The Art of Extreme Ownership — The Product Manager Version

The term ‘extreme ownership’ came from a book inspired by the U.S. Navy, and there is nobody who can tell you how to do your job better than them. According to the book, extreme ownership is taking complete responsibility for both success and failure if you are the leader. In this theory, you can blame nobody but the leader for everything. This sounds like a lot of pressure, right? Well, it is time to utilize this pressure into something productive.

Life as a product manager is hard. From rigorous planning to executing everything to perfection — the entire product life cycle depends upon the hard work that you do. In addition to their own work, product managers also have to collaborate with the engineering, sales, marketing, and support departments to ensure that the products have satisfied all customer expectations.

Taking Extreme Ownership

While this may be easy to talk about in theory, applying it to real life is rather difficult. Accepting your own flaws and working hard to make them better can be a tough task to do — but it is certainly rewarding once you do it. If you feel like you are lacking in your job as product manager, here are a few ways of taking extreme ownership:

1. Own the Build-up

The reason why many product managers fail is because they are too quick to take actions. Once you can see that you are falling behind on product development, it is time to take a step back and consider all the build-up in the organization. Are there products that you never developed? Which products failed? At this point, you should revisit your initial priorities and start developing products that are in line with that vision.

2. Own your Plan

Before you get into tangible product development, you need a strategy. It is always useful to plan out your tasks for the next six-month period and prioritize your time accordingly. While new tasks are likely to arise at multiple occasions during this time frame, you can easily adjust them into your schedule by considering whether they are less or more important than the tasks you are already working on.

3. Own your Metrics

Every business has a method of determining their performance levels — but none are free of error. As product manager, you should get into the details of your metrics and understand what each one is representing. In case there is an error in calculation, you would be able to identify it immediately. This helps in understanding the comparative position of your product or service in the market, and to compare your current metrics with old ones.

4. Own your Customers

The final step to extreme ownership as a product manager is by owning the customers. To effectively develop products for somebody, you need to know them first. Understand the life dynamic of your typical customer — such as why they need your product and how you can reach them. This makes it easier to fill the gap in the market by developing a product that your customers need alongside a marketing strategy that can reach them easily.