Mutually Assured Inspiration: Reflections on being a PM

The following are a selection of reflections that I have taken away from my time as a product manager at a scaling startup. These principles are more about the role of product manager rather than the craft of product development.

Create the spectre of Mutually Assured Inspiration 💡

Everyone in R&D should have enough context about the business, customer and technology. These three elements form the Context Triad, which is essential for fostering Mutually Assured Inspiration. A silo’d team where engineers only know the tech, the designer knows the customer and the product person knows the business is not only bad for the business, it’s not a fun way to collaborate. Here’s why:

• Shared context breeds better ideas and greater efficiency - A strong foundational understanding and curiosity for the Triad across the team results in better brainstorming, less documentation and faster decisions. It does take some dedication for everyone to ramp up - this is especially challenging in niche B2B businesses - but the return far outweighs the effort.
• Product development is more fun when it's inclusive - With shared context, more team members can actively participate in the product development process, shifting away from a top-down approach. More participation means greater feeling of ownership and control. More cross-functional understanding also results in mutual respect. More respect translates to better morale and team dynamics.
• Better long-term tech and business strategy decisions - Mutually Assured Inspiration also increases the chances that implementations align with the business’s needs. It ensures that team members from different disciplines can advocate for each other’s agendas. Everyone on the team should be capable of confidently explaining the business value of a project in reasonable detail.

Adopt a “big tent” strategy 🎪

In politics, the concept of a “big tent” refers to how a political party attracts a wide range of supporters from various backgrounds, beliefs, and ideologies, attempting to unite individuals under a broad coalition. I think PMs should have similar aspirations - to create a big tent for their initiatives that amass zealous support across an organization.

You can apply a “big tent” approach across the product development cycle. Here are a few ways I brought people into my tent at Juniper Square:

• Welcome ideas from all sources Open yourself up to ideas from all parts of the organization. Create a process that invites participation and engagement.
• Telegraph your voice The PM is a very well positioned role because it by definition is networked across sales, success, support, engineering etc. Making sense of these signals is step one but evangelizing your synthesis is even more important. People need to know where you stand.
• Multiply your voice with missionaries Ideas become stronger when they are not only conveyed by you but also repeated by influential nodes within your organization. Provide artifacts or create moments where you can leverage others to accelerate your ideas.

Build trust through better reporting 🔎

Reporting rituals like Monthly Business Reviews (MBRs) are a chore. They require substantial effort to produce and can be intimidating to share because they open you up to scrutiny. However, with experience, I’ve learned that good reporting is indispensable — not only for building trust with external stakeholders but also for enhancing your team’s overall effectiveness. Here’s why.

• MBRs increase quality and accountability This might seem obvious, but it’s astonishing how effective it is. Once you publicize your work, everyone takes it more seriously. Sharing your progress with the organization raises the overall quality of everyone’s work.
• The clearest expression of a company's priorities As organizations grow, they face more noise and distractions. Effective reporting provides a tangible representation of a company’s development priorities and encourages debate and adjustments, if needed. This minimizes the risk of misalignment before it becomes a significant issue. People crave predictability.
• Leverages the wider business to accelerate R&D Reporting provides R&D teams with a platform to highlight issues and seek assistance. It’s an opportunity to openly discuss latent problems that cause friction (ie. issues related to onboarding and support, internal recruiting issues etc). When these issues are brought to light, the entire business can contribute to finding solutions, not just the R&D teams. MBRs make product management less lonely.

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