Sam Mathison

"Chris - Here’s my take: you’re entering the product management profession here in 2024 at a point where the craft is dying" After 10+ years doing product, I want share my thoughts about the craft and provide advice to folks on their path. I'm starting a series of writings called "letters to a young PM" to share my thoughts on the profession in an artistic but compelling way. Leave me your thoughts and comments! Let's start a new conversation about our craft of building products

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We've had an EM role open on our team for several months. This is a post about everything we learned from why we haven't filled it yet. I'd love to get your help in filling it! 🤝 The role: - EM for our 0-to-1 team within Postman, with the goal of defining and winning our category for a new kind of API-level monitoring/observability tool. Our team came into Postman through an acquisition and we're now building the Postman version of our product, using the same tech. - Help scale our product and team from alpha into beta. We are a department with six engineers and approved headcount to grow a lot more in the next year. - The role is 60% prioritization/roadmap management, 40% building the team. The current team members are high-ownership, independent, founding engineer types. 🤔 Misconceptions, miscalibrations, and lessons: - Initially, the role was called "Senior Engineering Manager, Observability." Instead of getting the product engineering managers we were looking for, we primarily got interest from platform/infra EMs. We got thousands of inbound applications and spent months zeroing that out. 🙀 - Previously, our recruiters were sourcing a lot of folks with observability backgrounds. We've learned that since we're actually building a new kind of observability product, much more focused on UX, the profile we're looking for is product-focused rather than tech-focused. No observability experience required. - When people think Postman, they often think of our core product: the API client. So we were getting more interest from folks looking to scale a product, rather than 0-to-1 "I want to build a team and product" types. Postman actually has several other products, for instance testing and Flows, our no-code tool. There is a lot of interesting 0-to-1 work on our way to growing as a multi-product platform! - Some people have the perception that Postman isn't one of the high-growth companies because they're not seeing lots of their friends joining Postman. Postman has quadrupled since 2020, BUT a lot of the engineering growth has been in India. (Postman is the biggest SaaS company to come out of India!) Our team is part of a recent change to grow our US engineering presence. Many of us leaders across the company are looking for folks to join early cohorts of US-based product engineering and platform teams. 💡 What we've changed on our end: - We've deemphasized the "observability" part of the job and emphasized the "new product" and "product engineering" parts of the job. - We've also switched our own reachouts to look for people with product engineering experience at SaaS companies with product-led growth. 👩‍🚀 Help us find our EM! We now have a solid pipeline, but haven't yet made a hire. We'd love to hear from you if: - You have thoughts about how to improve our EM search. - You know someone we should meet. - You're a scrappy EM looking for an opportunity to build a new product while growing a team. Look forward to hearing from you!

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Some of the best product managers I've worked with didn't come from a traditional tech background or start their working life with product management as their target. In fact, many of my favorite PMs started their careers in fields like construction, food service, or even pursued passions like MMA fighting. Myself included—I spent years as a cabinetmaker before finding my way into product management. And you know what? Those unconventional beginnings taught me some of the most valuable lessons I use every day in product. Things like proactivity, efficiency, customer focus, and the ability to quickly recover from mistakes. Skills that have been just as crucial to my success as any technical experience or certification. It's a perspective I'm passionate about because I've experienced first-hand that the power of diversity goes well beyond the superficial surface measures that initially come to mind or compliance with an HR policy. If you're curious to learn more, check it out here: https://lnkd.in/ghhc_KXK I'm always happy to chat about non-traditional paths into product and how embracing different backgrounds can strengthen the community. Shoot me a message if you have any questions!

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PSA: Being a PM is hard. But it would be a whole, whole lot harder without having a great designer by your side. I think too often we take for granted (or just plain don’t have the luxury of access to) this amazing role. Product Management and Product Design are so alike in many ways. Both require a deep understanding of problems, customers, outcomes, technical implementations, tradeoffs, and so much more. We specialize in different things, sure, and we apply our skills in different ways - but the similarities are way more common than the differences. When you’ve got a great PM/Design relationship, you often think as one mind. You can speak for each other (to an extent), seeing things through each others’ eyes. And the trust that builds lets you answer questions for each other, make (some) decisions for each other, and really amplify each others impact. Lean on your designers to help you with user research, with problem discovery, with solution refinement, and even with maintaining day to day alignment with your teams. They’re great at all of this stuff, filled to the brim with empathy, and *so much more* than just making stuff in Figma. Though I do really appreciate that last part because I’m f**king hopeless at it. I’ve got no real point here, other than to say that I really appreciate all the amazing designers I’ve worked with and encourage anyone in my Product sphere that doesn’t feel comfortable texting a picture of their dinner (or drink, more often in my experience) to their Design counterpart to go find a way to build that relationship. And, of course, big shout out to a few standouts in my mind Taylor Jordan Roary T. Soraya Nukunkit Roxanne Mustafa Annie Chen Bethany Morrow Sterling Koch Dmitry Nekrasovski Peter Shepherd Jenna Bilotta Olya Wiegel and I’m sure a whole bunch more.

