Ken Sandy
Lecturer, Consultant, Author

43 / PM101: The Influential Product Manager

Description
What does it mean to be an influential product manager? In short, it means doing the job well. Easier said than done, right? The product manager is the one role in the organization who seems to own all the responsibility for getting things done, but none of the authority to actually do it. And that’s why influence is the key to success.
In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Sean and Paul welcome Ken Sandy. Quite literally, Ken wrote the book on influence in the PM role. His The Influential Product Manager: How to Lead and Launch Successful Technology Products is a comprehensive primer for both seasoned PMs and newcomers. And as a lecturer at UC Berkeley, he pioneered and now teaches the first product management course offered in the Engineering school – choosing to ‘light a candle rather than curse the darkness.’
There’s no aspect of our conversation with Ken that you’ll want to miss. He covers a lot of ground: behaving like a product manager; conquering self-doubt; understanding the power of trust; and finding your place within the 2×2 matrix of product manager ‘mindsets.’ You’re won’t be great in each of these quadrants, Ken says, or even comfortable.
“But you shouldn’t avoid them either. You want to get in there to make sure you’re practicing those techniques, getting better at them over time. Because if you don’t, no one else is going to do it for you or your product.”
Remember, the product manager is the one individual in the organization that nobody else seems to work for. And who, it seems, works for everybody else.
Listen in:
[02:18] Influence as a key skill. How do I teach that?
[03:32] Different flavors of product managers. What connects them is how they operate within their organization – through influence, not authority.
[05:35] The four mindsets. Explorer, Analyst, Challenger, and Evangelist.
[12:26] Context matters. Especially in the product space.
[15:10] The art of saying ‘no.’ Nothing challenges PMs more than trying to prioritize competing initiatives. Saying ‘no’ to stuff.
[17:04] The prioritization methodology. You are empowered as a product manager to make the prioritization decisions about the product and the business. Don’t do that in isolation.
[18:52] Goals and evaluation criteria. If you can’t agree on the goals, you’ve got no chance on anything else.
[20:13] Build trust before you need it. Don’t wait until that first moment of having to deal with an issue or asking a stakeholder to do something on your behalf.
[22:34] Stakeholders are not always ‘senior leaders.’ Don’t overlook the broad spectrum of where you need to build those relationships.
[23:55] Communication is a two-way street. If you’re asking for something every time you talk to a stakeholder, you’re in the ‘self-interested land.’ But if you’re asking them about their goals and how you can help, you’re in a much better territory.
[25:18] Constructive conflict and psychological safety allows for everyone to put their cards on the table and kind of get down to it.
[29:10] Understanding bias. A very important skill for product leaders. The tools are getting much better.
[30:22] Innovation. Bringing together people with different points of view and looking at problems in new ways. From there, being able to create solutions to those problems that may not have existed before.
Ken’s Recommended Reading