What’s like being a neurodivergent Product Manager in early-stage startups.
Michela Casaldi
Helping neurodivergent people to live healthy and fulfilling life | registered Health & Wellness Coach | 1:1 coaching | neurodiversity-informed | Level 2 Understanding Autism | Workplace Neurodiversity Champion
While we continue reading about neurodiversity in the workplace, and how to make an organization more neuroinclusive, the aim of this article is to look at the work environment and work tasks in an early startup through the lens of neurodivergent individuals and in particular neurodivergent Product people.
As a premise, it is to be noticed that the article does not reflect a specific company, but rather drawn on traits which can be generalized across several organizations I have either worked for or got to know over the years.
The article is organized according to the following structure:
-????Product Manager Technical & Soft Skills
-????Organization Environment
-????Organization “Way of working”
-????Neurodivergent Individual - Traits
-????How neurodivergent-friendly the work environment and the work tasks are.
-????How neurodivergent-unfriendly the work environment and the work tasks are.
-????Suggestion on how to make the environment and the work tasks more accessible for neurodivergent individuals.
-????Take Away
Product Manager Technical & Soft Skills
The list below is not by any mean exhaustive but rather focus on some broad categories to support of the evaluation covered in later sections:
-????Market structure and competitor landscape analysis
-????Application of both qualitative and quantitative techniques to gauge an understand of customers and users’ unmet needs.
-????Definition of product strategy and generation of roadmap a result of prioritizing the most impacting opportunities.
-????Ability to work as part of a cross-functional team to the design and delivery of elegant solutions to users and customers’ problems while meeting business goals.
-????Definition success criteria for the solution and monitor progresses against a set of selected metrics.
-????Ability to manage stakeholders.
-????Ability to communicate with impacts.
Organization Environment
-????Fully remote, remote first or hybrid
-????Flexible working hours
-????Heavy reliance on digital collaboration tools, including but not limited to whiteboard and mind-map (e.g., Miro, Figma), shared documents (e.g., Goole workspace), software delivery mgt. (e.g., Jira, Confluence), chat/messaging (e.g., Slack), video conferencing, calendars, and emails (e.g., Google Meets, Google Calendar, Gmail).
-????Access to the latest work equipment, e.g., laptop, monitors, headphones etc…
Organization “Way of working”
-????Fast pace, tight timelines and urge to get solutions out in the market fast to collected feedback while maximizing cash runway and securing access to funding.
-????Overall poor change management ability.
-????Limited resources: people often wearing multiple hats.
-????Lack of or limited processes, included HR polices.
-????Frequent change of directions and strategy pivots to reach product-market fit while dealing with a fast-moving market and technologies advances.
-????Support for creativity, innovation, collaboration and continue learning.
-????Immature leadership team often lacking line management experience.
-????Preference for asynchronous approach to work at the advantage of a reduced number of meetings.
Neurodivergent Individual - Traits
It is important to recognize that each neurodivergent individual is unique and whilst there may be characteristics commonly associated with a neurodiversity condition, every person is an individual and it is paramount not to stereotype.
Given the overlap among neurodivergent conditions, for the purpose of this article, instead of focusing on one in the specific, I will provide a brief overview of challenges commonly shared across multiple conditions, with some more pronounced in one condition rather than another.
-????Overall challenges with executive functions:
-????Fear of being rejected, people pleasers.
-????Feeling often overwhelmed, unable to deal with stress.
-????Speed processing and visual processing challenges; literacy and numeracy challenges.
-????Difficulties expressing own emotions/feelings and understanding the emotions/beliefs of others.
-????Challenges with reading the meaning of gestures, facial expressions, or tone of voice.
-????Struggle to initiate and maintain relationships.
-????Struggle with changes due to lack of flexibility
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-????Sensory challenges (e.g., Hypo or Hypersensitivity).
There are also several strengths commonly recognized across neurodivergent individuals, such as being:
-????Good problem-solver
-????Creative thinker
-????Innovator
-????Able to see the big picture.
