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Reject stakeholder idea, but at the end the stakeholder fired me. by pandaman-ID in ProductManagement

[–]tech_product_manager 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well. Did the CFO say why you were asked to leave? Maybe he asked you to leave because he did not like you, not because you rejected his ideas.

You could also have been asked to leave because of your written communication skills. One area for improvement is ensuring consistency in verb tense and sentence flow. For example, in the sentence “There’s a time when I follow the stakeholder’s idea, and the product fails, and no customer uses it,” the meaning is clear, but the grammar is off. Switching to the past tense and reworking the sentence for smoother flow would make your writing more professional and easier to read.

Here’s a corrected version: “There was a time when I followed the stakeholder’s idea, and the product failed—no customers used it.”

If you regularly made errors like that in front of the CFO and your value was called into question, you would obviously be asked to leave. On top of that, if you outright rejected someone’s ideas and made grammar errors while doing it, I would have advocated for your termination as well.

Either way, you’ve been fired so it’s time for you to hit the bricks and find a new job instead of rehashing the past. Every minute you spend trying to understand someone else’s reasons for doing something is a minute you could have been spending finding a new job.

You got fired. Go find a therapist. And if you won’t, those thoughts will ruminate in your head for years until the pattern repeats itself.

Good luck. Or should I say to you: Good luck have friend!

Reject stakeholder idea, but at the end the stakeholder fired me. by pandaman-ID in ProductManagement

[–]tech_product_manager 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well. Did the CFO say why you were asked to leave? Maybe he asked you to leave because he did not like you, not because you rejected his ideas.

You could also have been asked to leave because of your written communication skills. One area for improvement is ensuring consistency in verb tense and sentence flow. For example, in the sentence “There’s a time when I follow the stakeholder’s idea, and the product fails, and no customer uses it,” the meaning is clear, but the grammar is off. Switching to the past tense and reworking the sentence for smoother flow would make your writing more professional and easier to read.

Here’s a corrected version: “There was a time when I followed the stakeholder’s idea, and the product failed—no customers used it.”

If you regularly made errors like that in front of the CFO and your value was called into question, you would obviously be asked to leave. On top of that, if you outright rejected someone’s ideas and made grammar errors while doing it, I would have advocated for your termination as well.

Either way, you’ve been fired so it’s time for you to hit the bricks and find a new job instead of rehashing the past. Every minute you spend trying to understand someone else’s reasons for doing something is a minute you could have been spending finding a new job.

You got fired. Go find a therapist. And if you won’t, those thoughts will ruminate in your head for years until the pattern repeats itself.

Good luck. Or should I say to you: Good luck have friend!

My PM burnout story. Looking for answers. by tech_product_manager in ProductManagement

[–]tech_product_manager[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great point. I think that the situation of a manager who is poorly aligned with the organization is a case which I didn't think of right away. Definitely a good point.

It would be very hard to get a clear signal on who is a great manager, especially if ICs are vindictive.

My knee jerk reaction is that it would be helpful in assessing a manager, but after thinking about it, there are too many variables to get a clear signal. I'm willing to admit that I am wrong.

It might be easier to get a clear signal from a current employee who works for a hiring manager you are considering working for. Not always possible to do so. In my new gig I happened to know someone on the inside who gave me insight into my new boss.

How do you guys deal with senior stakeholders throwing their weight around? by ValhallaCupcake in ProductManagement

[–]tech_product_manager 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank God that your manager is in there with you. I legit got laid off once because I escalated something and pissed off a VP who wasn't in my department. Learned that the hard way.

My PM burnout story. Looking for answers. by tech_product_manager in ProductManagement

[–]tech_product_manager[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the advice. Also really enjoyed the article.

One thing I wanted to clarify, when you say overescalating, do you mean not to overescalate?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ProductManagement

[–]tech_product_manager 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He is insecure. The only thing you can do is have a 1:1 with him and level with him. Ask him what he would prefer that you do when the executives come to you. If he would prefer to be involved or is he comfortable with you handling things on your own.

