The Product Management Taboo: Competence

Product management is deeply rooted in human and cognitive skills. The lack of mechanical skills makes it harder to discuss individual competence. So hard it has even become a taboo for many.

We, product managers and leaders, suffer from a taboo that sets us apart from our peers in design and engineering: Competence.

Because there are some "hard skills" in design and engineering, it's harder to fake them and easier to spot weaknesses (which is a good thing for improving). Deploying prototypes and code is a natural filter to ensure minimal competence and initiate discussions on how to improve.

It's different for product management and leadership. Everyone feels like they can write a roadmap or user stories. The lack of experience and references for many professionals on what is high-level product management has a terrible consequence:

Most people:
1. Ignore the competence aspect of product management/leadership
2. Turn to frameworks and tools to compensate
3. Are trapped in an always-searching-for-the-next-framework mode as they can't solve their challenges induced by a lack of competence.

There is an obvious personal aspect: How do you feel when I mention a potential "lack of competence" on your side? Odds are you're feeling judged, attacked, and ready to justify you're great at what you're doing.

That's the power of taboos.

Devs are excited to go to YouTube to learn a new programming language or pattern. We feel insecure and threatened, so we completely ignore the deep human nature of our craft.

Let me illustrate this with a real-world example I’ve discussed in recent weeks:

An Insurance-tech startup had a challenge around copywriting. PMs were accountable for the legal viability of the product text content. They had to approve any piece of text going to the application. Consequently, designers were frustrated with the delays or not working with the real content.

The product leader made multiple attempts to find a process to free up PMs' time so they could validate the copywriting fast enough for the designers… without removing actual work. After a while, the leader reached out to the community to see if a product ops person was something he needed to find a solution.

As people started to discuss the possibility of creating specific expedited JIRA tickets and connecting Figma to the CMS to import real content, I was a complete UFO for everybody when I suggested training the designers so they can approve the content like the PMs.

Problem solved. There were no additional processes, steps, or tools. Happy, empowered designers. Happy product managers with less on their plates.

Investing in competence is your best bet for real results and impact. The product leader should always make investing in people the first choice, and tools and frameworks should only be considered a last resort.

I hope this will inspire you for your next opportunity to improve product practices in your organizations.