A Product Manager is supposed to be the great connector—the person who brings engineering, design, and business together. PMs are expected to be curious, collaborative, and customer-obsessed. They align stakeholders, navigate ambiguity, and create clarity from chaos. They're not the boss, but they lead. Not the expert, but the glue.
I recently ran a values exercise with a team of engineers in 1-1s. Each had to select three sticky-notes from a predefined set of values. Every single one of them chose Cooperation.
When we asked what cooperation meant, I got five completely different answers:
Most PM hiring is broken. Companies copy generic interview processes, ask "tell me about a time when..." questions, and end up with people who can talk about product but can't actually do it.
The problem starts with not knowing what you actually need.
I've noticed a trend—in work retrospectives, in personal conversations—that we often default to the assumption that every misstep, every mishap, every mistake comes with a neatly packaged lesson. The impulse makes sense; it's comforting to think we can distill chaos into tidy wisdom.
Each of these Ps need to be in place, in order, or you're doomed.
Even a small change in strategy can be profoundly disruptive. That's because strategy isn't just downstream of purpose—it is purpose, in motion.
I've been thinking lately that I should spend 10% less time doing, and 10% more time learning.
A Product Manager is supposed to be the great connector—the person who brings engineering, design, and business together. PMs are expected to be curious, collaborative, and customer-obsessed. They align stakeholders, navigate ambiguity, and create clarity from chaos. They're not the boss, but they lead. Not the expert, but the glue.
“Freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose – and commit myself to – what is best for me.” — Paulo Coelho
Every PM should have an angle - a specific area of depth that makes them genuinely useful. I think of these as the 5Ds: