15 years as a PM, 15 lessons

What I have learnt in 15 years as a product manager

Jul 30, 2024

Hey PMs

15 years ago my life changed.

I joined a startup as Employee #2 in August 2009.

Fresh off an MBA and a course from the great Steve Blank, I was super eager to try my hand at a startup. I signed up for 3 months and ended up staying for 6 years.

This startup experience was exhilarating . We went through a few pivots, had our share of ups and downs, made a lot of new friends. And a whole new set of skills.

Initially, my role was to find customers, do discovery and validation, sales, goto market and customer success. In that process, I was also defining the product and the overall experience.

That was my introduction to product management. And to do it in a new category with no funding was challenging. At that time, I had no podcasts or books or substacks to follow. I was not even aware of a title called product manager.

After the startup I joined SugarCRM and Brightedge where I launched many products.

Here are 15 lessons I learnt in the last 15 years

It is your job that things get done.
Something will go wrong , always.
No one remembers your roadmap or strategy.
Know more about your customer than them.
Give more value to customers than they expect.
What worked before might not work again.
Keeping emotions in check is a superpower.
Be cognizant of your biases.
Build your own personal north star.
Volunteer to take on projects even if it’s not in your job description.
Help your boss with something before they ask.
Life is sine wave. Up and down.
Strategy and plans are good, execution is great, outcomes are gold.
Seek mental peace.
Don’t chase success. Chase excellence. Success will chase you.

Deep dive.

It is your job to get things done.

As a PM, it is your job to get things done, even if it means going beyond your job description. You will need to work with all your stakeholders to ensure the entire customer experience is designed and ready at launch. Is Support ready? Will the press release content be approved by the CPO or CEO? Do the landing pages have the right value proposition? Once I had to work with finance to ensure the SKU for my new product was coded in the ERP, otherwise, sales would not have been able to book orders, which would have impacted my numbers.It’s not your job to do everything, but it is your job to get things done.
Something will go wrong, always.

Mr. Murphy always likes to visit. This is especially true when you are exuberant about an idea or conclusion. In fact, I now expect something will always go wrong. So plan as much as possible ahead of your launch.
No one remembers or has internalized your roadmap or strategy.

We are steeped in our product strategy and roadmap.We can rattle off the details in our sleep. But executives, stakeholders, and often even your engineers do not have that internalization. So you have to repeat yourself, often and early. Don’t worry about boring them. Err on the side of boring them.
Know more about your customer than they do.

This is a superpower I wish all PMs had. You should have a really good understanding of your customers, the users, their jobs to be done, and their challenges. Go deep into their intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for doing their jobs. It will help you develop a better product sense.

Once a client told me she was afraid of me because I knew so much about their internal systems. In fact, they used to consult me on how their existing systems worked. Even salespeople reach out to me for product-related questions, even if I am not managing that product.

Be that go-to person.
Give customers more value than they expect.

I cannot stress this enough. Especially if you are in B2B. Add so much value they cannot imagine working with someone else. Ideally, you want the entire team of PMs, support, and success to be like that. But you can start to build that culture.

I was 27 when I was building a new product for SMB manufacturers in India. One client wanted a new pricing module just for them, and they wanted it in a couple of days. My friend and I coded that thing overnight and gave it to him. After a few days, he said we saved him thousands of dollars in costs that he was negotiating with his own customers. And he offered to give me more than my invoice amount. That was the ultimate compliment.

Don’t give your customers a reason to defect.
What worked before might not work again.

Building products is very contextual. Almost like sports. You may have scored a home run against a pitcher or a sixer against a bowler, but in the next game, you may be out without scoring.Every business and every organization is different. What worked before may not work again. What does that mean? It means you need to filter your experiences through a new lens. You don’t know what will work, but you most likely will know what will not work. That is wisdom in itself.
Keeping emotions in check is a superpower.

We are emotional animals. Things can get out of hand. Keeping your emotions in check is important. If you are overly emotional, then break away from that situation for 10 minutes. Hold that email. Then resume.
Be cognizant of your biases.

Humans are wired for biases. It’s evolutionary. They are too powerful and cannot be tamed easily. But we must be aware of them. The biggest of these biases is confirmation bias.
Build your own personal north star.

Have a personal mission. What is it that you are aiming for, and keep working towards that goal? For me, it was always about building a product that my customers will ultimately get value from.That’s what drives me each day.
Volunteer to take on projects even if it’s not in your job description.

As PMs, we are always busy with our products. I suggest you take on more as per your bandwidth, even if small. I have volunteered to analyze M&A opportunities, shortlist and implement internal tools, etc.
Help your boss with something before they ask.

Ask your boss what you can help them with. I helped my bosses with their keynote slides, status reporting, organizing sessions for PM off-sites. As long as it does not take away too much time from your core work. Don’t expect a return. Just do the good deed. Rewards always follow.
Life is a sine wave.

One day you are up, the next you are down. Don’t quit. Keep going.
Strategy and plans are good, execution is great, outcomes are gold.

You need - Strategy, plans, execution.

But getting results beats them all. Show results, and the executives will want you in their next project.
A corollary learning - work at a place where you have a good chance of delivering outcomes.
Seek mental peace.

This one is a bit hard to explain. We are always frazzled at our workplace because of deadlines,poor cultures, bad bosses, and backstabbing colleagues. I have been through all. I just kept my North Star intact. I also maintained my own sanity by keeping my eyes on the prize I most sought - customer value. And then ignored the rest.

Yes, I do get tempered out sometimes. But it dies down quickly now. Outside of your workplace, keep your environment sound - money matters, relationships, etc. Because stress impacts your mental peace and your ability to be effective. You will be better able to withstand future storms.
Don’t chase success. Chase excellence. Success will chase you.

This is copied from the classic Bollywood movie 3 Idiots, incidentally released 15 years ago in 2009.

Don’t chase fancy titles or the next high-paying job. Be very good at your work and be excellent. Success will then chase you.

I have started a new bootcamp coaching for early stage startups. Check out this link to learn more. If you want to accelerate your path to initial traction, then let’s talk.

Startup Ignite Bootcamp

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