The Hard Thing About Hard Things about Product Management
Being a Product Manager is NOT like being a CEO, even if you’ve heard many people say that Product Managers are the CEO of their products. The most clear different seems to be that Product Managers don’t usually have any direct reports while everyone essentially reports to the CEO. That said, there is one strong area of alignment: accountability. CEOs are ultimately accountable for the entire company and its business success while Product Manager are ultimately responsible for their product and its business success.
Ben Horowitz’s The Hard Thing About Hard Things is particularly insightful because he spent his early career as a Product Manager before eventually becoming a CEO and then investor. While his book focuses on the role of the CEO, there are some great lessons that Product Managers can learn from his experience.
Product Vision
Being data-driven is important but it’s dangerous to focus too much on the numbers. For example, the metrics for customer retention do not provide enough color to be a complete management tool. If you optimize solely around retention, then you lose sight of the larger picture and experience.
“It’s important to supplement a great product vision with a strong discipline around the metrics but if you substitute product vision you will not get what you want.” - The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Leaning into User Journey’s and Story Mapping here can be a good start if you don’t have a vision articulated yet. But ultimately you’ll want to define a vision that your team can rally behind. This will also empower them to make the right decisions on their own. It’s better to have the team be self-governed to some degree with you acting as a shepherd vs. the team relying on you for every decision and in the extreme putting you in place as a taskmaster.
There are no silver bullets, only lead ones
Persistence and discipline. There are never any shortcuts. If it seems too good to be true, it likely is. It’s tempting to look for the silver bullets when bringing a product to market or iterating to fend off disruptors, but the reality is that you’ll only have lead bullets at your disposal. Product Management is a daily grind that requires discipline and leadership so keep firing away.
“Hire for strengths, not lack of weaknesses.” - Colin Powell
When it comes to hiring Product Managers, required skills are so varied from job to job, but Persistence and discipline are fundamental skills for this role. If you’re ever in a position to hire for Product Manager, it’s temping to find someone who checks a lot of boxes and covers all the bases, to find the silver bullet. But there are no silver bullets, only lead ones, so hire for persistence and discipline.
Team Culture
Another similarity between CEOs and Product Managers is ownership around culture. While the CEO has ultimate responsibility around company culture, Product Managers can and should strive to create a positive culture within their team. This is something that is often overlooked or de-prioritized, especially because of the whole no direct reports situation. However, as the owner of the Product Vision, you’re in a position to set the team’s culture that will enable them to endure in when times get really hard. Keep this in mind as you’re firing your lead bullets. Set realistic targets and make sure you let the chamber cool down. Remember that product management is a marathon, not a sprint.
“We take care of the the People, the Products and the Profits in that order.” - The Hard Thing About Hard Things
“Giving the team an impossible task to complete: Crippling the army.” - Sun Zu
“If you want to go somewhere fast, go alone. If you want to go somewhere far, go together.” - African Proverb
“Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.” - Linus’s law