10 Warning Signs Your Product Manager Is Struggling

Is your product manager struggling? Can you trust your uneasy gut feeling, or maybe you’re tired of hearing from that vocal stakeholder who isn’t happy?

Product management is a multifaceted discipline: we identify great performance with both quantitative and qualitative measures across multiple dimensions. Because of this complexity, too often, leaders rely on instinct or the loudest voice in the room to gauge a product manager's effectiveness. Your instincts—and that stakeholder—might be a first sign that something is off, but I’d like to offer you some more concrete behaviors to look out for.

Let’s explore why it’s challenging to assess product manager performance and look at signs that a PM might be struggling. We'll also delve into common failure modes influenced by previous career backgrounds, offering a fuller picture of where support might be needed, and discuss what to do when it's time to part ways.?

The Art and Science of Evaluating Product Managers

When evaluating a seller, you look at revenue. When evaluating marketing, you look at leads. When evaluating engineers, you might consider commits. But product managers? They need to ship efficiently, inspire confidence, see around corners, charm customers, and, just for good measure, shoot laser beams from their eyes. Evaluating this can be... complicated.

Here’s why assessing a PM’s performance is uniquely challenging:

• Multifaceted Role. Product managers operate at the intersection of strategy, execution, design, and technology, requiring a holistic assessment along multiple dimensions.
• Long Term Impact. Success for PMs often unfolds over time, as new products gain adoption, markets develop, and strategic bets come to fruition.
• Varying Needs. Impact can vary widely based on the stage of the product lifecycle and market dynamics. Great PM performance for a 0 to 1 product may not be appropriate in its growth phase.
• Misalignment. Often, there isn't alignment within the organization around the boundaries and responsibilities of the PM role, making stakeholder feedback unreliable.
• Ramp-up Time. Ramp-up time can vary for new PMs, influenced by their domain experience and the complexity of the technology. Developing a deep intuition for the market can take months.

With all this to weigh, it can be tempting to fall back on your gut or delegate the difficult decision to a popularity contest. We can and should dive deeper, but first let’s take a moment to look around at the environment and ourselves.

Check Yourself Before You Wreck a PM’s Career

Before we explore the warning signs for individuals, I strongly urge you to consider systemic issues first, including your own management style. This isn’t just a matter of fairness; it is a critical step to ensure you aren’t going to repeat the same problem with the next product manager you hire.

Some organizational issues to watch out for include:

• Is the product manager role clearly defined and understood in your organization?
• Does the PM have the resources they need to execute effectively?
• Has the PM received enough support as they ramped up?
• Does your organization communicate effectively across departments?
• Do you have clear product-market fit, or are you still searching?

And some tough questions to ask yourself :

• Have you put in the time to establish a relationship with the PM?
• Have you made it safe to come to you with problems and questions?
• Were you clear about what it takes to succeed on your team?
• Have you provided the air cover they need to make tough calls confidently?

If you answered 'no' to many of these questions, consider whether the issues you observe in a PM’s performance may actually be symptoms of more fundamental organizational problems .

10 Signs Your PM May Be Struggling

When evaluating a product manager, begin with this straightforward question: When this PM is placed on a project, does the project or team perform better, worse, or the same as without them? If the performance isn't obviously better, and systemic issues have been ruled out, it's time to delve deeper.?

Here are ten concrete signs that your product manager may be missing key qualities necessary for success in the role:

1. Can’t frame context. They can’t clearly explain the "why" behind decisions, the benefits expected, and the inputs and outcomes. Engineers report confusion about user needs and goals.
2. Won’t make a tough call. Frequently unable to say 'no', especially to demands from the field, leading to prioritization based on the loudest or most recent voices.?
3. No framework for priorities. Their plans lack clear organizing principles, resembling laundry lists that focus on less impactful features or frequently change without clear rationale.
4. No ownership or agency. They avoid critically evaluating problems or acting decisively, often blaming external factors or other teams instead of owning mistakes and learning from them.
5. Myopic perspective. Neglects to consider multiple viewpoints—customer, revenue, experience, support—showing an inability to think holistically about products.
6. Focus on effort over results. Preoccupied with documentation and procedural details, they emphasize the amount of work done rather than its effectiveness in achieving business goals.
7. Confused stakeholders. Stakeholders feel surprised by what was shipped, unprepared to support it, or unclear on the benefits and goals of the product.
8. Neglects customer needs. Neglects customer engagement, focusing instead on indirect sources of input, or makes decisions that are out of alignment with user impact.
9. Poor communication skills. Struggles with clear, concise, and compelling communication, leading to confusion, inefficiency, and misaligned objectives within the team.
10. Surprised and paralyzed. Reacts to problems rather than anticipating and mitigating them in advance. Lacks initiative and often waits for directions instead of seeking out opportunities.

