Becoming a great PM in your new role!

Key things to do in your 1st 3 months into a new product management role.

Product management, of late, is one of the most sought-after roles in the market globally. And yet, PM culture varies by organizations and even teams within larger organizations, thus making any general advice a challenge. A key aspect of any role is how you settle down into your role in the first few months; Product Managers (PMs) are no exception here.

How you spend your 1st month goes a long way toward building your career in the organization.

The objective of this article is to give the readers a flavor of what to expect and how to handle the initial few days as being a PM in a new organization. I will consciously avoid organization-specific items here and keep them generic.

I have split the focus of a PM into the below areas (MECE approach).

• Organization: How your organization functions and what is the approach to business and product from a strategic perspective.
• Product: How your organization builds products and what is the approach to product management & development.
• People: How your organization makes decisions or takes key calls across different functions.
• Technology: How is the technology area of the organization structured and driven from a leadership standpoint.
• Ecosystem: How is the organization involved in the ecosystem and how does it approach collaboration & competition.
• Customer: How does your organization approach customer relationship and experience from a directional standpoint.

You might wonder why the most important aspect of being a PM is placed last: The customer. I consciously added the topic as the last point as it helps to understand what you are building when you have a broader and better understanding of customers once you have spent time with your stakeholders.

This in no way underscores the importance of customers: in fact, it amplifies it and heightens your understanding from a contextual standpoint!

Be ready for a detailed and granular read or feel free to skip through areas you feel more comfortable. Each of the sub-areas can be focused upon by the PM in-depth to get a better understanding.

A key point to note is that the questions are guiding in nature and in no way exhaustive. It varies contextually by organizations, industry, geography, product vertical, etc.

Organization

One of the first things you would need to understand as a PM is the business aspects of your organization. A few key pointers that you should focus on here would be.

Business Tenets: Business tenets are what I tend to call the principles of the organization. As a PM, you should be aware of key things.

• What is the mission and vision of the organization?
• What are the founding principles of the organization?
• What is that the organization is looking to achieve?

Business Model: Understanding the key business aspects of your organization helps you understand how you fit into the large scheme of things. Some questions you should be clear about.

• What is the business model of the company?
• How does the company make revenue and from whom?
• Who are the primary paying customers?

Business Strategy: A key element of building a great product is to get a solid understanding of your business:

• What is the corporate strategy of the company?
• How does the company acquire, retain & monetize customers?
• How does the company work with its partners and other ecosystem players?

Business Areas: It's imperative to understand the areas of focus of your organization.

• What are the existing & upcoming lines of business and how do they work with each other?
• What is the area of focus for the organization for the next 12 months and maybe even longer (3/5 years)?
• What is the reason for focusing on specific lines of business?

Most of the above questions are basic and can be researched before joining the organization as well. Answers can be found by talking to colleagues and relevant stakeholders. Certain questions require a nuanced conversation with specific stakeholders who are involved in those areas.

This is especially important in larger companies so that you are aware of what and whom you will be working with since they tend to have teams focused on specific areas, unlike startups where the number of stakeholders tends to be lesser and lines of business a handful.

It is very important that you are comfortable understanding the landscape and the business verticals you will be working with. Ask for your teammates and reporting manager’s support to help you with business documentation and project charters.

Product

Being a PM, it's obvious that you need to know the ins and outs of your product very well! But what is equally important is to be aware of the specifics of your product area.

Product Tenets: Product tenets are what I tend to call the principles of the Product function.

• What is the Product vision?
• What is the product strategy and the product goals and objectives?
• Are the tenets designed for a product-centric or business-centric setup?

Product Team: It's very important to understand the way the team works within the broader organization.

• How is the product team structured?
• What is the level of interaction of the team with its business functions?
• How much say do they have in decision-making?

Product Stack: It's very important to understand the existing product stack of the company that you will be driving.

• What is the product stack like, in terms of modules and interaction?
• Is the entire stack independently driven by PMs or is it a collaborative effort by teams within the PM org?
• Is the stack built over a period of time with meticulous thought or is it constantly changed basis business needs?

Product Areas: These are the key areas of the focus your team is expected to drive for the organization.

• How focused are the areas that the team is expected to work on?
• Does the team have clear areas to work on or they work on an ad-hoc basis as and when needs arise?
• Do the areas of work change frequently or is it finalized in a structured manner like OKRs annual or semi-annually?

Product Culture: This is a key element of the team and how you will be working in the organization.

• Is the team empowered to make decisions?
• Is it a product-centric or business-centric team?
• Does the team work closely with its engineering counterparts or in silos?

Product Building: A key aspect of understanding is how are products shipped.

• Does the team spend time understanding a problem statement or is it just picked up for development?
• Is the team hustling with multiple items or working in a structured manner or fire-fighting?
• Are sprints planned in advance or planned as a last-minute activity before every sprint?
• Are there roadmaps maintained by the team or is just a release chart being updated after every release?

