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Your go-to checklist for influencing product managers Five factors to understand for you to drive more change in your organization Read on the web

You know how obsessed I am with having a clear, well-articulated vision for your product culture. I believe that having this put together can unify your team and improve your product operations generally.

I'm trying to create a repeatable workshop that I can do with a product leadership team to help them get aligned on what that product culture looks like. The goal is to wrap up the meeting with an outline of your Product Culture Blueprint.

I'm looking for beta testers – my goal is to run this workshop 5 times before the end of September. I'm offering the workshop for free – if you want to do this activity with me, please hit reply and let me know! If your company is a fit, we will get it scheduled.

Best,
Jenny

Free workshop? Count me in!

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Your go-to checklist for influencing product managers

Five factors to understand for you to drive more change in your organization

At its most basic level, one could argue that product operations is about changing product managers’ behavior. You seem to agree – 39% of you replied that you want more articles on how to influence change.

I find it useful to convince product managers to change by thinking first about their most basic needs, then about more complicated factors.

When my two preschoolers are upset, I run through the same checklist that most other parents have. (Don’t worry, I’m not saying that product managers are like preschoolers.) Are they tired, hungry, hot, or cold?

Only once I’ve checked off each of those items do I think about more complex factors, like feeling lonely or jealous. (This same checklist works on me – I get hangry too!)

I’ve worked on changing the behavior of product managers at a dozen different companies. This list is my basic checklist for product managers – I don’t try making changes until I have accounted for these five basic objections.

The special treatment product managers (may) need

Product managers have it extra tough in five key ways. If you can design a solution for them that works within those challenges, they’ll be more likely to see you as a hero helping them thrive than as a meddler trying to add process and bureaucracy to their lives.

Your users face unique challenges in their roles beyond (or different from) these five. Conduct user research to find those challenges that are particular to your company.

Once you’ve got a good understanding of your colleagues’ experiences, it’s time to implement some infrastructure. If you’ve done good research and take this checklist into account, you’re far more likely to see some wins here.

1. Product management isn’t really a team.

In most companies I’ve worked with, I wouldn’t describe product management as a team, per se.

A team works together to achieve a unified goal.

Product managers work on different goals, with different teams of engineers and designers. They are only on the product management team insofar as they share the same title.

They connect with other product managers on occasion – to sync up on a cross–functional initiative or for professional development.

The majority of a product manager’s time is spent with the development team.

A lot of product operations work may not impact day-to-day work with the development team. If it doesn’t impact their day-to-day, it could lower the perceived value of the change.

How I work around this

I emphasize the benefits to the product development team wherever possible. Then I highlight the benefits to the product manager’s day-to-day. The benefits to the product management team and company come last.

2. Calendar chaos

If you have ever tried to schedule a meeting with a product manager, you have seen how packed their calendar is.

I always feel guilty – I need to talk to you and so am booking the last 30 minutes you had free today.

Imagine if your calendar were that packed (or don’t imagine, because your calendar does look like that) – how would you react to something else dropping on your plate?

When my calendar was packed, I did not welcome an hour-long training session. I did not welcome another meeting. I did not welcome tight deadlines to fill in a template.

How I work around this

Keep changes small, fast, and simple. Make sure it can be communicated with a message or a 5-minute video. If there are deadlines associated with making the change, put them far enough out that the PM can plan around it.

The double win – prioritize changes that take a meeting off their calendar. Fewer meetings will (almost) always get more support than more meetings.

Once you’ve freed up some of their time, you will have a lot more goodwill to make asks of them in the future.

3. A picky audience

Product managers spend a lot of time thinking about user experience (UX). Many of them consider themselves experts in discerning a good UX from a bad one.

Bad UX makes a lot of PMs grumpy.

Being forced to use bad UX makes a lot of PMs extra grumpy.

Bad UX isn’t limited just to interface design. Think about the end to end steps that the PM has to take. Are they being asked to do something streamlined and efficient, or are there gotchas, easy errors, and digging around required?

How I work around this

Prototype your solutions with PMs to get their feedback on the UX. This can work whether you’re introducing a new process, tool, meeting, or just about anything else.

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Collect feedback on the experience. Ask them if it’s solving a real problem and how the UX is serving them (or not).

Be ready to iterate on your designs based on their feedback. Don’t create more busywork for them.

4. The pesky entrepreneurial spirit

I don’t know what percentage of PMs have dreams of entrepreneurship. But there’s a long history of PMs becoming founders.

So we’ll just say that PMs often have the “entrepreneurial spirit”.

Here’s the rub: good entrepreneurs are not good at following the rules. If they see something blocking their way, they’ll figure out a workaround.
This also makes them great product managers.

But when trying to convince them to change their ways, if they see a change and they don’t like it, there’s a decent chance that they’ll ignore it or work around it.

How I work around this

The change I’m asking a PM to make has to be easier than the status quo. The benefit needs to be crystal clear. It needs to solve a real problem.

Then I emphasize the benefit to them over and over. In writing, in meetings, and by asking them to reflect on the new experience.

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Make the desired behavior the obviously better choice. Remove the desire to circumvent the initiative.

5. Entry-level product manager is an oxymoron

Hyperbole aside, there are relatively few entry-level product managers. This means product managers almost always bring several years of work experience to the job

The more experience a person has, the more opinions they have on what it looks like when something is “done right”.

This also means that they know when something is really important to do or follow, and when they can ignore what I’m trying to get them to do. (see “entrepreneurial spirit”)

How I work around this

I actually see their seniority as a huge advantage, rather than a hurdle. Lucky me – opinionated users who want the problem solved!

Many (if not all) of them come from other companies. Someone has probably seen this problem solved elsewhere.

I lean into user research with the product management team.

Figure out what their expectations are. Learn if they’ve seen this solved well elsewhere. I collaborate whenever and wherever they’ll let me.

Product managers struggle with change management too

To go deeper down the rabbit hole: product managers are also always struggling with change management.

While we’re trying to change product manager behavior, product managers are attempting to change user behavior.

Develop empathy with them and help them develop empathy with you.

I’ve got some more tactical change management techniques in my email course, From Resistance to Results. If you like what you’re reading here, you might like that too.

Even though product managers like to see ourselves as unique and special, we’re people too. When in doubt, default back to building relationships and trying to make their lives easier, one step at a time.

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Thank you to my early reviewers Ashleigh Zustra, Rebecca Abernathy, and Holly Holbrook. Your comments added clarity and helped me make sure I didn’t take anything too over-the-top.