These signs can help you identify when a PM may be underperforming and provide a basis for constructive feedback and development. While no one of these issues should be treated as a catastrophe, watch out for a pattern of struggle in multiple areas.

Bonus: 5 Archetypical Failure Modes

Understanding the backgrounds of your product managers can provide valuable insights into their potential strengths and weaknesses. Different professional experiences bring diverse skills and perspectives, but they may also predispose PMs to certain pitfalls.?

To avoid falling victim to the halo effect—where a PM's strengths may obscure their weaknesses—keep an eye out for the following negative patterns:

• Former Engineers: Might focus excessively on technical details, losing sight of the bigger business picture. They can struggle with prioritizing market impact over technical perfection.
• Former Marketers: Often excel in promoting and positioning products but may overemphasize market perception and underplay the importance of product functionality and user feedback.
• Former Customer Support: Exceptionally responsive and attuned to user pain, they might avoid making tough prioritization decisions that disappoint customers.
• Former Users: They bring a deep understanding of the product from a user’s perspective but risk assuming that all users share their views and experiences, neglecting broader market needs.
• Former Sales: While strong in understanding customer needs and driving revenue, they may prioritize short-term gains and story over long-term product strategy and satisfaction.

By recognizing these tendencies, you can identify issues more quickly and better tailor your management approach. Providing targeted coaching and development opportunities can also help PMs overcome these failure modes and evolve into well-rounded leaders.

The Career Ladder

Once you've identified signs that a product manager may be struggling, the next critical step is to evaluate their performance within the context of what’s expected at their level. A career ladder or competency framework can provide structure and transparency as you determine whether the issues you're seeing indicate a fundamental misfit or a coaching opportunity.

Leveling isn't merely about seniority; it involves aligning roles with the appropriate complexity of tasks and strategic responsibilities. As PMs advance in their careers, the expectations evolve—shifting toward longer time horizons, greater leadership demands, and more significant strategic contributions.

If your organization has a leveling system, use it to assess whether a PM's struggles might stem from being over-leveled (facing challenges beyond their current capabilities) or under-leveled (not sufficiently challenged by their responsibilities).?

If you lack a formal leveling system, consider adopting or adapting elements from well-established frameworks:

• Intercom’s PM Job Ladder : Details expectations for PMs at various career stages, focusing on insight, strategy, execution, outcomes, and leadership.
• GitLab’s PM Competency Framework : Outlines critical areas such as product-led growth, sensing mechanisms, thought leadership, and aligning teams, applicable for both individual contributors and product leaders.

By accurately aligning your PMs according to a robust competency framework, you can more effectively determine whether their performance issues are due to skill gaps or a mismatch in role expectations.

Supporting Struggling PMs

Before crafting a personal coaching plan, ensure any systemic issues are addressed, as discussed earlier. Once these broader concerns are managed, focus on personalized strategies to support your struggling product manager.?

Be Crystal Clear: If you have invested in a strong relationship with your team member, this is the time to be clear that they need to make specific, consistent, and quick changes. Use Adam Grant’s framing to emphasize you care about their success but also set a high bar: “I’m giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know that you can reach them.”

Get Their Perspective: Ask them to reflect on what you’ve observed and assess whether you can establish common ground to build on. Do they recognize the issues and acknowledge the need for change? What do they think would indicate improvement? What steps would they take to address the challenges?

Develop a Plan: Collaborate on a personalized plan that includes practical opportunities for hands-on learning, ideally under your supervision. Agree on goals that are clear yet adaptable as projects evolve and new insights emerge. Specify what support you will provide, such as training or strategic project assignments, and clearly outline the areas you’ll be closely monitoring.