Most of the above questions are something you can make out within a couple of meetings with your business and/or engineering counterparts. It’s always helpful to have conversations with your teammates from the PM org and your reporting manager frequently to brainstorm on key challenges.

This is the most critical part of your learning curve for you as a PM. You have to spend innumerable hours poring over the modules your organization has built. Don’t forget to go through the documentation of past releases (at least 12 months) of key areas.

Spend time going through each aspect of the product stack and ask your reporting manager’s support and guidance in connecting with the right people. It becomes a challenge to work on a moving ship if you don’t know where or how’s it being steered!

People

PMs across most organizations need to interact a lot with stakeholders across functions. Being a people-intensive role, it helps to be acquainted with the individuals you will be interacting with.

Decision Makers: Every organization has decision-makers in each team who take the final call or reverse decisions.

• Who are the key decision-makers?
• How do they take decisions -isolated or collaborative?
• Is decision-making a decentralized process or centralized?

Working Style: Organizations tend to have a style of working that trickles down to everyone.

• Do teams work on a common problem statement together as a SWAT team or each team works on its own charters?
• Is hierarchy a key element or is it a flat structure?
• Is cross-functional interaction natural or is it force-fitted?

Ownership & Empowerment: It's important to understand the sphere of ownership a PM has.

• Does PM get a specific requirement or a broader problem?
• Do stakeholders make data-driven decisions or instinct-driven?
• Do stakeholders expect to be involved in each decision?

Product Perception: Perception here is the way PMs are perceived by your stakeholders in the organization.

• Are PMs looked at as problem solvers or just glorified project managers?
• Are PMs allowed to challenge the status quo or is it just build-as-given expectation?
• Are PMs seen as gatekeepers for the technology team or seen as problem solvers?

Working with people will be the most interesting and challenging aspect of being a PM. And that’s where the above questions help you address the way you go about adapting to the environment. It's very important to know how decisions are made and the expectations from a PM.

It's very important to understand specifics around how the organization functions -process or outcome-driven. You typically get to know this within a month of joining and understanding how features are prioritized and rolled out to customers and how it's communicated as well.

While it's normal to interact with key stakeholders during meetings, I strongly suggest setting up time with people you work with regularly so that you are aligned. It also goes a long way in building a personal rapport and driving greater alignment and empowerment to yourself as a PM!

Technology

Being a PM, you are expected to be well versed on the technology front as they will be a key stakeholder. Technology is a beast in itself and requires specific focus by PMs as part of onboarding.

Technology Focus: A critical aspect is the level of importance technology is given in the organization.

• Is the Product/Tech team part of decision-making and planning for business needs or just focused on execution?
• Is the Product/Tech team seen as delivering impact or just shipping features?
• Is Technology seen as an intervention forced by management because of the market or genuinely valued by the organization?

Tech Team: Working with the tech team closely is a given understanding and it’s important to understand how they work.

• How is the tech team structured?
• Is decision-making centralized?
• Are the techies hustlers or is it a laid-back attitude?
• How does the team perceive PMs and vice versa?

Tech Stack: Understanding the tech stack is a critical component of your understanding.

• Is the stack built well capable of handling changing business requirements?
• Is the business team constantly complaining about tech’s state of affairs?
• How well does the stack measure up in the industry?

Tech Interaction: Working with the tech team is going to be a daily thing and it helps to understand their working style.

• Do they look up to PMs as drivers or just a layer of decision-makers?
• Do they get involved in each step or just want to pick up requirements after the PM has finalized everything?
• Do the various teams within Technology coordinate among themselves or need PM intervention?

Tech Understanding: A requirement from PMs is their understanding of technology.

• Does the engineering team expect/want you to be involved in technical aspects?
• Does the QA team run test cases by you before release?
• Do PMs get involved in technical architecture and performance?

Working with the technology teams will be just the opposite of working with business stakeholders. You need to deep-dive into specifics and understand the nuances of technology and its impact on the end customer and vice versa — how do you introduce technology that really impacts your customers.

Most of the above items require a couple of months for any PM to get a hang of. This is typically learned after you start getting involved in stand-ups, sprint reviews, or retrospectives. And most frequently, when you start writing the requirements of your first feature!

It's easy to underestimate the impact and the involvement you as a PM would have from a technology standpoint. Building rapport with your tech counterparts, having regular meetings and constantly involve them in planning discussions goes a long way in fostering collaboration.

Ecosystem

An often ignored aspect in the PM role is the amount of energy you need to spend in keeping up with trends in the market as well as finding innovative ways to build great products with support from the ecosystem.

External Focus: A key element to focus upon in the areas of focus of your organization.

• Which areas of the market influence product decisions and how much?
• How much market research do you need to do as PM?
• How does the organization work with the ecosystem players?