-????Hands-on and ready to roll-out their sleeve when and if required.
-????Having an entrepreneurial flair.
How neurodivergent-friendly the work environment and the work tasks are.
-????Remote working supports a quieter environment which could be beneficial for neurodivergent individuals who require a dedicate space to focus especially when working on complex tasks.
-????Flexible working hours provide the opportunity for individuals - especially if neurodivergent - to work at times they feel being more productive for them (if a minimum overlap with the rest of the cross-functional team is guaranteed). It also enables individuals to focus on outcomes and what they have achieved rather than the number of tasks completed.
-????The asynchronous approach has the advantage of removing some of the pressure from having to think “on the spot”, hence better suits some neurodivergent individuals who might struggle with speed processing.
Additionally, in an asynchronous approach to work, instructions and actions are written down and documented, which turns being a benefit for neurodivergent people who might face both short and working memory challenges.
Last, but not least, an asynchronous “way of working” might bring the advantage of freeing-up time from attending meetings. This could work particular in favour of neurodivergent individuals who struggle overall with time management.
-????The wide-spread number of productivity tools adopted by the organization has the potential to ease activities which neurodivergent individuals might find particularly challenges such as planning, remembering deadlines, organizing tasks, decompose a problem in smaller chunks.
-????As most of the meetings are held online via video conferencing, this provides the opportunity for neurodivergent individuals to distantiate themselves if feeling overwhelmed or unable to keep eyes contact, for instance by temporarily switching the camera off.
Additionally, most of the internal meeting can be recording, hence providing the opportunity for neurodivergent people to access the recording in their own time if needed.
-????The organization support for creativity and good problem-solving practises especially suits product people while playing at the strengths of neurodivergent individuals.
-????Heavy reliance on Google workspace or similar business suits has the potential to address literacy and visual processing challenges experienced by some neurodivergent individuals, for instance by providing “out of the box” and “free of charge” features such as voice typing software for Google Docs, spelling corrector etc. as well as free “text-to-speech” extensions for Google search and “dictation” extensions in Gmail. It is anticipated how this could be take even a step further with the introduction of GenAi based tools and their ability to help getting start on a task (i.e., overcoming procrastination) or structuring some initial thoughts on a topic. ?
How neurodivergent-unfriendly the work environment and the work tasks are.
-????A product Manager role requires the ability to deal with a high amount of information resulting from users’ interviews, customers feedback and data analysis; it requires a high degree of literacy and numeracy as well as the ability to organize the insights in a digestible and sharable format. This might be at time challenging for a neurodiverse individual who might find hard structuring thoughts in a written format. ??
-????The frequent business pivots and changes in priorities can be frustrating for any individual but especially difficult to handle for the neurodivergent workforce who thrives on structure and predictability and might lack the flexibility to adapt to the fast-changing environment.
-????The constant lack of resources due to low budget/cash requires everyone to wear multiple hats and take on board tasks which might fall outside their direct remit; this might lead to excessive workload overtime, and becoming particularly overwhelming for neurodivergent individuals who struggle with time management.
-????Product people are expected to cope with several cooccurring and competing requests from multiple sources, e.g., Customer support, Sales, User feedback etc…leading them to apply a strict approach to prioritization. Neurodivergent individuals might find difficult at time to say “no” to things due to their people pleaser nature, again leading to excessive workload overtime.
-????Despite the many advantages, remote working might make more challenging to build and maintain relations with stakeholders (which is critical to the design and deliver of solutions as part of a cross-functional effort) due to limited opportunities for informal chit-chat, for instance at the coffee machine or printer; this could become even more difficult for neurodivergent individuals who might experience communication and social interactions impairments.
-????Meetings held online might make it more difficult for neurodivergent individuals to read the meaning of facial expressions, or the tone of voice of their counterpart.
