Your next opportunity may be just one conversation away from you. Let me tell you how I almost missed my chance of becoming a product lead because of my stubbornness.
I was thriving as a senior product manager, and I loved my job at limango, a German private shop for families. I was responsible for the marketplace, and we were growing faster than ever. No thoughts about changing jobs came to my mind for a while, until this phone call I rejected several times.
Summer was about to end, and I was enjoying the long days in Munich. One particular day I had seven calls from the same number. I rarely pick up the phone from unknown numbers, but this one was too persistent, I wondered what that was about. As I headed home, and waited for the train at around 5:49 pm, the person called again. At this time I decided to pick the phone.
“Hey David, how are you doing?” I almost dropped the call, but somehow I continued, even today, I don’t know why. It was a recruiter, she wanted to convince me to apply to her clients as they had open senior PM positions. I said I wasn’t interested, but she wouldn’t give up. She wanted to know what’d interest me. Without thinking, I said: “A head of product role would excite me. It’s a position I want to grow into, and it sadly doesn’t exist at my company. I want a challenge bigger than my current skills.” I thought she’d give up and walk away, but something else happened.
Somehow that recruiter connected with me, and a few days later came back with a Head of Product position. I wondered how I got myself into that because I did love my job. Once again my curiosity was too big to deny it. I went through the interviews and got the position. But I didn’t succeed as a Head of Product immediately, it was tough, and I was really unprepared for that.
What I thought a Head of Product was
Back then I was quite comfortable with the Senior PM responsibilities, and I thought a Head of Product would be a natural step up. I couldn’t be more wrong.
In my view, the Head of Product would:
- Enable outcome roadmaps so teams have flexibility with value creation.
- Coach team members to help them grow faster.
- Address systemic issues to enable smooth collaboration.
The theory sounded nice, and it still does, but reality isn’t as straightforward as that.
I started with these three points, and did my best to get the product managers to succeed. Up to a point, that happened. And I couldn’t see anything going wrong. Despite having 30+ hours of meetings a week, and being involved in almost all critical decisions, I ignored the signs.
I learned about my shortcomings after my first two weeks vacation after taking this role. Progress stalled, and teams got more confused than ever. When I returned, I learned my most critical lesson as a first time product lead.
What nobody told me
Throughout the interview, progress and results were all that mattered. I remember discussing the importance of unblocking people and giving them guidance. So I did, but I missed the point.
Nobody told me that as a Head of Product, I was no longer responsible for product. I was responsible for people building the product. And yet, I was too involved in product decisions.
Nobody told me my core responsibilities were to help people make better decisions when I wasn’t in the room. Not make decisions for them and expect perfect execution.
Nobody told me I had to master the art of questions that lead to critical thinking development. It’s embarrassing to admit today, but I was proud to give people answers when they had questions. This way, I limited their growth, and quickly became a bottleneck.
Nobody told me that I’d have to fight the corporate firewall to unlock teams to do real product management. Everyone wanted timelines, deadlines, scope, clarity, commitment to outputs, and we had none of that. We could either make up stuff, which we did sometimes, or gradually build clarity through reality, not meetings.
I did ponder if I wanted to remain in this role. A Senior PM was cool enough, and there I was with loads of new challenges I had no idea about. But in the end, I got excited about simplifying the product game.
What’s a real Head of Product
It’s interesting that everyone “demands” clarity, but try asking 10 companies what’s a head of product. You’ll probably get 10 different answers. And I daresay, you’d also get multiple variations inside the same company. That means, you won’t find one size fits all Head of Product.
Your core responsibility is to unlock value creation. How you do that is up to you. It often requires meeting your people where they are (not where you want them to be), and take them on a journey.
You’ll have to unlearn some of the skills that got you there. And you’ll need to learn new skills, especially coaching ones. Your ability to help people grow is key to your success.
Three traits you will need:
- Resilience: Things will get tough, and you’ll need to keep trying after failing a few times. That’s part of the journey.
- Communication: You’ll talk to many people who understand nothing about product. Try lecturing them if you want to fail. You’ll need to adapt your communication to what they’re familiar with. That means having the ability to convey the same message in multiple ways.
- Systemic thinking: You’ll need to read the situation, understand what helps you drive value, and what gets in the way. And then, you’ll gradually adapt that to enable your teams to drive impact faster.
Now, a hard thing for you to accept. It’ll take time to understand your impact. The same way it took time for me to learn how wrong I was. Be patient and continuously measure your impact with people around. You want to be less involved in daily decisions, and yet get great ones made when you’re not in the room.
Choose what makes you fly
Many people ask me if they must become a Head of Product. I’ll borrow a quote from Alex Hormozi, “You should do whatever you want to do.” It’s simple like that.
You can thrive as a PM, and you don’t need to become a head of product. Now you may say you want a higher pay. If you want to remain a PM, you can change to places that value PMs more. It’s still possible to get more rewards.
Head of product is a different role with different responsibilities. You should choose it when you love equipping people to thrive, giving them the credits when that happens, and taking the blame when it doesn’t. If working with people to help them grow excites you, then the head of product hat will suit you.
I became a head of product without knowing what I was stepping into. I like that so much because I wanted to enable product people to thrive. I remember how much I struggled when the environment was suboptimal, so I got excited about solving this challenge. Yet, that’s me. You need to solve the challenge you’re excited about.
Reflect on what kind of activities give you energy, and what drain you. With that, you will understand what best fits you. Do it sincerely. You can write that to me, I don’t promise to reply to everyone, but I will do my best.
Talk soon, David Pereira 100X PM Coach
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