Regulatory Understanding: A lot of products undergo regulatory scrutiny, especially catering to financial services.

• How are the regulators that impact your product?
• What areas of the product is the regulator focused on?
• How critical is compliance as part of product requirements?

Market Dynamics: Understanding the movers & shakers of the market is critical, not just competitors.

• Is the market controlled/dominated by large players?
• Is the market a dynamic one or something that changes steadily over time?
• Is it customer-driven or business-driven or a hybrid one?

Competitive Dynamics: Understanding the competitive dynamics is a critical part of the role.

• Who are your key competitors and what’s their moat?
• Are you building for the same customers or a niche segment?
• Are your customers talking about them or are they just another fish in the pond?

Collaborative Mechanics: Understanding areas of collaboration and partnership goes a long way in scaling products.

• Are there players who can help you scale or go live faster?
• Are there channels that you can tap to acquire customers or collaborate for a better customer experience?
• Are the PMs working closely with the ecosystem players for greater business impact and customer experience?

Working with an ecosystem is imperative for every PM. No organization can build everything they need themselves — they need support from collaborative partners. This is important from a product philosophy standpoint and influences product innovation and go-live.

This aspect of an organization is not hard to identify and PMs can understand the market dynamics well before joining the organization. As you get into the role and talk to stakeholders and partners, you develop a deeper and nuanced understanding of the industry you are operating in.

Ecosystems have been built or destroyed due to products being launched by competitors or even partners! It's important to understand how you gain the most through collaborating as well as identify market opportunities by understanding upcoming trends so that you build for leverage and competitive advantage.

Customer

The most abused word, yet the most under-rated one. In the end, whatever is being built is for customers. It needs no emphasis to ensure you have the best understanding of your customer in your line of business!

Customer Strategy: Understanding the experience (CX) aspects is critical early on as you join.

• How important is CX for your product?
• Is CX a key differentiator for your product offering or is it just a value-add?
• Are the decision-makers aligned on the role of CX in your organization?

Customer Segments: Knowing your customers is going to be always the top-most priority as a PM.

• Who are your customers? Are your customers also the end-users or just decision-makers?
• What customer segments use your products the most? Which segment of the broader industry uses your product?
• Which segment do you see the most interest in your offerings?

Customer Attributes: Understanding the nuances of customers helps in focusing your effort in the right direction.

• Who is the decision-maker from your customer side?
• How frequently is your product used? How critical is your product to your customers?
• Who is the end-user of your product and how much say do they have in decision making?

Customer Service: Understanding the CS lifecycle is critical to addressing the right problems.

• Which part of CS is the most challenging to solve?
• Do you have a separate team for support and do they understand the product?
• How do you retain and motivate your customers into using your offering?

Understanding customer attributes is always a critical area when it comes to being a PM. It helps a lot that you understand the end-to-end funnel and experience aspects upfront, either by directly interacting with customers or talking to your sales & support teams.

It's easy to understand customer behavior in Consumer businesses through data, unlike B2B where PMs need to be involved on calls to gain a deeper understanding. Talk to customers, read support tickets, connect with internal teams-do whatever it takes to get a good understanding of your customer.

Spending time understanding customer challenges takes time but it's totally worth the effort. In the end, whatever you are building is being bought because a customer is happy with your product, which is your primary KRA! It helps to bring up the customer discussions in each of your stakeholder interactions.

Summary

Let’s be honest. No individual can start delivering impact from day 1 (unless they spent a lot of time before with stakeholders). PMs are no exceptions here. It takes a concerted effort on part of the PM as well as the reporting manager to ensure the individual understands their role well.

Jumping to solve problems is very enticing but it can be a short-lived impact. Instead spend time systematically across the relevant areas that impact your product. While it might take more time, it creates a sustainable impact and more importantly builds confidence among your stakeholders.

In summary, focus on the below points in your first month (and beyond that as well).

• Ask Questions: There’s no such thing as ‘right’, ‘wrong’, ‘dumb’ or ‘good’ questions. Just ask ‘em! People won’t answer unless you ask.
• Drive Clarity: There’s nothing better than gaining a clearer understanding of your role. Keep talking to more people for greater clarity & context.
• Communicate: There’s nothing more important than communication. Spend time explaining your thoughts to stakeholders
• Build Rapport: There’s nothing more important than people. Period. Invest time and effort in building relationships with your stakeholders.

I personally believe that asking the above questions, again and again, helps you to not only gain a good understanding of your role when you join but even when you are years into the role! I have personally seen this as a highly effective tool in driving greater clarity and alignment among stakeholders.

I sincerely believe you will benefit from some of the pointers based on my experience in Product Management across various organizations (Fintech, B2C, B2B Product, Enterprise). It helps one become a better individual, not just a Product Manager.

Feel free to drop your thoughts or feedback. If you have any suggestions on what I should write next, do drop a note as well.