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Thanks for your comments. Sounds like there are a few of us in the same boat. I have been brainstorming why I got into product and what I love vs now disillusioned by.
Remember, our skills as PMs mean if we can make it in product we can make it anywhere💪. We're great at setting a vision, solving problems autonomously and collectively, and get a fix from being a part of the solution. We sell through our energy and manifest that into storytelling and great demos. Great team players. We silently influence. Oh, we positively influence but usually that can't be quantified. We act as the referee, putting out embers before they burn bright. Leadership has no idea how valuable we are. We don't get credit because it is just expected that we work at 110% and enable everyone else to shine. We have excellent listening skills and buckets of empathy. We know how to work under immense pressure. We work weekends, evenings and early mornings and always pressured to get sprint ready with an non existent backlog because priorities set by the business are as reliable as the TFL. But as a PM usually it's thankless or worst we just do feature delivery and blamed often, challenged always, misunderstood daily. And after all that, no-one outside of prod/Engineering knows what you do, no matter how much you explain.
I'm looking at companies with great SaaS products. Roles such as solution sales, delivery manager - high focused on customers. Still figuring this out. But what I can say is when you let go of the title PM, you are free.
Do not get me wrong I love being a PM when it's in the right product company but I think it's a lottery to find those companies. Broadening my search and realising titles don't mean much, I'm hoping to attract a role where I can add value, enjoy a home life balance and work with inspiring people. What are your pain points? Why did you get in vs now disillusioned?
Pure facts! The dynamic nature of what product management encompasses, is extremely vast in comparison to how companies utilize that role. I think most hiring who act like they are informed, mostly have roles for Product Owners and not managers.
Also most companies, especially smaller scale startups, infuse the responsibility of the product owner, project manager & scrum master and post it as product management roles with so much expectations, yet little to no pay.
You nailed it.
Preach! One of (if not THE) least understood careers
🙏
Dm for referral. I like it here in the Card space.
I love this!!! Thank you for sharing and giving hope. 🙏
I feel the same and am curious what you’re considering pivoting to? I’m struggling to figure out what’s next for me.
Salesforce expert with some certifications is a good choice for your next move.
What type of Product Management do you do? Anything in IT or Cyber?
Can you share what you are pivoting to? I’ve been thinking for a while I need to get out but also unsure what other role I can apply my skills to. I just know I don’t want to do this until I die
Agree. I think our skills are 💯 transferable. But we should also talk about the 🐘 in the room. Money. We did not come this far just to come this far and then drop. So this has to be taken into account. Hence, why, I'm being opened minded. Also, LinkedIn had a 8% increase this week on jobs, I can see market picking up.
In the same boat here. Still wondering what else am I interested in doing instead.
What are the top 3 things that you really like doing as a true product manager? Roles seem all mixed up in several companies. Business deciding priorities and technical product managers simply execute on them without having a say doesn't sound product management to me. Or sometimes product manager and program manager is the same person...sigh...
Agree. I love it when we deliver value and the excitement and happiness on the face of those who you have made their life eaiser/solved a problem for. I love seeing a product go from a thought, a one liner, a scribble, to a tangible outcome. I love how we all bring our domain knowledge to the table. I love when we overcome something that's pained us for time. I love seeing the face on the dev team when they get to tackle tech debt, and also influence the solution and not just add feature on top of feature because product or SLT said so. I love working with talented engineers and product leaders. I love hitting milestones and making sure we celebrations the wins. I love working with happy, crazy, talented individuals.
There are companies out there which are fantastic for product. Go out, talk to people and use your well trained PM discernment lens to filter out orgs which may be a bad fit. I have done product in a few places and the ones that did product well were fantastic places to be. My current company, not so much but my reasons for being here make up for the bad understanding of what product should do.
The intersectionality with Product Marketing makes both even worse when they coexist. In my current case, the company has zero idea of what to do with PMM. I think this is because companies love to think they have a strategy but most strategy-led roles struggle to show they're important in output-oriented environments.
product management as we once knew it is done. It's oversubscribed (for some reason which is beyond me as its a ridiculously tough and demanding job), it's less about customer painpoints and more about quick wins that aid the bottom line. This puts the product manager in a position where they're often just a glorified project manager, following orders. Tech is a total mess, where hiring and firing annualy is now considered the norm and wages have dropped significantly (in the UK anyway). Add to this the lack of remote options and mandated return to office and you ask yourself, "why would you want to work in product in Tech?" You cant plan a future when you might be cut loose in a year. Its not worth it, the system is complely broken and we will see more and more people wake up to this realisation soon.
I feel this sooooo hard right now. I've been contemplating a career switch for a while, but at the same time, I freaking LOVE what I do...when I'm empowered to do it well. I'm so exhausted, though, from constantly trying to "fight" with company culture and leadership to apply best practices and work in a way that I know leads to great results.
I'm also really sick of the instability. Between startups going out of business, layoffs, and acquisitions, I'm currently on job #7 since I made the switch to product in 2019, and due to a recent acquisition am feeling the need to jump ship and start looking yet again. My first product job was fantastic, but it has just been a steady decline since then, and I don't know if I can keep this up much longer. It's gotten to the point that I have zero motivation to either do my best work at my current job OR look for a new one. Ultimately, I'm just so tired, disillusioned, and questioning where I belong in this rat race of an existence.
I am right there with you. I'm curious to hear more about your and other PM's stories.
Are you still attempting to do the best work of your career?
How frustrated or checked out do you feel at work?
Do your coworkers know you are frustrated or checked out? How do they know?
Have you ever received feedback about your tone of voice, communication style, or managing your frustration?
I sense I am not alone in this, and would love to do something about it and help other folks in this situation too.