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TLDR: 🚀 In 6 months, I've transformed my challenging homebuying experience into Home inSights—an AI-driven app I built to help navigate Portland, ME's challenging market. Like, share and read on to see how you can help. 🏠 Like many of you, I've faced the challenges of today's housing market firsthand. In just one year, we made 10 offers, toured dozens of homes, and combed through hundreds of listings. After repeatedly coming up short, I had a realization — the current tools weren't serving the actual consumers: homebuyers and homeowners. 📈 In Portland, home prices have surged by 85% and mortgage costs have tripled in just five years. We're in the midst of a nationwide crisis marked by limited supply, skyrocketing prices, and escalating borrowing costs. With this increased pressure on consumers, homebuyers need all the help they can get. 🔍 Home inSights is built to empower buyers and homeowners with personalized insights, community discussion, and smart comparison tools. You may be a home owner wanting to better estimate the equity you can roll forward, waiting for the right home to popup within a school district, or a new buyer with constantly changing buying power. Existing apps prioritize lead generation, and maintain this information asymmetry. There is a better way. 🌅 This version of Home inSights is only the beginning, currently focused on the Portland market. I’m racing to keep building this, but I want to begin including you all. Here’s my backstory on why I’m embarking on this journey: 💼 My career began in the aftermath of the last housing crisis. I worked on mortgage-backed securities lawsuits worth billions, reviewing tens of thousands of mortgages. The countless stories of hardship have stayed with me, fueling a deep-seated desire to make a difference. 👔 As a CFA charter holder, I love markets and valuations and feel driven to help make the market better by empowering consumers through information and tooling. 🥒 Later, I grew a pickle company to $3M revenue, gained hands-on business management experience, learned to listen to customers, and how to grow and lead teams when the future is unknown. 📱 Most recently, at Appex, I managed dozens of mobile apps with hundreds of thousands of consumers, worked with many founders, and learned how to build a mobile business. 💡🤖 But I wasn't a coder. Determined to create a solution, I turned to AI. In a few months, I launched not one, but two apps. These unique keystone experiences laid the foundation for what has become Home inSights. If you have read this far, thank you thank you thank you. 🫵 Any help is appreciated: 👍 1. Like, share, comment and/or tag someone on this post 🫶 2. Follow my progress on Instagram: @Buildwithphil.ai 📲 3. Download Home Insights on iOS, subscribe to support ongoing development, and share feedback https://lnkd.in/eQQc8tm9

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The most common question I ask my product team members: "What trade-off is this forcing you to make on the roadmap?" When something new gets scheduled, there is always a trade-off. There's no such thing as "squeezing something in." And it is the product person's job to decide and communicate the trade-off we are making, and - just as importantly - ensure that all stakeholders are aware of it.

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When is more product discovery bad? After all, I always talk about scheduling more, and then some more after that. But what if you've learned what you can? Discovery is a big commitment for your customer. It takes time. Often the only tangible return is being helpful. And some users find it stressful! The least you can do is make it worthwhile by learning. Think about other customer interactions. A saleperson pitching a feature to a customer who could not possibly get value from it. A marketing campaign filling up inboxes of the wrong persona. This is lose-lose, just like bad discovery. Just like in sales and marketing, you need to know your cohorts. Is this the first conversation with this type of customer? The third, the seventh? Or is this a completely different type of customer than you've talked to lately? Knowing this helps you plan so that you can learn as much as possible. Or maybe even give that person time back, saving them for later.