-????There is an expectation for Product people to be good storytellers and able to get stakeholders buy-in. This could turn be difficult though for some neurodivergent individuals who might experience challenges with putting forward a compelling argument.
-????Lack of regular 1-2-1 might lead to unclarity around tasks and objectives as well as on what is expected from individuals; this can turn be difficult for everyone, but especially for neurodivergent people who struggle with focus and priorities.
Suggestion on how to make the environment and the work tasks more accessible for neurodivergent individuals.
To be noticed that 1) many of the suggestions made in this section have the potential to benefit the overall workforce, hence neither are limited to neurodivergent individuals nor specific to Product people; 2) several of the proposed measures require a cultural shift within the organization with the organization to embrace neurodiversity as a critical element of their DE&I agenda.
-????Foster concise communications, avoid longer email or text/graph heavy presentations, use bullet points to convey key messages and remove ambiguity; employ wherever possible a multi-sensory approach by combining visual and auditory elements.?
-????Coach individuals on what is meant with asynchronous approach – set rules and expectations (e.g., urgent request vs. standard request/task) so that it doesn’t become overwhelming and demanding, hence offsetting the potential benefits.
-????Have good facilitators in place to moderate workshops (e.g., ideation sessions) and give everyone the space they need to put ideas forward and while keeping an eye on time to prevent the session from overrunning; make more use of individual brainstorming to especially enable thinking space for neurodivergent individuals.
-????Coach individuals on how to get the most out of the available productivity and collaboration tools and do that through the lens of their challenges as neurodivergent individuals.
-????Coach individuals in the art and science of product management, the skills, and frameworks (by the means of professional product coaches or experienced product persons in the organization if present); this will especially benefit neurodivergent people as it will ease their tasks while making them more effective.
-????Promote transparency in communication and give early visibility of upcoming changes – implement good change management practice.
-????Promote an environment where successes are celebrated, and people are recognized for their contribution.
-????Leadership team to embrace a ruthless prioritization approach rather than chasing every opportunity that comes their way. This approach is expected to benefit the entire workforce, even more neurodivergent individuals as it increases focus and reduce risk of becoming overwhelmed.
-????Make HR team accountable to ensure all line managers have regular check-in with their team members to help the individual to stay on track and ensure they prioritise what contributes the most to business outcomes. Encourage both the manager and the individual to follow up on what discussed and agreed with a written summary/bullet points to ensure common understanding.
-????Share presentation slides before a meeting wherever possible (or at least soon after the meeting). This will enable neurodivergent individuals to digest the content ahead of the meeting, feel more prepared and therefore more confident to contribute.
-????Introduce informal opportunities for individuals to build relationship and overcome the lack of proximity due to remote settings. This could be in the form of weekly virtual coffee drop-in sessions, buddy system in place for new joiners, or leverage Slack app such as RandomCoffees to randomly pair channel members each week for a virtual coffee or lunch.
-????Whereas the organization operates on a hybrid basis, despite the limited space at hand (often part of a shared facility such as “we work”), ensure to grant access to a “quite room” that individuals could access when they required to do some concentration work or they need to self-regulate; similarly provides access to video booths so to limit the number of calls/video calls taken on the office floor to minimize noise and distractions.
Take Away
Startups intrinsically well support some of the traits seen in neurodivergent individuals, similarly neurodivergent Product people could find the environment provided by this type of organizations a good fit to satisfy their creativity and continue search for new stimulus. It should not be ignored though that these organizations also present challenges which if not addressed are likely to have an impact on the person’s overall areas of wellbeing. Individuals might end up feeling as lacking the opportunity to regularly do something they enjoy and becoming disengaged; they might feel like not “fitting in” and as lacking an appreciation of their own strengths.
This will manifest overtime in the form of poor work performances, inconsistency, quality issues and ultimately mental health challenges, the latter in the form of low self-esteem, self-regard, and confidence in own abilities as well as frustration, stress, and exhaustion.
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