7 Tips To Onboard Your Product Managers

Q: "How do you manage a team of product managers?"

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1. Onboard them vigorously

First, give them a 360 degree of the mission, product strategy & company vision. But do it over time, not in a single day or week.

Talk Product, Processes, People, Positioning.

Deflate pressure to perform. Get them to ask questions. Get them to shadow you or sales in customer calls.

Onboarding is never a single-session project. It's a journey that lasts months. You can't unload the history of a legacy product in 30 minutes.

2. Let them run the details

Once you've identified a problem you'd like to solve, frame the "How May We?" questions.

Create a direction and share considerations they should make & questions they should ask before diving in.

Then, get out of their way. Let them own the specifics. Don't curb their creativity.

Get back involved close to shipment and course-correct.

3. Make yourself available

Product Management is a lonely role. They need someone to bounce off ideas. Be that sounding board. Touch base with them on a daily or weekly cadence. Listen.

Befriend them. Ask them about their career goals. What motivates them? What inspires them? Find intersections and commonalities with the existing role.

4. Train them to ship

Don't give them a piecemeal job like ticket this or wireframe that.

Develop them to go end-to-end. Take an idea, validate it, shape it, build it, plan a GTM, drop it in production & track performance.

That's when they'll start understanding "ownership".

5. Give references

Show them ideas. Share articles. Buy a competitor tool & ask them to explore it. Lend books. Connect them with advisors and seniors.

Expose them to whatever success might look like.

6. Dial up their challenge over time

Treat their journey like a ladder.

Comfortable with surveys & focus groups? Get them on A/B testing.

Got a hang of spec writing? Ask them to prioritize between equally promising stories.

In sync with engineering? Lead townhalls to execs, sales & marketing.

Invest in their incremental growth.

7. Flag their level-up

Let them know what they need to do move up the ladder. Whether it's hitting a KPI, OKR or owning a difficult project, make it clear where the horizon of their current role runs till.

Also, stay humble.

Remember that sometime early in your career, someone took a chance on you. It's your turn now. Pass it forward.