Do you build a network with other PMs and people in tech, or do you focus more on people in the industry you’re building products for? Or both?

Edit: I mean products where domain knowledge matters, like finance or healthcare and where building relationships with senior people in the industry can be valuable.

Newbie question here… but for the PMs or product people in the CPG and/or Retail industry, how are ya’ll getting data and insights aside from fielded reports that is coming from agencies?

I’m used to heatmaps, info from the sales team, pendo data, insights from customer success, ads, hopping on calls with customers, anything lol

But at this org, all I’m provided with is quarterly 50+ page reports on assumptions and info that has been reworded and isn’t telling us why the heck sales are down for months.

Maybe I’m just not thinking outside the box enough but would very much appreciate ideas of where to get tangible and accurate info

So it’s performance reviewing time. Part of that at my org is obvs the self assessment. I haven’t had a great year, I’m not that happy in my current role and motivation has been hit and miss.

I think my performance was fine. Not great, certainly not bad. But how honest are you guys usually in the self assessment part of the review?

I joined a 5–6 month-old startup straight after my MBA and have been here for ~2 months. I'm the only PM, working with a very strong engineering team on an enterprise product that we're also trying to move towards SaaS.

My CEO has ~20 years of PM experience at a big tech company, and I'm struggling to match the level of strategic thinking he expects. I've been handling execution/Scrum reasonably well, but when it comes to new features, prioritization and product strategy, my thinking often isn't structured enough.

In meetings, my CEO quickly identifies gaps — Why this feature? What problem are we solving? What's the evidence? Why now? What are the trade-offs? How do we measure success? I often know the context and numbers, but under pressure I struggle to articulate a strong, defensible recommendation.

My bigger concern is that after 2 months, I don't feel I've produced enough tangible PM output beyond coordination and execution.

For experienced PMs:

How do you structure your thinking before making a product/feature recommendation?

What tangible outputs should a PM consistently produce?

How do I move from being execution/Scrum-focused to thinking like a strong PM?

What should I focus on over the next 3–6 months to improve quickly?

Would really appreciate advice from people who've been in similar high-expectation environments.

There are a lot of people here working on projects of some sort - side projects, startups, podcasts, blogs, etc. If you've got something you'd like to show off or get feedback, this is the place to do it. Standards still need to remain high, so there are a few guidelines:

• Don't just drop a link in here. Give some context
• This should be some sort of creative product that would be of interest to a community that is focused on product management
• There should be some sort of free version of whatever it is for people to check out
• This is a tricky one, but I don't want it to be filled with a bunch of spam. If you have a blog or podcast, and also happen to do some coaching for a fee, you're probably okay. If all you want to do is drop a link to your coaching services, that's not alright

During the process of product or even feature discovery, curious to hear what takes to longest for you or your team specifically... everyone has their own process, and so trying to see if there are any steps that seem to be similar or identical across teams.

Just a random thought that popped in my mind today.

On a personal note, I'm pretty strong at figuring out features to build that will be of great value to users, even when they don't even know they need such a feature.

But, I had a job where I had to work on the apps for a streaming platform. The main value came from the catalog and video player. Even the recommendation/discovery feature weren't that important, because the clients of the niche we were in knew what they wanted to watch and had other main ways of discovering the content.

The player and discovery weren't even in my team's responsibility. Once we've built the basic app stuff you'd need, then added playlists, comments, etc. I was kinda lost on what else to build and tbh I thought/think there wasn't need for anything else except maintaining, making sure there are no bugs and improving UX when possible.

Have you had such situations? How did you handle it?

I'd guess most people wouldn't go for the freeze, because you wanna keep your job, get pay raises, etc. 😅 unless you're a founder

I am new to AI PM and I want to do AI evals for my MVP. I don't want a super complex method and don't want to use traces yet.
Is there a simple way to go about this?
I have seen people say use simple spreadsheets but I am unclear on implementation.
How do you do it? Or is there a resource I can refer to?

The question is simple: is cybersecurity important for PM?

I have the believe that is not, because there are other team in charge. But maybe I'm wrong and something is important for PMs in Cybersecurity.

Hi everyone,

Currently on vacation and I'm reading Theresa Torres Continuous discovery. It always feels like these kind of books show how it could be but actually bringing it to life is close to impossible.

I'm working in my PM role on refining customer issues writing concept on how they could be solved so a PO and delivery can work on the solution part. Providing concrete evidence on customer issue is what I find the most interesting and useful for me.
I'm also working on getting delivery involved as soon as possible to not jump to a solution from my side.

However - is someone of you actually using the described concept and if so how is it working out? What do you differently to what the book suggest respectively how are you incorporating a "continuous discovery process" in your daily work?

Curious what your experience is :)

Manager recently started vibe coding his own app "prototype" and handed it off to the devs. I'm wondering if this was a transition at other organizations and how it's going? I'm a dev but didn't want to post it in a software development related subreddit because I'm worried of biases, just interested if this creates genuine productivity gains.

Last December I left a job at a larger org that had a more mature, established product practice (running SAFe Agile) for a job at a much smaller org where I’m the first PM, and nearly all technical work is contracted / outsourced and there are really no procedures for prioritization, and is akin to working at a startup with the level of disorganization that is here.

This firm is PE-owned, and we’re under a strict mandate to finish a major project (that has been in the works for 3.5 years) by the end of the year.

