Who does a product manager (PM) work with? What do those people do? And how can a PM work with them well?

Who does a product manager (PM) work with? What do those people do? And how can a PM work with them well?

Welcome back to The New PM, a series of articles for new and aspiring product managers.

Last month, I talked about what a PM does, and y’all let me know what you thought in the comments. (Thanks for your comments they made my week.) In that article, I defined the role like this: A product manager defines the WHAT, facilitates the HOW, and articulates the WHY for her product. More on that here.

This article is about the partners a PM works with: who they are, what they do, and how a PM can work with them well.

When I started as a PM, I had no idea what the people I worked with did. For a while I continued not really knowing. Then I did something “genius” — I asked them.

Their answers were surprising and helpful. Listening helped me understand their work. Reflecting on what they said helped me build better products.

This article puts those answers down on paper. Below you’ll find 7 mini-interviews with the 7 people I work with most closely.

Whether you’re an aspiring PM, a new PM, someone who works with a PM, or just curious, let me know what you think in the comments below.

(1) Your Engineering Manager

What's your name and function?

Hari Prasanna, Engineering Manager

In a sentence or two, what does your function do?

Manage engineering resourcing, setting up communication channels between partner eng and non-eng teams, buying champagne for the launch party

What do you do on a day to day basis?

Status meetings, 1:1s with engineers and partners in Design, Product, Operations, coaching

When working with a PM, what do you like?

Fresh perspectives, Focus on impact, bias towards execution, building relationships

When working with a PM, what don't you like?

Lack of imagination around leveraging new technologies like AI

What's one actionable tip you'd give to PMs that would improve your working relationship?

Actively seek to understand your blindspots and build a team and/or processes to account for it

(2) Your Design Partner

What's your name and function?

Maria Iu, Designer

In a sentence or two, what does your function do?

I work with my product and engineering partners to tackle member facing problems, from strategic planning and ideating, helping facilitate user research, conceptualizing the user experience, designing possible solutions, collaborating with multiple design teams for horizontal alignment, delivering design specs to engineering, and supporting engineers as they build out and test the product.

What do you do on a day to day basis?

Depends! Mostly meetings, it's been difficult to find time to do heads down design work.

When working with a PM, what do you like?

I consider PMs equal partners and I like working with PMs who understand the design process and respects my opinions.

When working with a PM, what don't you like?

I don't like PMs who come at a problem solutions first, or already sketch out a design that they want me to "make pretty".

What's one actionable tip you'd give to PMs that would improve your working relationship?

Involve your designers from the very beginning, especially in strategic planning. Designers bring the member perspective to the conversation and can be helpful in understanding how to bring a vision to life.

(3) Your Manager

What's your name and function?

Jasper Sherman-Presser, Product Manager

In a sentence or two, what does your function do?

The best metaphor I’ve heard for product managers is that they are a midwife: they coach and help teams to birth products into life.

What do you do on a day to day basis?

I manage product managers; my goal is to set a coherent vision for my team in terms of the problems we’re seeking to solve, our vision, and our strategy for solving them, so that the PMs who work for me can in turn lead their teams in building products that solve problems for our users (and that help support our business). I view my role as empowering my team — giving them the space, environment and guidance they need to build great products. In practice, that means that I spend my days working with others, primarily doing two things: talking with my peers around the organization, evangelizing our team’s vision and strategy and exploring ways (and sometimes, tactically unblocking) for us to work together; and working with the folks on my team to provide input and feedback to their plans.

When working with a PM, what do you like?

Being a PM is about owning a problem and trying to find and deliver the best solution. Great PMs are naturally curious about the world around them; they can both see the little details that make a difference as well as the bigger picture; they are articulate and persuasive in depicting the way the world could be and explaining the path to get there. The best PMs convince you of the importance of solving a problem, and inspire you to believe that they can lead you to a solution.

When working with a PM, what don't you like?

One of the key functions of a PM is to help the team stay focused on what’s important. It’s a combination of both hard skills (having an analytical approach to setting a strategy and roadmap) and soft skills (communication, persuasion, and generally understanding what the team needs from you and how to give it to them). To be a good PM, you have to care not just about the problem you’re solving, but about the people you are building it with. When I interview PMs who say they want to be a PM because they want to be “CEO of the product,” I have a visceral negative reaction. Being a PM means you work for your team, not vice versa.

