7 lessons I learned from 4 years of being a product manager

When I started my career in product management a few years ago, almost every Google search I did for, “What do product managers (PMs) do?” and, “What skills are required to be a good PM?” led me to this Venn diagram:

Photo credit: Martin Eriksson

The diagram shows that PMs sit at the intersection of tech, design, and business. It also provides a good insight into what I am required to do and learn. So I frantically started hoarding books on each of these subjects and read around 50 books in a span of less than a year.

And then, reality hit.

It took a fair share of building products, shedding tears (literally), and surviving several tough days to learn that product management is much more than business, UX, and tech. In fact, these three are just parts of it.

At its heart, product management is a job of grit, incessant patience, and constant emotional battles amid unwavering happiness.

After spending close to four years in the product management industry, building and collaborating on some super successful products with some of the brightest minds in the country, I’ve learned a lot of lessons along the way.

Lesson #1: PMs can’t be sad

Weird, you might say.

A typical day in the life of a PM is not about sitting in a corner, silently and thoughtfully writing a product requirements document. Instead, it’s a day filled with constant nudges from UX, tech, and business folks. There’s a lot of meetings, conversations, alignment, brainstorming, and objections.

Being a PM is the kind of sales job where the sales call never ends, where every moment is showtime. It’s a job where, in one single day, you’ll have to interact with several different stakeholders with various temperaments, personalities, motivations, needs, and emotional states.

How, then, can you afford to be sullen? How can you not be in your best? How can you not be your most excited self at any point of time? How can you win any of those sales meetings being all tired and unenthusiastic?

Happiness is key, literally.

Lesson #2: The product is not your baby

You might have heard the opposite of this a lot of times: The product is your baby. You have to care for, love, and defend it like your own. You have to give it selfless love, 24/7 unbiased attention, and blood and sweat.

But that’s wrong for two reasons.

Lesson #3: Looking for instant gratification? Maybe look for another job

Lesson #4: Learn to seek the truth, not validation

Lesson #5: Get rid of the but-I-have-done-my-bit syndrome

Lesson #6: Don’t build the product for yourself

Lesson #7: Launch day is not really the time to celebrate