101: Highs and Lows of Being a Product Manager

In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board member Red Russak welcome Tommy Brown (Google) and Jenai Akina (Amazon) to talk about the highs and lows of being a product manager. On the positive side, it's fulfilling to plan a product's future, solve tough problems, and provide valuable solutions to users. Working with various teams and influencing a product's success is also gratifying. However, there are challenges too, such as dealing with too many processes, lots of meetings, and feeling like you might not be good enough at times. Despite these challenges, the job offers a mix of rewarding achievements and expected setbacks.

Disclaimer: All opinions of the speakers are their own.

What to Listen For:

• 00:00 Intro
• 06:06 What boosts and drains your energy as a PM
• 10:06 Can negative feedback be energizing?
• 12:48 Other aspects of PM that can sap your energy and how to overcome it
• 18:22 Optimizing document workflows
• 21:43 Unexpected challenges of PM
• 23:45 Learn to celebrate your wins
• 27:37 How AI can help in a PMs job
• 30:36 Competing with the past and ignoring the noise
• 35:26 Highs and lows in AI PM
• 40:16 Accessibility in PM
• 42:34 Necessity of processes and ways to handle queries efficiently
• 44:56 Final thoughts