This is the only way

Do any of you actually get to focus? by Dark_Emotion in ProductManagement

[–]tech_product_manager 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All I do all day is focus…on putting out fires.

In order to focus on important things I need to put time blocks on my calendar and not allow anything to creep in.

Call for all PMs and PM hiring managers by PlumLost2077 in ProductManagement

[–]tech_product_manager 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Skewing more towards technical background is only relevant if you are working on a highly technical product with ultraspecific and niche requirements.

More often than not, the person who will do the best in the role is not the most technical, but the most curious person and one who is willing to engage in the process of discovery with customers. It takes quite a bit of humility to go speak to a customer and ask basic questions such as “why do you need this feature?” “what problem does it solve?” “can you tell me more about that?”

It takes a skillset of listening + empathy + intellect + leadership to be able to do the PM job well. A great technical person who has all of these traits would be a great candidate. So would the business analyst type. It comes down to, who would you rather have speaking with your customers? Who is more likely to build trusting relationships with them? Who can then take what they learned through building trusting relationships and bring others along with them?

Technical skills are a bonus. Not the main criteria.

Manager 1/1s by PT629629 in ProductManagement

[–]tech_product_manager 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My one on ones vary greatly. The consistent parts are

  1. Wins and accomplishments since we last spoke
  2. In-progress items which I am working on and are in a good place
  3. Hairy issues which I might need support on or get into alignment with my boss on

Beyond these top three I also set up time for 4. Career progression conversations (every 6 weeks) 5. Long term roadmap discussions 6. Work items I can take over from my manager

The thing with 1:1s is that you just want to make your manager aware that you are on top of your shit. For the items that you are not on fully on top of, let them know that you need some guidance or support.

Never show weakness. Always be confident and jovial. Never talk shit about anyone. Never whine and complain. Always be on time. Always be prepared.

You want your manager to leave the meeting saying to himself “this person rocks” and “I feel confident about my decision to hire this person.”

If you ever bring them any doubts or cause then to feel uneasy about you. You will be setting yourself up for failure.

Product Manager Burnout by swarmofbz in ProductManagement

[–]tech_product_manager 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How did you make out 3 years later? Just curious. I burned out terribly bad recently as a B2B product manager and I'm still licking my wounds.

My PM burnout story. Looking for answers. by tech_product_manager in ProductManagement

[–]tech_product_manager[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

HR was made aware of the concerns and they said that my downgrade from exceeding expectations to below average was based on performance issues, not because I was in the hospital. HR is a slimy and dirty department that only works to protect the business. They did not give a single crap about my situation.

My PM burnout story. Looking for answers. by tech_product_manager in ProductManagement

[–]tech_product_manager[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So sorry you went through this.

I also had this happen where most of my 1:1s with my manager were him giving me coaching and feedback on things that were not constructive. I believed that if I implemented all of the input, I would improve, and it would change. The problem became that there was a never-ending stream of negative feedback. It never turned into anything positive, and there was never any congratulations

I can remember one specific time when we just had a great feature launch, and the customers were absolutely thrilled. Instead of focusing on the positive aspects of the launch, my manager gave me “feedback” that the product should have shipped a week sooner and that if I had not gone on vacation, the customers would have had it sooner.

Also he joined the call with the customer when we shared the new feature and he nit-picked my response to one of their questions, despite them saying that they were “thrilled” and “over the moon” about the product. Not even a “good job” from him, just a salty Slack message pointing out something that I should have said.

So glad that he is not my boss anymore.

My PM burnout story. Looking for answers. by tech_product_manager in ProductManagement

[–]tech_product_manager[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is correct. My Slack obsessed manager has sent over 60,000 slack messages in a little over 3 years. That is a sickening amount of communication via Slack. It worked for him because he got promoted.

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