What are some of the best ways to begin becoming a more influential Product Manager?

Influence is interesting because it's very much a function of if others are willing to accept your influence. Here are some things I'd recommend doing to get started, but ultimately, your influence depends on the openness of others:  Gain trust from others. To me, this comes from doing your work well, being reliable, and being honest and transparent in how you work.  Start to get involved in bigger and broader things outside your scope. Easy ways to do this include asking questions in broad team ...Read More

Watch the video response on Loom, or read the transcript below: So I think the best way of becoming a more influential product manager is to stop trying to be an influential product manager. And what I mean by that, is that influence comes from competence. It comes from successful delivery, doing good work and shipping. Good work is going to build your reputation, and that reputation earns you capital. And then you can use that capital to influence others in the organization, but especially when ...Read More

Lots of ways! Here are two that I find myself talking about a lot. First, get really good at spotting ambiguity and make it your job to remove it. Ambguity comes in lots of forms. It can be engineers not knowing what to do next, ambiguous next steps coming out of a meeting, or teams being unsure what commitments they are making to each other. In all of these instances (and many more), ambiguity slows down teams. So whether it’s big or small, make it your job to take any ambiguity you see and mak ...Read More

Thought leadership is one of the most valuable tools as a PM. There are many ways to build a thought leadership portfolio. Here are some of the ways I use and coach others: Attend industry conferences and make connections Attend meet ups and be a speaker Lead talks/panels with other industry leaders Publish blogs/share content on social media/record short videos on your POV and share on social media Become a published author With all these methods of becoming known, it makes it easier to carry i ...Read More