25 lessons I've learned at the end of the 2-year rotational product management program
Some of the most meaningful and powerful nuggets that continue living in my head rent free
Your manager holds disproportionate power over your growth and happiness both inside and outside of work. If you can, make it your #1 goal to choose a great manager. They won’t control your happiness directly, but they can create a positive work environment that encourages you to prioritize your well-being by promoting healthy work-life balance and encouraging open communication about your needs. Ask other RPMs which PMs they admire and respect. You’ll get a vetted list that you can use to further narrow down through meet-and-greets.
Your title can subconsciously affect how others respond to your requests. ‘Product Manager 1’ connotes inexperience and can unfortunately also subliminally signal ‘this person is not important, I won’t respond to them and/or take them seriously’. ‘Product Manager’ removes leveling as a signal and can help bring focus to the problem and not the person. This stems from the organizational philosophy that “it’s about what you do, not what you’re called”, practiced at both Stripe and OpenAI.
Don’t be afraid to be wrong and fail. In fact, aim to prove yourself wrong. These programs have built-in learning environments for you to make mistakes with virtually no risk.
Some of the most growth can come from thinking like a Principal PM, even if you aren’t one. Don’t put yourself in a box based on what your current title says you are and limit what you can do.
You need to be the biggest advocate for yourself and your career - no one else will be. Always keep an inventory of your work and your impact, and share it loudly and proudly, especially when it comes to your mid-year/year-end reviews.
Related: Never assume your work speaks for itself; speak for your work in all forums–1:1s, experience reviews, year-end reviews, launch posts, etc. Expose your work and make your value visible and known.
There’s magic in working with a cross-functional team that hold the same values and motivations as you: doing what’s best for the customer, raising the bar of excellence for the craft, staying curious, and enjoying the process more than the outcome. Seek these people out. They’ll push your thinking and keep you sane.
You can realistically(!) achieve financial independence early if you start investing in tax-advantaged accounts now! Take the time to learn (or bother RPMs passionate about personal finance) about personal finance, especially now that you’ve got a proper job and are earning more than you ever have before. It’ll pay dividends down the road en route to early retirement.
A healthy amount of skepticism couldn’t do you harm. Question the data and the results when something seems too good to be true.
Fake it ‘til you make it; that’s what everyone else is secretly doing.
Community becomes especially important when you aren’t getting what you need from your direct manager. Lean on the community to fill in where your manager or team cannot. It’s likely that someone has encountered and survived a similar situation as you. Ask for help, and then return the favor by providing help to keep the community thriving.
Whether you’re going for speed or quality, make it clear what you’re prioritizing and declare it. As important as it is to have both, you can only really do one of them well. By declaring one, you end up moving faster than attempting both since everyone understands what the goal is and can rally behind it to achieve it.
A paradox to innovating in 0-1 products quickly is to throw more people at the problem. But by introducing more opinions into the mix, you increase the coordination costs of needing discussion and alignment. The best teams to work on these projects are nimble, self-sufficient, and lean, which ultimately expedites the time to execution.
Only focus on what you can control. It’s a massive waste of energy to focus your attention on people, ideas, and processes you can’t change.
Related: Work on the most impactful things; don’t spend much time on the rest. But also be a good team player and don’t say no to everyone and everything.
Find the right hills to die on. (Save your lives and your energy! No one should be dying three times a week. Seriously, that’s a lot of death for a week.)
A lot of problems can be solved when leadership is aligned at the top—this is where escalations can be useful and often necessary. Consider escalations as a tool in your toolbox, and learn how to wield them.
When you see something, say something. Be a productive complainer.
Rest assured, you’re not crazy!!! When you feel like you’re going mad, talk it out with someone you trust—ideally your manager, but if not your manager, then a trusted mentor who can provide an additional perspective and sanity check.
The key difference between the different PM levels and titles, and what vastly differentiates a principal PM from a junior PM, is the ability to influence (imo one of the most DIFFICULT skills to master).
Consider the conditions in which research was conducted before you use it as empirical data to not move forward with an approach because “it’s been tried before.” The world moves quickly, and sometimes the assumptions you’ve held in the past just no longer remain true.
You can make your own luck by simply asking for what you want. Put it out there in the world, then put it out there again, then put it out there again. The magical powers that be will make it happen.
Relationships and skills are a few durable assets that no one can take away from you, not even a company. Invest in building them, they’ll yield the largest returns.
Remember to have fun! Take advantage of the light baggage of responsibilities you have as a new grad just entering the workforce. Enjoy the extra pockets of time to learn, explore, and try new things. And as much as you think the whole fate of the company rests on your shoulders, it fortunately does not. That would be maddeningly stressful. Log off at 5. Take PTO. Go travel the world while you still can.
The best part of any rotational product management program is the other RPMs you meet in the program. They’re not just co-workers, colleagues, or work friends – they can be your personal board of advisors, figures of inspiration, and friends for life who were there with you when you transitioned from an unsure baby new grad apprentice to a confident (but weathered) adult-turned PM veteran. Make time each month to check in, catch up, and send them cool/funny things you find on the Internet.