NOTE: The following is a guest post from Ilya Bagrak. If you want to submit your own guest post, click here for more information.
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When was the last time you had to soothe your product manager’s ego with thoughts like these:
- I raised it to senior management, but couldn’t get them to commit to the project. My job is to identify opportunities and to point them out to the powers that be. I can’t do the impossible. There is only so much I can do.
- I’ve let Engineering know that they need to scrap three months worth of work and start on something completely different. This decision came down from my bosses, and I had no say. I’m totally clear of any wrongdoing, and that’s what I’m telling engineering.
- I know the website for my product sucks. I brought it to the attention of our web admins but they won’t even consider my suggestions. They don’t want to implement the changes. I’ve done my best, but that part of the organization is totally impervious to my requests.
Sounds familiar? The uncomfortable truth is that a product manager’s job is a carefully disguised exercise in the most excruciating kind of professional impotence. An authority over no one, we are tasked with performing feats of coordination among insubordinate, obstinate groups, often at odds with each other.
Welcome to the darkest moments of product management, and here is a piece of advice:
Stop being everyone’s whipping boy (or girl)!
Yeah, that’s harsh, but the key thing to keep in mind is that there are two types of authority:
- authority granted
- authority earned (or asserted).
Due to the nature of product management’s function, namely that of being the connective tissue between the flailing arms of the org chart, the second kind of authority is what you should be after. It’s rarely the case that product managers possess any a priori, granted authority over anyone they deal with on the daily basis.
Persevere, try again
It may be tempting to give up too easily. This is the trap created by the very loose coupling between the performance of a specific product manager and a specific product. The most discerning of managers would be challenged to trace a particular product manager’s actions to any product metric that matters, which not only harms the Product Management’s credibility in general, but also permits individual inaction.
Illustrate your value by example
If you’ve done your homework, you already know how to do this. The key here is to leverage the cross functional perspective of the product manager. Remember, no one else will see things from this angle. Effective product managers are often uniquely positioned to bring out the things that no one else can see.
If all else fails, apply your unique perspective in retrospect to show how some program gone awry could have turned out if you had your chance. Nothing helps to grab everyone’s attention as much as a possible failure averted. An example of failure that you could have averted if you were given a chance is a powerful thing.
Win allies and convert the skeptics.
Are you continuously tossed around? Are you failing to gain meaningful traction in areas where your responsibility connects you with other corners of the organization? Are you finding yourself on the wrong side of someone’s whim, someone who neither reports to you nor you report to?
There is always going to be someone who trusts you, who believes in your ideas and shares your opinions. Work that connection to try to get personal leverage across the organization. A personal connection is an effective kick starter to professional influence, clout, and eventually leadership. Getting someone to listen to you is difficult enough. Use any means at your disposal to make as many stakeholders as possible aware of your existence.
Ilya
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Tweet this: @onpm Guest Post – A Product Manager’s Authority is Earned, Not Granted http://wp.me/pXBON-2jE #prodmgmt #leadership #innovation
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Ilya Bagrak (@ibagrak) is a product manager and a budding internet entrepreneur who shares his time between Moscow, Russia and Silicon Valley, California. He also blogs about product management, entrepreneurship, and technology at codercofounder.wordpress.com.