Refocus One-on-Ones: Relegate project status updates to other meetings, reserving 1:1s for specific, behavior-based, and actionable feedback. Apply the framework: "Here’s the behavior I observed, which resulted in this (positive/negative) outcome—how can we (repeat/avoid) this next time?" Document these discussions to track progress. Increase check-in frequency during this period to maintain momentum.

Seek Broader Feedback: Actively gather input from colleagues and other stakeholders who interact with the PM, pushing for specific examples and behaviors over general impressions. This 360-degree feedback will provide different perspectives on the PM's performance and highlight areas that might not be visible to you alone.?

Monitor Improvement Trajectory: As you provide feedback and coaching, look for signs of an ability to hear you and adjust behavior accordingly. Monitor for a positive “trajectory”—an emerging and accelerating pattern of improvement and responsiveness to feedback. Define clear milestones to recognize significant progress.

A positive trajectory is a key indicator that your interventions are helping. If improvement is sustained, you can pull back on check-ins and allow more autonomy. If your PM continues to show positive results with less supervision, you are on the road to recovery.

Recognizing When It Isn’t Working

Despite your best efforts, there may come a time when it becomes clear that the trajectory of improvement for a struggling product manager has flatlined, or worse, declined. When repeated feedback and tailored coaching do not yield the necessary changes, you'll need to make some difficult decisions.

Shift your focus from merely observing and correcting behaviors to assessing the PM's ability or inability to apply feedback effectively. If you consistently observe that feedback isn't being acted upon in ways that lead to improvement, it's crucial to communicate this clearly.

Next, consider whether they might be better suited to a different role within the organization that aligns more closely with their skills and professional aspirations. Sometimes, a change in role can unlock potential that was stifled in their current position.

Finally, if reassignment is not feasible or desired, prepare a respectful exit strategy. This should be conducted with the utmost professionalism, emphasizing that the decision is about fit with the organization's current needs, not a fundamental judgment of the individual or indicative of their future prospects. In planning this exit, involve HR to ensure the PM receives the support needed to transition smoothly, and initiate a quick dignified process that is best for both the organization and the PM.

Some Thoughts for the Road

Effectively managing product managers requires an understanding that the role is multifaceted, with no simple scorecard for evaluation. Leaders must invest in building strong relationships with PMs, fostering an environment that nurtures growth and promotes clear communication.

Proactively address systemic issues, offer constructive feedback, and align roles with individual strengths to cultivate a culture of accountability and respect. Importantly, proceed with the expectation that a PM can improve, maintaining this outlook until all options have been exhausted.

When tough decisions are necessary, such as considering a change in role or parting ways, handle these transitions with dignity and care. Consider that, most often, you were the person responsible for the hiring decision in the first place. You owe it to your team to evaluate and improve that process. You owe it to your employee to handle their transition thoughtfully. (Remember, you never know, you might be interviewing with them some day.)

By focusing on development, thoughtful alignment, and respectful exits, you reinforce your team's resilience and adaptability, ensuring your organization remains robust.

A Note to Product Managers: If you find yourself doubting your abilities or feeling like an imposter while reading this, know that these feelings are common in roles as challenging and dynamic as product management. Remember, the path to mastery is paved with continual learning and growth. Your leaders hired you, so they believe in your potential and are committed to your success. You are not alone in this journey.

Further Reading

Good Product Manager/Bad Product Manager . Ben Horowitz’s seminal piece outlines the contrasting behaviors of good and bad product managers, offering direct and actionable insights into what makes an effective PM stand out.

Coaching Tools: The Assessment by Silicon Valley Product Group . Marty Cagan discusses practical tools for coaching product managers, providing a framework for assessing competencies and identifying areas for development.

Doing a Good Job as a Product Manager . Lenny Rachitsky offers a quick reference to help you assess how a product manager is doing based on their team's impact, their contributions, and stakeholder regard.

Stop Serving the Compliment Sandwich . Adam Grant critiques the common practice of sandwiching criticism between compliments, proposing more effective ways to deliver constructive feedback that encourages change and development.

How to Handle Underperformers on a Team You Inherit . HBR provides strategies for managers who inherit underperforming teams, emphasizing the importance of setting expectations and understanding individual performance issues before implementing changes.

Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity . Kim Scott’s book on leadership emphasizes the critical role that strong relationships play in creating honest dialog at work—crucial reading for managers looking to cultivate a transparent and supportive culture.