What do you think junior PMs struggle with the most in regards to working with executives?

I think the biggest struggle for junior PMs when working with executives is understanding the fundamental differences in communication and decision-making that happen at the executive level. Some of the key things that I’ve observed in my career are: The altitude shift. Junior PMs typically operate in a detail-rich environment with a lot of context. This is necessary for them to make decisions and weigh priorities against each other. Executives operate at 30,000 feet with limited time and compet ...Read More

Junior product managers can face challenges when working with executives around: Communication - articulating complex ideas concisely. To combat this, think through what are the key 2-3 points you want this busy executive to take away from this meeting and use visuals, data, and examples to illustrate those ideas effectively Influence - convincing executives and managing expectations. To combat this, build a compelling case based on data and user insights. Show how product decisions align to the ...Read More

The areas that junior PMs struggle with the most when working with leadership are:  1) communication - An IC PM is in the weeds of their specific charter but not the executive. When asked a question, keeping the response to the right level of verbosity and the right depth is where most junior PMs struggle.  2) Balance between self-reliance and escalation -  Many times, when a junior PM is blocked, they either raise concerns too early too often or express concerns in the wrong forums. This can ve ...Read More

The biggest struggle I have seen is providing too much detail in their update and not linking their project to larger business goals. Executive stakeholders DO care about your project, but they need to know less about why you choose that font size and more about how your project aligns with the top level goals, what impact it will make on customers and internal teams and when that impact will be realized. When giving an executive update I touch on 3 main things Remind of the context - "We are wo ...Read More

Junior PMs struggle the most with communicating the context in the right size and framing the "Why should you care about this?" for executives. A few things to remember are: Executives come into conversations with context switch and limited details on implementation. They are not interested in task level details of how you will achieve a certain output. Example: Don't tell them your next steps in terms of the meetings you will run, stakeholders you will engage with or discussions you will have. ...Read More