No excuses; find a way to get it done

Don’t let someone else’s lack of action stop you from doing what you know needs to be done. It might not be on everyone else’s priority list, so get it there or get it done.

This is a tough love post, but I feel it needs to be said. Like most of my posts, this is advice I’ve needed to hear at some point in my career and which I still live by today. I share it, hoping someone else will find it useful.

This post was originally published in my Substack Newsletter, Roadmap Weekly.

A trait in Product Management I don’t often hear or read about is determination. There are often many obstacles in our paths and many reasons for things to fail that are outside our control. With a lot of autonomy and responsibility comes little authority and a sense of dependence on everyone else. Wrangling a bunch of different teams of people and trying to get everyone on the same page isn’t easy. Nor is juggling conflicting priorities. Sometimes, we feel like Sisyphus, pushing a boulder uphill, only to have it roll back down.

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When faced with seemingly impossible odds, Thinking outside the box and developing a creative solution to our problems is helpful. Of course, sometimes we can’t get the support we need for a much-needed product improvement, and the business is juggling its own priorities. Can you do more with less?

As I said in a recent post on 𝕏,

Product Managers. Find a way to get it done. Don’t use other people’s incompetence as an excuse. If you have a thesis, then prove it out. Can’t get resources? Find a way to do it without. This won’t apply to 100% of situations but think critically about why you’re stalling.

We’re product managers; we’ll find a way. Don’t let someone else’s lack of action stop you from doing what you know needs to be done. It might not be on everyone else’s priority list, so get it there or get it done. If your idea has merit, maybe they just need a little more proof. Pretotype it, and get the proof you need. (no, that wasn’t a typo). Pretotyping is a great way to build a test case to gather the data you need to prioritize your effort against all the other competing needs.

Are you reading all of this as a Product Manager in a less-than-ideal situation thinking about leaving for greener pastures? Before you go hopping the fence, have you done all you can to try and make it work where you are?

I’ve coached and mentored a few product managers through difficult situations. One thing is always true: they either stay and make it work or leave. For those who stayed, it often led to a lot of growth, more seniority, and new opportunities as long as they took command of the things they could control in the situation. Sometimes, those who left found themselves in the same situation somewhere else, but not always.

I’ve also been there, and I sometimes felt stuck in my previous role. It was extremely technical, very project management-focused, and I was at the mercy of a dozen engineering teams. Still, there were things I could have an impact on. One of those things was using AI, Zapier, Slack and JIRA to process all of our support requests, tag, prioritize, and summarize them. I could do this myself, with no code tools, and it improved my team’s day-to-day workflow, impacting their ability to accomplish our primary goals (for which I was responsible).

Like I said, sometimes you need to think outside the box. There’s plenty of work you can do outside of improving the product. Even if you think there is no opportunity in your current role, look closely; there are likely things you can do to have a huge impact that others have overlooked for years.

Perseverance isn’t always the right way, though. Some companies are downright toxic, and you should leave before the job sucks the joy out of you. However, if you’re feeling low on opportunities or like you’re not being given a chance, seriously consider what you could do on your own terms to get things done.

This post was originally published in my Substack Newsletter, Roadmap Weekly.