3 lessons I learned in my first 3 years as a product manager
At first blush, learning how to be an effective product manager seems like learning a new set of jargon: agile, kanban, AARRR, OKRs, KPIs, product-market fit, low/high-fidelity mockups, design systems, user pain, task completion rates.
However, the most critical lessons I’ve learned the past three years has been the far more nebulous kind: developing ways of thinking or mental models, applied on a daily basis, to inform how you approach a problem.
Lesson 1: Focus on building strong relationships.
I made my first mistake as a product manager before I had even started the job.
The night before my first day, I spent a few hours using the product, writing up a big list of questions about the user experience and functionality. These were the questions I wanted to ask the engineering manager during our first meeting the next day, so I could start ramping up as quickly as possible.
During that meeting the next day, after brief intros, I dove right into my questions.
