Zooming out: The PM's evolving time horizon ??

One of the most fascinating aspects of a product management career is how your perspective on time evolves as you progress. It's like starting with a magnifying glass and gradually switching to a telescope - your field of view expands dramatically.

Let's break this down:

Junior PMs often find themselves focused on the immediate future. Their world revolves around the current sprint, the next release, maybe the upcoming quarter. They're asking questions like:

• What features are we shipping this month?
• How can we improve our sprint velocity?
• What's the priority for the next release?

This focus is crucial. It's where PMs learn the nuts and bolts of product development, where they hone their skills in execution and delivery.

As PMs advance to mid-level positions, their time horizon expands. Now they're looking at the next six months, the coming year. Their questions evolve:

• What major initiatives should we tackle next quarter?
• How does our roadmap align with annual company goals?
• What market trends do we need to respond to in the coming year?

This shift requires developing a more strategic mindset. It's about balancing short-term gains with longer-term objectives, about seeing how individual features fit into a larger product vision.

Senior PMs and product leaders take this even further. They're looking two, three, five years into the future. Their questions become more expansive:

• Where will our industry be in five years, and how do we position ourselves to lead?
• What emerging technologies could disrupt our market, and how do we prepare?
• How do we evolve our product to capture new market opportunities?

This long-term view is essential for true product leadership. It's about anticipating change, not just reacting to it. It's about shaping markets, not just serving them.

But here's the key: great product leaders don't just extend their time horizon - they learn to seamlessly move between different time frames. They can zoom out to the five-year vision, then zoom in to guide this quarter's priorities. They use their long-term perspective to inform short-term decisions, ensuring that each step moves the product in the right direction.

Developing this expanded time horizon isn't easy. It requires:

1. Market Intelligence: Staying on top of industry trends, emerging technologies, and shifting customer needs.
2. Business Acumen: Understanding how long-term market dynamics will impact your business model.
3. Visionary Thinking: Being able to imagine future scenarios and plan for them.
4. Comfort with Ambiguity: The further out you look, the less certain things become. You need to get comfortable making decisions with imperfect information.
5. Influencing Skills: The longer the time horizon, the harder it can be to get buy-in. You need to be able to paint a compelling picture of the future.

So, fellow PMs, reflect on your own time horizon. How far ahead are you looking in your product strategy? How has this changed as you've progressed in your career? And most importantly, how are you balancing long-term vision with short-term execution?

Remember, expanding your time horizon isn't about neglecting the present - it's about ensuring that your current actions are setting you up for future success. It's about building products that don't just meet today's needs, but anticipate and shape tomorrow's markets.

Where will your product be in five years? Start envisioning it today.

#productmanagement #productvision #productroadmap