Unlocking Your Potential: Ways to Reignite Passion for Product Managers

“A product manager’s job is never done. It is a constantly evolving role that requires the ability to adapt to changes and stay ahead of the curve.” – Dan Olsen, Author of The Lean Product Playbook

TLDR;

Product managers often face the challenge of feeling stagnant or disengaged when managing a product for an extended period. This article explores strategies to help product managers reignite their passion for the product and keep their teams motivated to develop innovative solutions that meet customer needs. The article provides four strategies that product managers can use to rekindle their passion for their products:

1. Introspect yourself at regular intervals and evaluate your thinking patterns.
2. Assess the product deliverables and roadmap, reprioritize initiatives, and focus on those that align with the strategy and provide the most value to customers.
3. Calibrate against competitors and strive for constant improvement to meet the market demand for your product.
4. Seek feedback from customers, especially the critical ones, to stay current with their evolving needs and preferences.

As a product manager, it’s crucial to keep up with the ever-changing business landscape, evolving technologies, and the never-ending needs of customers. With that comes one of the most significant responsibilities of a product manager – to continually learn and improve their knowledge. However, it’s not uncommon for product managers to face boredom or feel stagnant while managing a product for an extended period. As a Product manager, I worked with multiple companies, and every time I started working at a new company, I had several ideas for the product. But, over some time, I implemented several of them and then focused on continually improving the product. Then, I started to wonder whether I’m heading in the right direction. This is a challenging situation to navigate, and the following strategies helped me reignite my passion for the product.

Introspect yourself at regular intervals

I have seen several product managers using statements such as “This is how the product works” “This is how we have been doing things for some time now” or “It’s not easy to make that change because of the complexities in the product”. This is a clear indication that your mind is getting into a comfort zone where it is restraining you from thinking outside the box. Following are some of the simple principles I used throughout my career to evaluate myself.

Unlocking Your Potential: Strategies to Reignite Passion for Product Managers

1. Journalling – Journaling helped me identify behavioral patterns in my thought process. Every week, I sit calmly and write my thoughts and feelings about my product. It helps me develop a greater understanding of my thoughts and emotions, review how my thought process has changed in the last few months and help me identify a clear trend if I’m feeling weary about the product. One of my personal favorites is Notion. But, any note-taker or even Google Docs could be a good place to start with.

2. Introspect on product traits – Once a month, I try to rate myself on the different product management metrics/skills – Innovation, Strategic thinking, and Customer empathy. I try to be honest with myself when I create the rating. If possible, I try to have this conversation with my manager as well. It helps me identify if I’m deviating from my target and course correct myself in the right direction. Following is a template I created over some time. You can download this simple template to track your progress and refine it as needed. Access the template here.

Assess the product deliverables and roadmap

The current roadmap and the deliverables can paint a great picture of a Product’s growth trajectory. By evaluating them regularly, I understand how the product is moving and adjust the product strategy to ensure that the product exceeds business goals. At a sprint level, I evaluate the Jira ticket categories. A good Rule of thumb for a product in a strong growth trajectory is 40% or more on new features and innovation, 30% on Improvements, and the remaining 30% on Bugs and technical debt. If you believe that your team is not allocating their time efficiently, consider re-evaluating the priorities of your product roadmap. Choose the initiatives that align with your product’s strategic objectives and provide the greatest advantage to your customers, including those benefits that customers may not be aware of. If you can’t change right away, make sure to plan for your upcoming quarter.

Calibrate against competitors

Sometimes we see gradual growth in our product and conclude that we are doing the right things. But, is gradual growth enough? or does it mean that a competitor is taking the market share we would have captured? When product metrics show a consistent upward trend, it can be easy to become complacent and comfortable, potentially causing one to overlook the possibility of exponential growth. Examine the variations in the demand of the market and the market share occupied by your product to identify additional measures to consistently enhance the product and cater to the market demand. There are several ways you can approach this.

1. If your product is B2C, my favorite website for a good comparison is SimilarWeb. Following is an example comparison between Google Photos and Dropbox. You will be able to compare several metrics such as monthly visits and bounce rate to continually monitor how your app or website is performing compared to competitors

2. Another great place to check customer reviews of your competitor’s apps is in the app store. Following is a comparison between Amazon Photos and Google Photos apps. It clearly shows how Amazon Photos is becoming a good competitor for Google Photos. I have learned much about the customers and their needs just by looking at the app reviews. Many times, I get a lot of ideas for my products based on the feedback competitors are getting for their apps

Seek feedback from customers, especially the critical ones

What worked well for your product in the past may not be enough to keep your customers satisfied today. By seeking continual feedback from your customers, you can stay up-to-date with their evolving needs and preferences, and ensure that your product continues to meet and exceeds their expectations. This constant evolution of customer needs and preferences can also be an exciting challenge for a product manager and can help reignite the passion for the product as you work to keep up with the changing landscape.

One pro tip here is to Schedule recurring customer feedback sessions and schedule them with the customers who are very vocal with feedback. These feedback sessions provided me with proactive ways to stay connected with my customers and continually improve my products. By gaining valuable insights into your customers’ needs, preferences, and pain points, you can make improvements that will be used by them often. Many big companies such as Google gather early feedback from their customers. Following is a screenshot from Google Labs.

Last, and most important – Monitor your team

As a product manager, it’s crucial to prioritize innovation and the development of new products. When your team becomes too comfortable with the current state of the product, it can hinder the product’s growth and potential. It’s important to regularly assess how your team feels about the product and find ways to keep them motivated. As a product manager, it’s your responsibility to guide your team in changing old product habits and mindsets, so they can improve the product and keep up with changing market demands. Following are some of the avenues I use to gather feedback and act on them continually

• Sprint Retro – Given that teams have a retro meeting at the end of every sprint. It is one easy way to gather the team’s feedback on how they feel about the product.
• Recurring customer empathy sessions – Bring the customer feedback from (comments, calls, support tickets, etc.) to your designers and engineers every month. This is a great way to keep the team motivated to solve the problem at hand
• Take decisions as a team – By involving the team in significant decisions, you can boost their morale and encourage them to innovate and build products. They will continually see the results of their decisions and work towards improving the overall product

Conclusion

In conclusion, product management is a challenging and ever-evolving field that requires constant attention and learning. It’s not uncommon for product managers to feel stagnant or bored after working on a product for a long time. I have personally faced this at different points in my career and used the following strategies to bring back my passion for the product. By implementing these strategies, product managers can develop innovative solutions that solve customer problems and drive business success.

1. Introspect yourself at regular intervals
2. Assess the product deliverables and roadmap
3. Calibrate against competitors
4. Seek feedback from customers, especially the critical ones