The Product Manager’s Operating Environment

Understanding constraints to make better Product decisions

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One of the key things to understand quickly as you get into the Product Manager role is your operating environment.

For example,

• Are you a PM in a Startup? or a multi-billion-dollar Industrial Giant?
• How strong/mature is the product organization in the company?
• What do the reporting lines for other key functions such as Engineering, Software Development, Product Marketing, Customer Support look like in relation to Product Management?

Depending upon your operating environment, your role can differ quite a bit.

Take Product Management role in a Startup, for instance. The PM at a startup will often have the opportunity to work very closely with the top leaders of the business — the Founder, CEO, CTO, etc. Naturally then, the PM will be in lockstep on the overall business strategy and expectations of the leadership at all times.

Such close engagement with your leadership can be a very strong catalyst for building and growing amazing products…