Influence is A Product Manager’s Currency
Some of the best learning experiences I’ve had at work are from working with internal stakeholders — particularly company leadership. These were some of the most trying yet exhilarating moments of my career.
When I was still working for Magic’s product team in early 2023, we already had gained a bit of traction at that point with our two-way virtual assistant hiring platform—Magic Dedicated. Magic had hired 300+ employees to date and everybody was excited about where the company was headed. But considering our not-so groundbreaking ARR of $1 million ARR, we were still very much a startup.
But for a startup, our leadership structure was nothing short of peculiar. We had not one, not two, but EIGHT founders! “That’s kind of a recipe for disaster, isn’t it?” you might say. Well, it wasn’t so much that there was eight different people with eight different personalities pulling the company apart from different directions as three main players calling all the shots.
Still! I got to interact with all eight of them as well as many other department heads and that sure is something to remember! There was the passive-aggressive founder, the entrepreneur at heart, the no-nonsense one, the data guy, the “can we finish up with this meeting so I can get back to coding” one, and more.
It was tricky navigating through this situation. When it came to deciding on important stuff like a major company problem, company direction or a major pivot, it came down to — as you might imagine — a meeting/series of meetings where 5+ major personas in leadership trying to reconcile their differences and come some sort of alignment.
Moments to Shine
But no matter the situation, working with leadership is a golden opportunity for a PM to make yourself known. Either you have the chops to thrive in your chosen discipline, (product management in my case), or doomed to be average. Product management is such a multifaceted line of work where performance can’t be measured by just looking at clearly defined performance metrics. It is when you’re under the gaze of Sauron’s Eye where you have to perform and stand out.
For me, this moment was when I was asked to head the ‘billing taskforce’. We were to address all sorts of billing problems that plagued the company for over a year. It was my biggest project to date. I knew that since I had leadership’s eyes on me, it was important for me to show that I could (1) facilitate a critical discussion among a large group of stakeholders, (2) rally my cross-functional team behind me, (3) get everyone on the same page on what the problem is and what success looks like, (4) prioritize effectively and conjure up a coherent roadmap and (5) manage timelines & milestones, among other things — all while (6) communicating effectively. Talk about pressure!
The result? Well, it was my first ever experience where all eyes from leadership were on me. So, unsurprisingly, it was shaky. BUT, I pulled through, executed and got the results I was proud of. Although, some bad habits I’ve kept carrying over for years got called out by the CEO of all people. Ouch! But hey, that’s part of the learning experience!
We shipped a redesigned invoice that was accessible and contained all information a user would need. This addressed the most pressing pain points our users were experiencing, “plugging the leak” essentially. This reduced billing-related complaints by 21%, bringing escalations to an all-time low.
Although, there were still foundational and long-term problems to address, my documented learnings from user feedback set the stage for billing 2.0 which got released a few months after I left.
“Politics is 90% relationships. It doesn’t matter if you’re right if your team doesn’t execute.”
— Lenny’s Newsletter
One of the most important traits of a good product manager is the ability to influence. Getting the results you want requires other people to deliver at a high level, not just you. It also requires stakeholders to give you buy-in and unblock you so you can get to the results you want.
I have three main tips.
- Overcommunicate and be transparent — One of the best ever advice I got from my senior PM was to err on the side of overcommunication. I interpret that as not only keeping people up to date of what you or your team is working on but to also do it in creative ways. One tip I got from Lenny Rachitsky is to write a weekly brief for your manager. Generally, it should contain (1) What you’re working on (2) Your goals for the week and (3) Items/Areas where you’re blocked. Another is to maintain an engaging newsletter that helps other departments stay updated on what the product team has been shipping.
- Stay on top of important things — The more reliable someone is, the more influence they can project. A good pm is someone who is perceived as someone who has an aura about them that screams ‘I got this’. One way to do that is to stay on top of things you should be on top of. Don’t drop Slack threads. Don’t drop promises you’ve made. Always follow up. The more you’re consistent at this, the more reliable you will be perceived and the more influential you will be.
- Build relationships — One of the main reasons behind my successes as a product manager was the good relationship I developed over time with my engineers. I gained their trust because I made an effort to break the ice in various ways — whether it be through non-work-related banter, holding quality retrospectives from past projects, or just making their lives easier and helping them just focus on what they do best — coding. Of course, I did the same for our designers as well as the many teams at operations. It came to a point where I became the go-to person to ask for product-related questions. (Sure, it may have its downsides but it’s a problem I like to have!)
Building influence as a product manager is simply navigating the political climate in the company. That sounds really icky but it’s a core part of the job. The truth of the matter is, it’s actually a rather fulfilling part of the job. Building relationships and influence is quality work. Just get those reps in and like any discipline, you’ll get good at it. If anything, it just helps you become even more valuable in your career.
