What it takes to become a top 1% PM | Ian McAllister (Uber, Amazon, Airbnb)
1. Prioritize Impact for Growth
Wake up daily aiming to have the biggest impact possible, or as a leader, use your team to maximize company impact, letting this guide your daily actions, as it naturally leads to growth and promotion.
2. Build Trust Through Consistency
Earn trust by repeatedly setting and meeting expectations, consistently telling the truth, owning your mistakes, and actively seeking alignment with others’ goals to forge alliances.
3. Expand Scope of Ownership
Consistently challenge initial ideas to make them bigger and more impactful, taking a wide view of product success beyond just product or tech, and actively remove any constraints or barriers to achieve it.
4. Master Direct Communication
When communicating, especially with senior people, answer questions directly first (e.g., a date for “when”), then explain, and continuously seek feedback to improve.
5. Prioritize for Maximum Leverage
Develop strong prioritization skills across roadmap themes, project sequencing, scope, and personal time management to focus resources on projects with the greatest leverage for impact.
6. Drive Team Execution
Mold desired features into simple, high-impact packages and actively support your team (designers, data scientists, engineers) in improving their work and resourcefulness, as PMs are the motive power behind project execution.
7. Start with Problem, Not Solution
Avoid retrofitting problems to pre-existing solutions; truly work backwards by obsessing over the customer’s problem first, and let that guide the solution, rather than starting with something you want to build.
8. Apply Bezos’s Investment Criteria
When evaluating new ideas, apply three criteria: Is it a big idea? Is it something your company should be doing? And is there a legitimate plan to succeed? All three must be present for investment.
9. Cultivate Continuous Improvement
Apply a continuous improvement mindset to every aspect of your work—roles, experiences, projects, and communications—by regularly reflecting on what could have gone better and striving to improve next time.
10. Implement Rigorous Business Reviews
Adopt a rigorous weekly business review (WBR) format where leaders are expected to be prepared to speak to variances and trends in key business metrics, fostering a culture of operational rigor and continuous improvement.
11. Teach the “Why” of Decisions
As a leader, take moments to teach the “why” and the underlying mental models behind decisions, rather than just giving prescriptive advice, to foster deeper understanding and lasting impact.
12. Prioritize Core PM Skills Early
As a new PM, focus primarily on mastering communication, prioritization, and execution, and stress less about “thinking big,” “technical trade-offs,” or “good design” as these become more critical later in your career.
13. Choose “Offense” Projects
If given a choice, opt to work on “offense” projects that directly drive revenue, customers, or significant business growth, as these tend to capture executive attention and offer greater impact potential.
14. Select a Strong Manager
When possible, choose to work for managers who excel at core PM skills like prioritization, as they will serve as better teachers and role models for your own development.
15. Write to Clarify Thinking
Engage in writing online, even if just to summarize thoughts you want to crystallize in your own head, as it helps organize and clarify your thinking.
16. Sharpen Thinking Via Writing
Practice business writing to become a clearer thinker and communicator, as the act of organizing thoughts for external sharing helps sharpen your skills.
17. Use PR/FAQ Template
Utilize the Amazon “working backwards” mechanism by writing an internal press release (problem, solution, customer quote) and an FAQ to ensure a legitimate plan to succeed, especially if your team lacks this muscle.
18. Leverage YouTube for Learning
Utilize YouTube as a powerful resource for continuous learning and skill development, from woodworking to complex topics, by watching others demonstrate and explain.