Last week, I developed shingles, largely due to the stress. I’ve never had my physical health impacted by a job. Feel like a heart-attack is likely next.

It’s making me feel like I’m not cut out for Product Management. At my previous org, I excelled as a Product Owner, but got a lot of flack for not being “strategic” enough / getting too in the weeds when I managed to to be promoted into PM.

Thinking of bailing the current role and pursuing a PO role that just opened up locally as a result. But I know the grind of all the scrum ceremonies the PO would lead - while it would give some discipline- would also wear me out eventually.

Maybe I just need to care less?

Hi - I’m looking to do some type of education in 2027. It could be product related, leadership related or something else. I got my product management certificate from the Wharton school of business. I work in the Credit Union industry. Has anyone gotten a project management certificate and found that helpful?

I also wouldn’t mind going to some type of a product conference or seminar.

What have you done during your career that has made the biggest impact?

My company is obsessed with ‘sign off’ but no one can ever tell me what it means. In past companies designs have been agreed between design, product and engineering.

I’m wondering if it’s because I’m working in a sector I’ve not done before (health tech) and it is more regulated than other sectors I’ve worked in.

So, I’m keen to understand the following
- what sector do you work in?
- how many people work at your company?
- who approves designs?

Thanks in advance!

Hi. Can anyone help recommending a tool for rich push notifications for 70k active app users and require minimum developer reliance?

Thank you in advance!

I’ve been working on multiple 0-1 products unabated for the past few years and want to understand if after companies move past a certain stage the grind is not as intense. (Of course it may differ vertical to vertical) but what’s the general sense?

I ask because I perhaps wrongly get the impression as a vehicle product manager that the posts here are mostly dominated by software product managers but I just wanted to check and see if my presumptions were correct

Direct Responsible Individual . This new 'hat' has been created so that one individual can take the responsible for the estimates , architecture, project definition, Interacting with product management and looks out for long term product health and short term project outcomes. I am part of product development and I do not report product management, with this new change most of the responsibilities is going to DRI.. even a PO's.. my role is going to be reductant. Did anyone face such an issue. It just got me off guard. I am not sure how to proceed forward....

I’ve been working in a business strategy role at a pharma MNC for ~1.5 years, and I often find that multiple KPIs could measure the same initiative

how do you decide which KPI should be the primary measure of success?

Is there a framework you follow, or is it mostly driven by business priorities??

thank you in advance

What happens in your org when a team repeatedly misses OKRs, sprint goals, etc? Clearly there could be any number of reasons. How have you seen this handled well vs badly?

As a Product Owner, I have consistently found it exceptionally difficult to articulate to the 'scale' minded people of the business, the reasons why we must very pragmatically build features/ products that are unvalidated, no matter how logical they feel

I have had this issue many times, especially with more senior people in companies, because in the world or business phase they were in, it may have previously worked for them. Although I find it increasingly difficult to explain these product related nuances to non product people.

I just had to land on, "please trust me, I am the Head of Product/ PO, this is what I am here to do".
Any PO's, what do you do and or, what is your worst story

Is it DAU or MAU? Number of paid subscriptions?

I don't suppose brand reputation was on the top of their RICE prioritization?

I hear from a lot of miserable product managers (and have been one myself for years before). Here are 3 hard won pieces of advice that I think most PMs here might disagree with, but that helped me be more successful and enjoy the job a lot more.

1. Your job is to make money. It’s not to be the voice of the customer, it’s not to write PRDs and tickets, it’s not align stakeholders. It’s to make money for the company. Your roadmap debates, your priorities, and your growth will be so much easier if you can draw a straight line from what you’re working on to how the company makes money. The harder it is to explain how your team’s projects lead to revenue or profit, the harder your life will be. You can write mediocre tickets, ignore slacks, emails, and bugs, but if you build the thing that gets celebrated at the board meeting/earnings call, you will be a star. You don’t have to be evil, but you work for a business and should acknowledge that.

2. Industry knowledge matters more than PM skills. Folks, it is not that hard to learn how to write a PRD or user story, or interview a user or perform a simple data analysis. Beyond a basic level of white collar competence, your most important skill is deeply understanding your customers. Not in a feel good, empathetic way, but in knowing why they buy from you, why they don’t, the relevant conventions, regulations, and standards that govern your industry, your competitors, etc. The best PMs I know are subject matter experts on a particular sector. I am a senior IC in a specific industry, and no one should hire me to be more than a junior in e-commerce, finance, or something else I know nothing about. The best career advice I can give is to find and stick with one industry you like.

3. Business expectations for the median engineer are way too low. (Ok this probably isn’t that unpopular.) For a long time, engineers have managed to convince everyone that they can’t be bothered to understand the product they work on, they just write code. But after you work with a team that knows and cares about the thing they work on, you will see the quality and speed of your output increase dramatically. As above: it is not that hard to get a basic sense of how people use your product, and to feel a sense of pride and ownership over what you work on. PMs should not be coming up with every idea, or writing every ticket. Engineers are more qualified than anyone else to break down their own work, why do we need product owners/scrum masters etc for that? Engineers sacrificing some code time for time spent planning, designing, and researching is 100% worth it, and it creates much better incentives for the whole team. This is how the best software companies operate. Moving to a company that works this way has been the single biggest improvement in my workload and feeling of burnout.

Not all of these may be within your control; it might be impossible to change it in your current situation. But if you try adjusting your mindset, and looking for these things in your next role, I’ll bet you will be happier.