An Illustration Of A Great Product Manager

Q: "Is Product Management a thankless job?"

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No job is inherently "thankless".

Poor culture at a company, office politics and misguided leadership values lead to an environment where contributions aren't duly recognized.

On the other hand, company cultures that truly value teamwork tend to recognize, appreciate & reward all those that are involved.

Now, sure, there are cases where the product team sometimes takes a backseat to let others shine.

Ex: it's not uncommon to see sales laureled for a deal where a Product Manager might have delivered a crucial decider demo.

Or customer success getting all the credit after renewing or upselling a client because "the product was delivering on its promise".

Or support getting love for showing "how great the product is" to a free trial customer leading to a paid subscription.

And that's fine. Why?

Great Product Managers that I've observed are not praise "collectors" rather are praise "distributors". They tend to lavishly spread credit around and, for them, that's equally gratifying.

With every successful release, business milestone & metric bump, the knee-jerk reaction of good Product Managers is to honor all those who were involved, especially their development, design, QA and product circle. After all, they really can't make any progress without them.

This praise can take the form of a long email, a townhall monologue or an emoji-laced Slack message.

Of course, getting acknowledged for hard work always feels great. But a passionate Product Manager's motivation comes from somewhere else.

The real prize for a PM is when customers confirm the positive impact their product is having on their lives.

When you hear stuff like:

"I don't know what I'd do without this. I'd be a wreck."

That statement, no matter who it gets directed to, is what makes the product journey worthwhile.

It's like being an architect of an amusement park. Imagine hearing the children coming out of the gates tell their parents how they had the time of their life. Your chest would fill up with pride.

Similarly, a Product Manager doesn't crave the spotlight. Others are welcome to take that.

We're fine standing on the side and changing the world for the better, one person at a time. An opportunity to do that is what we should be grateful for.