Great product managers combine restraint and ingenuity

Great product managers combine restraint and ingenuity.

Restraint because they can’t be married to their own pet ideas. Engineers-turned-PMs can fall into the trap of falling in love with a clever solution that just won’t fly in the presence of customers’ (often banal) constraints. (I did this way too many times in the early days of Rasa)

Ingenuity because at some point, someone needs to invent something. A PM needs to put up their hand and say “this is how we move forward. It doesn’t solve for everything, but it’s the best foundation for us to build on”. PMs who aren’t confident doing this fall into the trap of endlessly gathering requirements and hoping a solution pops out all on its own. It never does.

It’s a tough balance. But without both, you’re either missing the mark or spinning your wheels.