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As a product manager, I’ve led numerous A/B tests—each offering unique lessons. While A/B testing is critical for optimizing user experiences, driving revenue, and improving conversion rates, its complexity can often lead to challenges. Here are the key obstacles I’ve encountered, along with strategies that worked for me to overcome them. If you have better solutions or fresh ideas, please share them in the comments! Let’s learn from each other. https://lnkd.in/gc6JW_8M

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As a Product Manager, here are five daily practices that have been game-changers for me: 1️ Set up my day for success with the same morning routine 2️ Ask "Is this the best thing I can be doing right now?" 3️ Guard my time by asking why? 4️ Check, double-check, and then check again 5️ Continuously reflect, learn, and improve These habits have been instrumental in navigating the complexities of product management and driving impactful outcomes. What daily practices fuel your success in the PM role? Let's exchange insights! #ProductManagement #DailyHabits #SuccessStrategies

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When launching a new product I see alot of product managers wait until they're asked "how it's going", before thinking about what their metrics of success are. This is something that I learned as a new product manager when trying to get funding for my first product. Think about the metrics that are important both your company, as well as what is going delight the customer to the point that they're publicly championing your products and organization. #productmanagement #GTM #productlaunch #launchstrategy

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My biggest fear as a product manager are Friday afternoon code deployments. 😄 Kidding (but really, please don’t). My actual biggest fear is that I’m not driving the value my teams and customers need from me. 🔗 As product managers, our job is to drive value for our product’s teams and customers. We aren’t necessarily the people who deliver the tangible results that our peers and customers see – a lot of what we do is traditionally “behind the scenes” work. It makes sense, product management is often seen as the bridge between business and technology, customers and solutions, etc. 💡 That’s where a lot of my fear comes from. I’ve felt it the first day I served as a product manager, I still feel it over a decade later even with a list of achievements saying otherwise. But fortunately, I’ve had the opportunity to work with coaches and mentors in the product space, each of which assure me that the feeling is normal. I recently had a conversation with a product manager from the MAANG space; several more years of experience than I and an even longer list of achievements. He, too, still holds a fear that he may not be driving value. But, he counters that fear with a few affirmations like these: “I am the reason my developers know what to build and why it matters.” “I am the reason my marketing and sales teams know who the product is for and how to engage them.” “I am the reason my product is solving a problem that people in my space want to solve in the first place.” 💭 Today, I still use affirmations to overcome my fears. They remind me that fear is “False Evidence Appearing Real.” What are you most afraid of as a product manager? How do you face your fear and overcome it? #productmanagement #productmanagers #impostersyndrome #fear #affirmations

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Surprising personal experience: customer-led and product-led don't have to be mutually exclusive. Your org can be in between the two while juggling commitments and deadlines, as long as you are aware of what product-led means and processes and people are ok to support both throughout the org, including marketing, sales, etcetera. It starts from using the current commitments (and their hopefully engaged stakeholders) for creating a solid basis for future opportunities, and validate ideas directly connected to them and also spinning out of them early and often with existing customers and new prospects. Or show parts of them, online or at events, and see how folks react. All qualitative and quantitative feedback helps, metrics and analytics are great, UX research is gold. When the product work behind those commitments is solid (vision, strategy, gtm, ... and most importantly the jobs to be done behind it -- reverse engineer as much as you can if commitments came out of a big feature list handed to you), the product as a whole or parts of it will fit other opportunities that are in reach today or will be tomorrow. Be ready, and patient. Commitments won't suffer because of that. It pays off and you'll have fun.

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Hey everyone! 👋 I’ve been reflecting on the art of saying no lately, and I think there’s a better way to approach it. It’s such a delicate balance, right? When someone shares an idea, it can be tempting to jump straight to a no, but I believe we can do better. For me, it all starts with really listening. When someone presents an idea, asking them to explain it further can make a huge difference. Phrases like “Can you walk me through this?” show that we genuinely care about their perspective. It opens up the conversation and allows us to dig deeper into the value behind the idea. Understanding who benefits and what problem it solves is crucial. Sometimes, quantifying that value can help us see its potential impact. After listening, I like to summarize what I’ve heard. It not only shows that I’m engaged but also helps clarify any misunderstandings. Something simple like, “So, if I’m hearing you correctly, this could help us in X way?” goes a long way in making sure we’re on the same page. Then comes the challenging part— explaining why we might have to say no. I believe being transparent about the costs and dependencies involved is key. Whether it’s about resource constraints or how it aligns with our current goals, sharing this helps everyone understand the bigger picture. When it’s time to say no, I try to do so with empathy. Instead of making it personal, I lean on data or strategy: “Right now, our focus is on X, so we can’t pursue this idea.” It’s all about making informed decisions while still valuing creativity. At the end of the day, saying no doesn’t mean shutting down ideas, it just means we’re prioritizing what aligns best with our goals. 😇 Here's an article by @dolly donohue shared by Aakash Gupta, explaining beautiful more on this - https://lnkd.in/gEZJGC9F #productmanager #productmanagament Aakash Gupta Reza Dorrani Malay Krishna Richard King Ankit Shukla

