Read on Twitter
Bad PMs want to own the decision-making, good PMs want to own the decision quality.
Thread
1/10
Thread
1/10
2/ A lot of people think PMs own the decision-making, but, in reality, they own the decision quality. It’s a PM’s responsibility to help the team get to the best decision possible at that moment in time. What's the difference, you ask?
3/ A decison-maker is a person who determines the actions that need to be taken for every situation that arises. There's a generally misleading opinion that continues to circulate: "PMs are the CEOs of products." When it comes to making decisions, this is inaccurate.
4/ A CEO is a single-threaded owner for an entire company's choices. In other words, a CEO has the final say no matter what, even if it is a "gut feeling" decision. However, PMs are not single-threaded owners (STOs) of such decisions.*
5/ Rather, when cross-functional partners (eng, design, data science, marketing) disagree with the PM's POV, if an agreement is not reached, it is usually brought for a review with the next layer of management, so the PM does NOT have the final say.
6/ (*caveat: this does break down in upper level management at the VP level if the org structure is set up so that the VP is an STO).
7/ But, isn't a PM responsible for the product's success? Yes, that's true. A PM's performance is directly tied to his/her product's performance and team's execution. Therefore, though they don't own the decision-making, a PM must ensure the decision is of highest quality.
8/ This means identifying the key questions needed to make the decision and leveraging the expertise of one’s cross-functional partners to develop answers for these questions.
9/ This also includes listening to your teammates' POVs and playing "devil's advocate" to help your teammates strengthen the reasoning behind their POVs or help them realize the holes in their POVs.
10/ Taking a quote from @shreyas, "Great PMs usually deal in questions and wisdom." PMs should always be asking questions to drive the team to the best quality decisions at that time.
