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> great product managers are leaders without authority This is something that I really hadn't thought about before now. I used to work for a great product mana
by HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
> great product managers are leaders without authority
This is something that I really hadn't thought about before now. I used to work for a great product manager. He had a deep understanding of the problem space, expert-level knowledge of the technology we used and was an amazing customer advocate and pushed for us to always consider the customer first.
Unfortunately, as a human being, he was kind of a Type-A asshole. And he was also the CEO. That meant that right or wrong, he would usually get his way, even if it meant changing priorities 5 times in 3 days. To his credit, he realized that he had blind spots, and he would challenge us to push back against him. But realistically, how hard are people going to push back against the guy signing their paychecks?
Take away the authority he held as CEO, and I maintain that the company would have achieved far greater results.
- Tehnix 3y ago> even if it meant changing priorities 5 times in 3 days That kind of thing is exactly what an EM is there to stop. I’ve faced similar problems a couple of times, and it takes a lot of effort to correct the ship into a healthy Product/Engineering organization, but it can be done. There are tangible downsides to switching priorities constantly, and beyond inefficiency, team morale usually also takes a hit. Now, without an EM, whose responsibility is it to stop this? No one’s really, it doesn’t land on anyone’s plate, so you either have to hope one of your colleagues with enough organizational leverage steps up, or do it yourself.