What's one actionable tip you'd give to PMs that would improve your working relationship?

You don’t need to have all the answers. But you need a clear understanding of the problem and how you’re going to get the answers.

(4) Your Marketing Partner

What's your name and function?

Frankie Ikwuazom, Product Marketing

In a sentence or two, what does your function do?

Understand the root of a member problem and communicate with our members when we have a solution.

What do you do on a day to day basis?

I put on my problem-solving hat, collaborate (w/ PM, POM, ENG, Data Science, PR, UX, UER—to name a few), speak to members, understand what makes them tick, translate their motivations, intentions, and hesitations into actionable product changes, go back to members to ensure they understand how to use the products to achieve their goals and help others—all in the most creative, compassionate way I can manage.

When working with a PM, what do you like?

Forward-thinking, not on heels, good listener, agile action taker, respects diversity of thought, humor, a true ear for the member problem (by leveraging the partners who speak to them), open to feedback

When working with a PM, what don't you like?

Putting product goals before what's right for the member, impatience, lack of communication, not solution-oriented

What's one actionable tip you'd give to PMs that would improve your working relationship?

Encourage your partners to have diversity of thought in the "brainstorm phase." We don't want to all agree just to get to decision more quickly. Good things happen when people think differently. That's why we're all here, right?

(5) Your Data Science Partner

What's your name and function?

Chris Thoms, Data Science

In a sentence or two, what does your function do?

Derive insights from data to help influence product directions.

What do you do on a day to day basis?

Write queries and make graphs

When working with a PM, what do you like?

A clear set of prioritization organized around finding the answer to a central question.

When working with a PM, what don't you like?

Ad hoc requests where the answer may not be meaningful for the product direction.

What's one actionable tip you'd give to PMs that would improve your working relationship?

Put yourself in the shoes of the person that you're asking for work from. Consider all the potential things that may be on their plate.

(6) Your User Research Partner

What's your name and function?

Cathy Stolitzka, User Research

In a sentence or two, what does your function do?

Surface member feedback and insights to product and engineering teams. At a smaller company this analysis will most likely be completed by a PM but at larger companies like LinkedIn, this becomes a more needed role.

What do you do on a day to day basis?

I analyze member case data and social sentiment, conduct member research calls, and meet with various stakeholders to discuss addressing certain member issues.

When working with a PM, what do you like?

I love when PMs are transparent. Whether it be around why we can't build a feature, what is on the roadmap, or what other related issues could be. My job becomes a lot harder when I don't have an open communication line with a PM.

When working with a PM, what don't you like?

I don't like it when PMs consider member feedback to be the enemy. When I provide insights I am not trying to tell a PM that they are wrong but simply show what someone is experiencing.

What's one actionable tip you'd give to PMs that would improve your working relationship?

Make member and product feedback more of a conversation and less of a way one flow.

(7) Your Engineering Partners

What's your name and function?

Carlos Reyes Stoneham, Software Engineer

In a sentence or two, what does your function do?

Our primary function is to literally build the product, however this often involves auxiliary work in the planning/coordinating/clarifying requirements stages. Additionally we work on our own projects that help us build better products faster.

What do you do on a day to day basis?

It varies significantly. Generally it’s mostly working to understand product requirement, find issues with potential products, gather relevant information, set up testing, and writing the software.

When working with a PM, what do you like?

Concise reports aggregating information about why we believe we should build a product with research to support our decisions, what results we expect to see, and how we intend to measure the results. Detailed product specs. Help with day-to-day operations (tickets, planning, testing, etc.).

When working with a PM, what don't you like?

Unsubstantiated opinions on important issues. Building products is expensive (literal and opportunity cost), we need to have good rationale for the products that we choose to pursue and why we're prioritizing them over other opportunities.

What's one actionable tip you'd give to PMs that would improve your working relationship?

Become strong in a "technical" vertical: business, data, design, or engineering.

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What qualities do you appreciate in a cross functional partner? What qualities do you dislike? Join the conversation in the comments below.