The happiness and pain of product management | Noam Lovinsky (Grammarly, Facebook, YouTube, Thumbtack)

1. Prioritize Growth & Learning

Always prioritize career opportunities that promise significant growth and learning, even if they involve pain or discomfort, as this ultimately leads to long-term career advancement and success.

2. Advocate for Business Needs

Prioritize the organization’s best interests, even if it means suggesting your project be canceled or asking to be layered, especially in healthy teams that reward such decisions.

3. Understand Company Strategy

Internalize and understand the broader company strategy to align your influence and decisions towards overall goals, leading to better results for the organization.

4. Prioritize Authentic Work

Focus on work that genuinely excites and energizes you, as this leads to greater success and happiness than conforming to external pressures like extensive online posting.

5. Trust Your Team

Develop a “nose for talent” and choose teams with high-functioning people you trust, as this confidence allows you to make unconventional career moves knowing the right outcome will happen.

6. Cultivate Project Stamina

Recognize that most projects and early companies fail due to lack of stamina; cultivate resiliency and be prepared to “run uphill and chew glass” to push through difficult periods.

7. Recognize Loss of Stamina

If a team loses motivation and stamina, or is no longer bringing their best self due to prolonged struggle, a change of scene or pace might be necessary to regain productivity and excitement.

8. Diversify Growth Channels

Avoid relying on a single growth channel (e.g., SEO) as it can dry up unexpectedly; proactively explore and invest in multiple channels like paid ads, referrals, and other organic methods.

9. Growth Masks Problems

Understand that rapid growth can hide underlying issues; proactively identify and address true problems even when growth is strong, rather than waiting for it to slow or turn negative.

10. Plan for Negative Growth

As a product manager, proactively consider what actions and priorities you would implement if growth went negative, fostering a different sense of urgency and perspective.

11. Reduce Product Friction

Identify and rebuild high-friction points in the core product experience, especially those causing delays or requiring users/suppliers to pay without immediate value, to improve growth and user satisfaction.

12. Leadership Owns Strategy

Ensure all members of the leadership team, regardless of function (CFO, Head of People, etc.), are actively involved in and contribute to product strategy, especially during challenging times, to foster collective ownership and problem-solving.

13. Create Innovation Space

For large organizations, create dedicated spaces (like New Product Experimentation teams) that lift constraints on direct customer interaction, small-scale experimentation, and infrastructure choices to foster zero-to-one innovation.

14. Align Innovation Incentives

When building an internal incubator, fundamentally rethink the incentive system (performance management, compensation, time horizons) to align with the long-term, high-risk nature of zero-to-one work, avoiding adverse selection.

15. Design for Effortless Value

Create products that are easy to install, require minimal configuration, and provide value with very low effort (e.g., one tap), meeting users where they are in their workflow.

16. Embrace Bootstrap Mentality

A bootstrap culture, focused on profitability from day one, forces everyone to think about how their work translates into revenue, leading to a strong focus on important things and business impact.

17. Invest Ahead Strategically

While a bootstrap mentality is valuable, recognize that at a certain scale, businesses need to strategically invest ahead of profitability in new products, use cases, and growth channels to diversify and sustain long-term growth.

18. Balance New Role Challenges

When taking on new, challenging roles, ensure there are one or two core strengths or familiar areas you can lean on as a foundation, balancing the pain of new learning with existing competence.

19. Seek Better Support

If struggling in a role, consider asking to report to a different manager who can provide better support and help you be more productive, even if it means being “layered.”

20. Prioritize Customer First

When establishing guiding principles, prioritize customers first, then supply (e.g., pros in a marketplace), and finally the business, as serving the first two well ultimately benefits the business.