Recap 2021

Top 3 learnings and reads

We have been busy with all things planning the last few months (much like most of you!). Last week, we finally found time to reflect on what 2021 was like and share some of our top learnings and a reading list for the holidays.

Here is a list of top 3 learnings and readings from last year at HowToPM:

🤓 Learnings 🤓

1. Importance of breadth over depth: This came up in conversations with folks across all different types of PM roles. Paty, Staff Product Manager at ServiceNow summed it best

“The biggest challenge for me was shifting from depth to breadth. As a PM, you don’t need to be the subject matter expert in one field but you need to know enough about all fields related to the product. You need to make sure that you are the voice of the customer, you are influencing different teams and really bringing everyone together to work with a shared vision.” - Paty Millán Montesinos, ServiceNow

Read more about Paty’s experience switching from Data Science to PM

2. Most important resources in the product management journey: There are books, courses and then there are people. Across 25+ people we spoke to in the last couple of years, all have highlighted people as their most important resources in the PM journey.

Robin, Product Manager at Instagram said:

“My first engineering manager was a great resource. I felt like we were start-up co-founders and loved it. He provided a lot of context to the team to share the vision. Also, he got me up to speed with the technical details. In a way, he gave me agency - a feeling that I continued to recreate in any project that I take on as PM.” 

Read more about Robin’s experience switching from PMM at Google to PM at Instagram

3. The little things matter: The idea of Product Management is often glamorized with being the “CEO of a Product.” In reality though, you are not the CEO since the people who you interact with do not report to you - they are stakeholders that need to be influenced without authority. To build rapport, there is a set of small, yet powerful activities to help you become an effective Product Manager. 

Read our post on the 5 habits of highly effective PMs

📚 Reads📚

1. PM & EM: Rules of Engagement - Love this framework (screenshot below) around who owns what kind of decisions to build a strong PM & EM partnership. This will vary a bit with your specific context, a great starting point nevertheless.

2. Worldbuilding - This article is one of our favorite reads from the year. It is not specific but very applicable to product management since building narratives is a big part of the role.

“Everyone’s job is world-building, even if they don’t realize it…The more complex or valuable is whatever you’re trying to sell, the more important it is for you to build a world around that idea, where other people can walk in, explore, and hang out – without you having to be there with them the whole time.”

3. Product Life - This blog is a reflection from a PM at Facebook. There is a lot of rich content but one particular graphic resonates with us. When you oversee a few product areas, you may have different levels of involvement, ranging from the tactical to the strategic activities, given the maturity of the area. Yet, two tasks are the utmost important - As a PM, you are always responsible for Roadmapping and Product Decisions.

Are there any other resources you found helpful in the last year? Please share with us and let us know if you’d like to share them with the rest of the community.