How To Overcome Obstacles and Keep Moving Forward
Feeling stuck? Me too, but you're not alone. Here's how to navigate the rough waters of product management and come out the other side stronger.
As product managers, we often find ourselves in the eye of the storm. Juggling stakeholder expectations, team dynamics, and market pressures can feel like a never-ending balancing act. But here's the truth: you're not alone in this struggle. Every product manager faces obstacles, and it's how we handle them that defines our success.
Let's dive into some common challenges and strategies to overcome them.👇
The Obstacle Course of Product Management
Product management is not an easy career. Here are some hurdles you might recognize:
🎭 Stakeholder Chaos: Conflicting demands from different departments can leave you feeling pulled in all directions.
Example: Marketing wants new features for an upcoming campaign, while Engineering insists on addressing technical debt. Meanwhile, Sales is promising custom solutions to close deals.
🧩 Resource Limitations: Limited budgets and tight deadlines often seem like unsolvable equations.
Example: Your team's sprint capacity is maxed out, but leadership wants to add a new high-priority project without adjusting deadlines or providing additional resources.
🌪️ Market Turbulence: Rapid changes in user needs or competitive landscapes can throw your roadmap into disarray.
Example: A competitor suddenly releases a game-changing feature, forcing you to reevaluate your entire product roadmap.
👥 Team Tensions: Miscommunications or conflicting work styles within your team can slow progress to a crawl.
Example: Your UX designer and lead developer have conflicting views on the user interface, causing delays and heated discussions in every meeting.
🔮 Unclear Vision: Sometimes, the path forward isn't as clear as we'd like it to be.
Example: The company pivots its strategy, leaving you unsure how your product fits into the new direction.
💼 Imposter Syndrome: Adding pressure and insecurities to ourselves instead of focusing on the situation can drastically affect the decisions we make.
Example: After a series of missed deadlines and failed feature launches, you start questioning your abilities as a product manager, and if this is the right career for you.
🏃♀️ Burnout: To me, this is one of the worst symptoms of dealing with a lot of pressure at work. It’s better to recognize it in time before it’s too late.
Example: You've been working 60-hour weeks for months, constantly putting out fires, and can't remember the last time you took a real break.
Sound familiar, right? Don’t worry, you're in good company. Let's look at how to tackle these challenges head-on.
Strategies for Staying Afloat
1️⃣ Embrace the Chaos and Remember Your "Why"
Instead of fighting against unpredictability, learn to roll with the punches and reconnect with your purpose.
✅ Action Item: Write down why you became a product manager. Is it the thrill of solving complex problems? The joy of creating products that make people's lives easier? Keep this "why" visible and revisit it on tough days.
💡 Pro Tip: Start each day with a quick prioritization exercise. What's the one thing that absolutely must get done today? Focus on that first.
2️⃣ Build Your Support Network
You don't have to go it alone. Cultivate relationships with mentors, peers, and team members who can offer support and fresh perspectives.
👉 Try This: Reach out to a fellow PM this week. Share a challenge you're facing and ask for their input. You might be surprised by the insights you gain and the relief of knowing you're not alone.
3️⃣ Sharpen Your Communication Skills
Clear, consistent communication can solve a multitude of problems before they even begin.
💡 Pro Tip: Before your next stakeholder meeting, create a simple one-page brief outlining the key points you need to convey. This can help keep discussions focused and productive, especially when dealing with conflicting demands.
Here
shares some insights from his experience with stakeholder chaos:The stakeholder chaos most likely stems from poor communication. My strategy when everything is too chaotic is to over-communicate:
Send the extra email with a recap of where we are, what's coming up next, and what decisions were made. Set up recurring calls and checkpoints. Take the lead in organising the team(s) and stay on top of the deliverables.
Alex shares great insights in his newsletter as well, make sure to check them out!
4️⃣ Celebrate Small Wins
In product management, big victories can be few and far between. Acknowledge and celebrate the small wins along the way.
⭐️ Quick Win: Start a "wins journal" where you jot down even the tiniest successes. Resolved a tricky bug? Write it down. Had a productive meeting with a difficult stakeholder? That goes in too. Review this journal when motivation is low.
5️⃣ Connect with Users
Nothing reignites a product manager's spark quite like talking to the people who use your product.
✅ Action Item: Set up regular user interviews or feedback sessions. Hearing directly from users about how your product is helping them (or where it's falling short) can provide a much-needed boost of motivation and purpose.
