Be the Product Manager of Your Own Life

A Google PM’s tips on how product thinking can help you achieve more in life

I’ve found being a product manager to be one of the most rewarding and mentally stimulating jobs I’ve ever had. It’s a blend of hard product thinking and analysis, with a heaping scoop of negotiation, communication strategy, planning, and collaboration. And while I’ve learned over time to dislike working in the evenings or during my personal weekend time, I’ve also realized the practicality of the PM skill set and its application to real life.

Because at its core, being a PM is about problem solving and learning how to pivot and adjust based on the constraints you’re presented with. Maybe you don’t get critical headcount to fund a new initiative you’d been planning, a bug takes down your servers for a day, or competitor decides to copy your signature feature. A PM’s job is to interpret the issue, align on the best way to solve for it, and keep a positive attitude for the team while doing it. As the problems you solve get more varied and nuanced over time, you get better at understanding how to properly break them down into their component parts and at identifying the connective tissue and dependencies amongst them.

Because at its core, being a PM is about problem solving…