What is this
User Manuals are documentation for people! They're a way of being introspective about who you are, how you wish to engage with the world, and how you'd like to be engaged with.
Why this is important to me
I like to know how people operate — what drives them, what ticks them off, how do they like to work — and I also like to be clear about how I operate. I like to do this because I like to think it makes me a better collaborator and human being — by writing down this stuff, it hopefully opens the door to conversations about how I operate and if you have an interaction with me that leaves you feeling perturbed or confused, I'd encourage you to be direct with me and reference how you feel I potentially strayed from my user manual.
We all have our bad days — and we're also not robots! different encounters can cause different reactions, so it isn't like I am guaranteeing that I'll never stray from this stuff, but hopefully if you work with me a little bit you'll see that I do try to show up in the way that I say I'd like to show up: and that matters (to me at least!)
My values
Authentic
I believe that people should just be themselves — regardless of who they're talking to. Just be yourself! I actually struggle to define what authentic means, specifically, ironically — but it feels important. I think it's just that the person I show up as should be authentic to who I am at my core?
Gentle but direct
I consider myself to have pretty great social awareness — this is something I developed as a child and became aware of it after reading The Drama of the Gifted Child — and as such like to think that I can converse about potentially difficult topics quite well!
Sometimes something just isn't very good, and actually it's better to not sugarcoat it. "I can see you've put a lot of thought into this but I think we should try a different approach, how about we work on a new document together and start fresh?"
The key thing here is actually the directness — I have found that people really value knowing where someone actually stands. But I try not to be a dick about it.
Positive
We are so incredibly fortunate to get paid to solve problems with code. World War 2 was only 80 years ago, and here we are sipping lattes.
We can have bad days, bad weeks, bad jobs! Things can just fucking suck for a bit. And it's important to recognize that. But generally speaking, I am a pretty upbeat guy. What a treat that I get to work with someone that wants to read my user manual (you!)
Product comes first
I grew up with computers. I am a technologist. I love this shit. I don't think I am tech bro — I donated to Bernie Sanders, a lot! — but I believe strongly in building great products.
Great products can mean different things to different people and different companies. When I worked at AdRoll, we didn't ship beautiful products — but at AdRoll, great products meant products that people paid for. When I founded Journey we shipped straight up beautiful products.
At the end of the day, my job as a Product Manager is to solve business problems by shipping code. It isn't to look good in meetings or kiss butt. I try very hard not to lose site of that.
And by the way, my job as a manager is still to solve business problems by shipping code, and the best way to do that is to help you be the best most effective human being!!
Direction over details
I believe the most important thing for a Product Manager is to establish what direction a product needs to be built in — like, where are these tracks going and why? If we can establish and have conviction around that, that matters way way way more than almost anything else. It's our job to make that crisp, clear and actionable.
PMs need to find the things that can drive 10x growth, not incremental obvious things that are going to happen anyway. Seriously — task risks!
I love to learn and apply those skills
I believe great collaborators can show up and do things and as such I have invested very heavily in my personal skills.
- I can code
- I can use AI extensively
- I can write SQL
- I can write sales decks
- I can write documents
- I can talk to customers
- I can create Figmas
- I can edit videos
etc.
I am not great at many of these, but it's all part of being a "T-shaped" collaborator — it's so much faster to do things yourself than mindlessly delegate.
Be fun(ny)
Don't distract from meetings but it's ok to have fun!
My management style
If you've read this far you've hopefully you're getting a picture for who I am. But you're probably wondering ... so what am I like as a manager?
I will never intentionally waste your time. If I ask you to do something, I have thought about it. If you think it's a waste of time, you should be clear and push back.
I will always advocate for my team. I will never throw you under the bus. We win together, we learn together!
I am very hands off. I have had enough managers to know ... PMs do not need much management.
I am a collaborator. I love to share ideas, brainstorm and maybe even ship stuff together! I think I have good ideas and I enjoy not just asking someone to think about something, but actually contributing and/or leading that discussion. Sometimes it's fun to actually work with your manager on PM fundamentals.
Most importantly — I'm not defensive. You can hold me accountable, we can have hard discussions. It's just work!