6️⃣ Embrace Continuous Learning
The product landscape is always evolving. Stay ahead of the curve by dedicating time to learning new skills and staying updated on industry trends.
👉 Try This: Set aside 30 minutes each day for reading industry blogs, listening to podcasts, or exploring new tools. Small, consistent efforts can lead to big gains over time and help combat imposter syndrome.
7️⃣ Practice Resilience
Setbacks are inevitable. It's how you bounce back that matters.
🧠 Remember: Every obstacle is an opportunity to learn and grow. After a setback, take a moment to reflect on what you can take away from the experience. How can you use this lesson to become an even better product manager?
8️⃣ Prioritize Self-Care
Burnout is real and can severely impact your motivation and performance.
✅ Action Item: Schedule non-negotiable time for self-care activities, whether it's exercise, meditation, or a hobby. Treat these appointments with the same importance as you would a crucial stakeholder meeting.
The Power of Perspective
When you're in the thick of things, it's easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. Here's a reality check that may help you see things from a different perspective. What’s been very useful to me is go back to the basics, this help me keep my feet on the ground.
Every successful product and PM has faced obstacles
Think about your favorite products. Chances are, the teams behind them encountered numerous roadblocks along the way. What sets them apart is their persistence and ability to adapt.
💡 Pro Tip: Keep a "wins" journal. Jot down your successes, no matter how small. On tough days, review it to remind yourself of how far you've come.
Maintaining Long-Term Vision
As Brian Lawley, CEO and founder of the 280 Group, advises, "Only move forward with creating a product that will be 'above the bar." This quote emphasizes the importance of maintaining a high-level perspective on product quality and impact, even when faced with short-term pressures.
✅ Action Item: Create a "North Star" document for your product. Revisit it regularly to ensure your daily decisions align with your long-term vision.
Frederico Ferreira shares more tips when it comes to unclear vision and causes tension between teams as well. 👇
When there's an unclear vision, different teams often prioritize conflicting goals, leading to frustration and misaligned efforts. For example,
Design may focus on delivering a top-notch user experience.
Engineering team might prioritize faster delivery.
Sales may want to prioritize new customers first.
Customer success may want to prioritize current customers to ensure retention.
All of this, creates tension!
If we think about the structure of our companies, it is quite common to see this happening.
➡️ To overcome this, I just try to make sure the vision is clearly communicated and regularly revisited in alignment meetings, where we openly discuss and re-prioritize (if needed) goals together. Just 1 (right) person representing each team.
Make sure to subscribe to Frederico’s newsletter to find more helpful tips like this one!
Embracing the Product Mindset
Doug Crescenzi highlights the importance of shifting from a project to a product perspective: "A product perspective allows us to always improve upon what we are creating. We're not locked into a rigid and inflexible project approach."
👉 Try This: Instead of thinking about your work as a series of projects with definite end points, consider how each initiative contributes to the ongoing evolution of your product.
Understanding Your Unique Value
Lauren Chan Lee, Director of Product Management at Care.com, emphasizes the importance of knowing your unique contribution: "Know your value add. [...] I leverage my knowledge of our business and customers to better prioritize what features make it onto the roadmap and help my team understand why we're building those features."
🧘 Reflection Exercise: List your unique strengths and experiences. How can you leverage these to bring a valuable perspective to your product decisions?
💡 Practical Ways to Broaden Your Perspective
Regular User Interviews: Conduct monthly user interviews to stay connected with your customers' evolving needs and perspectives.
Cross-Functional Shadowing: Spend a day each month shadowing a colleague from a different department (e.g., sales, customer support, engineering) to gain fresh insights.
Industry Trend Analysis: Dedicate time each week to reading about trends in your industry and adjacent fields. How might these impact your product in the future?
Competitive Landscape Mapping: Regularly update a visual map of your competitive landscape, including potential disruptors from other industries.
Personal Development: Invest in courses or workshops outside your immediate field. A broader knowledge base can lead to unique product insights.
🔓 Get Your Free Copy
You can download a summary of all of these tips and tricks to help you boost your motivation and stuck from your situation!
Final Thoughts
Remember, being a product manager isn't about having all the answers. It's about asking the right questions, staying curious, and leading your team through uncertainty.
The next time you're feeling overwhelmed, take a deep breath and remind yourself: you've got this. You're not alone in facing these challenges, and with persistence and the right strategies, you can overcome any obstacle in your path.
Tell me, what strategies have helped you navigate tough times as a PM? Share your experiences in the comments below. Let's learn from each others experiences! 👇