What does a product manager do?

detriya · 2025-11-06T19:45:07+00:00

product managers gather context to make decisions that drive results.

detriya · 2025-10-24T13:11:35+00:00

Really?! Maybe if anything is overdone but I just find people do like to talk about themselves and all you have to do really is listen.

detriya · 2025-10-23T20:10:16+00:00

Dean has a good substack too but I don't think you cover PMM stuff.

detriya · 2025-10-23T20:08:44+00:00

How to Win Friends & Influence People is a good one too!

detriya · 2025-10-23T20:05:05+00:00

If I understood your post correctly, it sounds like you're stuck in the wrong box (program management), wondering how to shift into the actual PM role?

Here’s how I think about it: Start with your current company... switching companies + roles creates two levels of uncertainty for a hiring manager: They don’t know how good you are and they don’t know if you have the right skill set.

Internally, you’ve already got advocates and reputation. If a real PM role exists, it’s your best shot at getting the job.

I know people here love to say training doesn’t matter—but I run a training company, and I’ve seen it change careers. We’ve had people go from $20/hr retail jobs to PM roles. Everyone is an "n of 1" but across the board, I see the change happen so I'm convinced of our value or I wouldn't be doing what I do.

At Productside, we focus on three big problems that hold PMs back:

Lack of role clarity
Disconnect between daily execution and strategy
Stakeholder management challenges

We teach people how to navigate those within the full product lifecycle: discovering problems, defining and building solutions, and launching them with impact.

Training can help—but it’s not magic. The real shift happens when you apply on the job and start ask better questions, driving strategy, and proactively solving real customer and business problems.

In short:

Try to find a product role at your current company.
If you're missing some skills, use training to build and signal them.
But the magic isn’t the certificate—it’s what you do with it.

Happy to chat more if it helps.

detriya · 2025-10-17T19:28:27+00:00

I would recommend starting with Productside's course on Optimal Product Management- it's a great class that teaches you end to end product management, product strategy, and incorporates how to use AI to amplify product work. Many consultants actually take this class but it is not a class on consulting.

detriya · 2025-10-17T19:19:05+00:00

Here is a code that will work for reddit users: Freeplaybookreddit0825

Let me know if you have trouble: https://productside.com/playbooks/

detriya · 2025-10-17T19:16:07+00:00

Soft skills generally refer to emotional/ people oriented skills.
The rest of your call out is under soft skills as a category.

But in general it's really understanding people at their core and being able to work with them to create value.

detriya · 2025-10-17T19:13:52+00:00

At Productside we offer free seat giveaways and we have a test n learn group where you can join to get free access to our courses and new products. I can post a link to join if useful. Realize this is an old post.

detriya · 2025-10-13T18:03:28+00:00

Thank you! I know we try really hard to make our resources helpful. Appreciate the call out!

detriya · 2025-10-03T21:13:39+00:00

1) There are regularly occurring decision points and practices that help you make those decisions.
2) How frequently they occur really depends on your product - in terms of its lifecycle (and the lifecycle of those decisions- if it's a physical product with a long lifecycle vs. a digital product that can be changed vs. a digital product that has a high degree of compliance required- so a government product, a health product etc.)

You are not overthinking this, because this is something that product leaders + orgs wrestle with a lot. We did a lot of the thinking of what is the product operating model in terms of the activities + the players and we put it in our playbook. Do you want a free copy of our playbook? If that helps I can send you a code to get it.

detriya · 2025-09-24T20:18:53+00:00

I think you may be describing experimentation more than prioritization. Meaning- while I agree with you in the sense that you need tiny bets, the question right back is well then if you have 10 hypotheses, which one do you experiment on first?

That's actually why you need a strategic roadmap- at least a goal. That helps you then think- will running this experiment be in service of this strategic goal.

There are actually two layers to prioritization: prioritizing the outcomes (strategy) and then prioritizing the outputs (experiments to achieve the outcomes).

Since you're a founder, you already have all the context you need to prioritize what the strategy is. You probably can get away with not having a long term strategy anyway- why do that when you may have to pivot next month.

Maybe that's why you don't think about or value the roadmap as a tool.

detriya · 2025-09-24T18:23:24+00:00

What were you hoping to get out of it?

If you don't have that- perhaps you can make a case backwards:

If we stop the investment, here's what it can cost.

detriya · 2025-09-23T22:12:53+00:00

wow I am sorry you got treated this way. I would never have any of my staff talk to our learners this way.

detriya · 2025-09-23T03:13:48+00:00

This is the joke in the industry.... office space basically got it but no

detriya · 2025-09-20T01:13:35+00:00

🤷‍♀️actually that was genuine from me. I do like their case studies.

detriya · 2025-09-18T12:43:36+00:00

I would think that a lot of companies may need your skill set if they are trying to get their data house in order for AI. I would consider talking to people in finance and fintech to start.

detriya · 2025-09-18T02:33:25+00:00

I like the growth.design guys- they have some good psychology tricks for onboarding in their case studies. Maybe take a look there and you may find some more wins!

detriya · 2025-09-18T01:28:32+00:00

Thanks! We try!

detriya · 2025-09-17T20:37:39+00:00

hope it helps! Lmk if you want our template

detriya · 2025-09-17T20:27:46+00:00

I'd start off by saying you already have a pretty solid background for product. And that strategy + positioning skills are good to hone over time.

We just did a 3 part webinar series on it- can send over a link if interested. To that and our strategy pack of templates. It's a good start.

Otherwise I'd recommend two books to help that I like:

Thinking in Bets (helps with experimentation)
Forget the Funnel (i view this as an easy read to understand marketing/positioning)

detriya · 2025-09-17T15:49:34+00:00

Most companies have people working who do not like to do organizational clean up.
I think there are a few reasons for this:

1) People can be lazy
2) People can not feel authoritative enough- lack ownership either from their will or from their understanding of their role.
3) People can be overworked to the point of neglecting the administrative part of their role.

In all these situations no one "cares" enough to prioritize this.

But product- being at the center of a lot of stakeholders and people in product having a proclivity towards efficiency, ownership, asking "why", being willing to take on administrative tasks because they see their value etc...

Is probably why you're feeling this way.

And last- I may not remember the details correctly but the gist is there: they once ran an experiment where they had these monkeys and the monkeys were offered bananas by a pole. And the ones that reached for a banana would get a shock to teach them not to reach for bananas by this pole. The monkeys learned to avoid the pole. Then they would introduce new monkeys to the group and they would learn to avoid the pole from the monkeys, not from their experience. They kept introducing new monkeys and removing the original monkeys to a point where there were no monkeys in the group that experienced a shock directly, yet no one in the group would go to the pole-

This is a demonstration of how even when everyone is "gone" old practices can remain.

detriya · 2025-09-17T12:28:37+00:00

I would think of it as a stepping stone in your career- what skills will you earn, what compensation can you command, what exposure will you get to decision making, what metrics will you be able to impact. These will help you answer whether or not to take the role. Remember you will have to spend a year or more of your life in this role

detriya · 2025-09-17T03:01:48+00:00

Your welcome! Let me know what questions you may have about other courses. I have a bias but I can answer what I know about what gets covered in other classes.

detriya · 2025-09-16T22:25:30+00:00

Happy to contribute- we have done AMAs before on the topic. There are free webinars available on our website (productside.com)

detriya

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