7 Habits of Highly Effective Product & Project Managers
When you find them, retain them!
After working alongside seasoned product or project managers (PMs) for over a decade, here are 7 highly effective habits that great PMs should have to manage their work and teams.
1. They are ever ready to challenge the norms by asking purposeful ‘Whys’.
They have clear objectives of what needs be accomplished but hold loose views on the solutions, giving room for experts to share ideas and solutions.
- They do not adopt the stance that ‘the customer is always right’ and will instead engage them consistently as a partner to buy into the process and obtain timely feedback.
- They are not asking ‘why’ for the sake of asking. They are actively seeking to cut through the noise to have clarity on the actual jobs-to-be-done that would solve the problem(s).
- They are always curious about the possibilities and rely on their teams’ capabilities instead of deciding on the solution alone and forcing teams to just follow their directives.
2. They are at least two steps ahead and are ruthlessly removing any roadblocks.
To operate effectively and efficiently, PMs anticipate and address potential issues before they become problems.
- They are proactively anticipating what is coming up so they can get ahead of it.
- Constantly scanning for issues that could cause hiccups and seek to address them promptly.
- They have excellent people skills and know whose assistance they need to remove those roadblocks.
- If these roadblocks are ‘people’, they facilitate conversations with them to understand the root cause of the issues.
3. They have mastered the art of triaging and prioritising issues.
There is no such thing as ‘crazy busy’. I learnt this from a TedTalk by Dr Darria Long who managed an ER department. She explained that managing hospital emergency rooms was all about handling chaos and prioritising cases that needed attention. With this view, effective PMs are:
- Thinking and ‘speaking in timelines’ and using this to develop their view of priorities for each team they work with.
- Using data as facts and triaging issues as they arise.
- Able to effectively communicate these reprioritised issues that need to be addressed by the respective teams.
4. They always come prepared for meetings and ensure everyone has a voice.
They do not wait till the very last minute to prepare for any type of meetings, including the ones with their teams.
- They are clear about the agenda and what needs to be achieved by the end of the meeting.
- They have read all materials shared and formed clear view or queries.
- When it comes to their own materials, they know exactly what are they key information they need to share and how to deliver them.
- During meetings, they seek to listen first and reserve comments to the end because they want to ensure everyone has had a chance to share their views.
5. They take immense pride in their presentations and communication skills.
Documents, text messages, meetings, presentations, emails (any communications platform used) — effective PMs make sure that the content is clear, concise and easy to understand.
- They want to organise their thoughts and simplify the rationale behind their requests or decisions.
- They know that receivers will judge their capabilities as a PM so they curate the content well.
- They fuss over logic, terms used, visuals and flow of content — empathising with the receivers. Even if they are just drafting emails, they make sure to package them right down to indicating in titles what action is expected (e.g. [For your approval] Project X Budget).
6. They seek to build symbiotic relationships with other team leaders.
They know that it is important that most team members report to their respective team leads — Design, Engineering or Tech.
- They value the expertise these team leads bring and seek timely inputs on matters that they do not understand.
- They are always communicating with team leaders to ensure that road blocks are cleared and the team is aligned on what needs to be achieved.
- They work closely with these team leaders and include them in key milestone meetings with clients or customers.
7. They are interested to share the successes and pains.
Great PMs know that their success is as good as their teams.
- They may not be technical experts in certain areas but are willing to understand challenges team members face so they can be part of the solution and not the problem.
- Accord credit where it is due and ensure that team leads are aware of team members’ contributions.
