concrete lessons to model after.