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My experience in Product Management has taken me from working with teams of a couple of people all the way up to thousands. I've worked within multiple frameworks, toolsets, and stakeholders. Right now, I have the pleasure of helping launch and grow products that are in "earlier" stages. In these stages, I enjoy the "throw your hands in and do whatever is needed" part of the job - while focusing on helping differentiate the products from competitors. I also enjoy getting to put into place early processes that'll help as a product expands. I'm curious - what size of product is your favorite and what do you like about it the most? #productmanagement

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Let’s get real. In the tech world, we love our rockstar engineers and visionary product managers. But what about the unsung heroes who make sure the trains run on time? Enter: Technical Program Managers (TPMs). Here’s the deal—TPMs are the connective tissue in any tech org. Without them, your next big thing is just a pipe dream. Here’s why they matter: 1. Master Planners: TPMs are the strategists who see the big picture. They map out the journey from idea to execution, ensuring every cog in the machine is working towards the endgame. 2. Diplomatic Leaders: These folks are the UN of tech. TPMs navigate cross-functional teams, aligning everyone from engineering to product, and making sure egos don’t derail progress. 3. Execution Powerhouses: Think of them as project ninjas. TPMs oversee the whole process, managing timelines, resources, and risks. They get sh*t done. 4. Tech Savvy: A TPM isn’t just a project manager with a fancy title. They understand the tech stack and can speak geek. This lets them make smart decisions and steer the ship effectively. 5. Communication Gurus: Ever been left in the dark on a project? Not with a good TPM. They keep stakeholders in the loop, ensuring transparency and trust all the way. 6. Risk Avengers: TPMs spot risks from a mile away and crush them before they become a problem. It’s like having a crystal ball and a wrecking ball in one. 7. Efficiency Experts: These pros are all about optimizing. They refine processes and drive continuous improvement, making sure your team isn’t just working hard, but smart. Bottom line: TPMs are the unsung heroes who turn chaos into order and dreams into reality. Next time you see a project succeed, know there’s probably a badass TPM behind the curtain making it all happen. To all the TPMs out there: You’re the backbone of innovation. Keep rocking.

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I'm loving this debate between John Cutler and Ed Biden - both are thinkers and leaders I deeply admire. Zero-interest PMs were hired by zero-interest Product Leaders, who were probably hired by zero-interest CEOs. It's turtling all the way up 🐢 Are they all incompetent? Nah, they are just a product of the environment. It would've been foolish to not take advantage of the zero-interest capital. The key question is whether these people - at all levels from the CEO to the PMs - are capable of adapting to the current environment where profit margin and sustainability are key. Everyone needs to 'sober up' after years of being drunk and high with cash. Zero-interest leaders focus on acquisition at all costs. Sober leaders focus on bringing solid value that leads to retention and sustainable growth. Zero-interest leaders double, triple, even quadruple the size of their team. Sober leaders realize that team size != productivity, that spending hours in alignment meetings for a small feature isn't any fun. Running lean is the way forward. Zero-interest leaders build or even acquire aggressively, trying to capture as much market as possible. Sober leaders are thoughtful in choosing just 1 or 2 things to do. Zero-interest leaders care about framework and rules "This is the only correct way to do product." Sober leaders care about results, knowing that those frameworks and rules are merely vehicles to achieve results. Ultimately, sober leaders are accountable for business performance, not just acting like consultants in suits talking big words and making pretty slides. It's not easy to sober up - but it's adapt or die.

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“If there is no clear owner, then it’s the PM that owns it.” I sat down with Esteban Contreras from #ProductState to discuss Product leadership, or Prioritization process at Productboard. We also dug into the concept of Extreme Ownership, which is a principle I firmly believe in. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eVN47mWn #productmanagement #productexcellence #ownership

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Question to product ops people (I'm looking at you May Wong Graham Reed ) Something I rarely see spoken about as a responsibility of product ops is hiring PMs. I feel like your product ops people understand what makes a good PM, especially in the specific context of your company, as well if not better than anyone. If the role of product ops is to make your product org a slick well oiled machine then adding the right people feels like it should fit squarely within that wheelhouse and is one of the highest leverage activities that can be done. I'm not suggesting that they should own the whole process end to end but it feels to me as though it's a place where they could add a lot of value.

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