15/30: The Superpower of Product Managers
At the half-way mark of the 30-day PM Writing Challenge I took on at the beginning of September, for the first time I find myself faced with an ask to talk about — myself. And that’s always harder than talking about product management.
And it hit me, just like it does every other product manager I know — imposter syndrome.
“But wait a minute, how is that a superpower?”
Here’s the thing.
There’s folks out there who are great with data and numbers, others are excellent public speakers, some are fantastic writers. Some people specialize in growth, others are very technical, and others yet have a keen business sense. The lucky few have high EQ, which helps navigate any situation.
But our superpower as product managers is that day after day, feature after feature request, product success after failure — we all have to overcome our imposter syndrome, or to be precise, the self-doubt that a job as complex and comprehensive as product management inevitably causes.
What we do is connect the dots and boil complex problems down to simple, elegant solutions, with the help of many others around us. Product managers are collaborative, open-minded critical thinkers who spend their days balancing the needs and desires of everyone around them, in a way that generates value for everyone involved, including the businesses that hire us.
We show up, we fight the good fight, and we continually adapt while never ceasing to learn.
We are curious and hungry for knowledge, and love working with others. We are energized by our work.
We are also tinkerers who try to problem-solve in any area of our work and private lives.
Our greatest superpower is problem-solving imposter syndrome and using it as leverage to grow.