thehollowman
thehollowman
Stealth

What PMs lack in India

So I've met many PMs in my career. Most have been sub par, poor performers, can't even do IC work. The ones who can do IC work, can't think. The IC work is generally project management not product. They need someone to tell them directions

So here's a few things. The best PMs I've met, are good engineers. Yes. These are the same folks who come for product management conferences and are respected. Of course not all engineers are good at product. The role of product came up with manufacturing first when you had product designers who worked with engineers and had a good understanding of both engineering limitations and user understanding.

Some of the PMs I have met don't even talk to users. The reason i am seeing an issue in PMs in India is the increase in demand in the role, and a lack of supply.

There is a product engineer role, I met a few folks who are doing that, they were amazing. Knew technology, users, product and super passionate.

I'm not saying this is a hard and fast rule, I'm sure there are folks who have a natural inclination, so if you're an exception, understand that. Don't get offended by the statement

13mo ago
NeatSundial
NeatSundial
Zoho12mo

What kind of org do you work? Where is your assessment coming from? If it's startups - this is a common issue because most experienced PMs wouldn't work in early stage.
I am a PM and based on my experience, most experienced and good PMs are not visible or work in early stage companies. Large orgs like Google, Microsoft, Salesforce have established product management processes and practices. Once you get used to that level of work most don't want to go out.

thehollowman
thehollowman
Stealth12mo

My sample space maybe limited. I've met good folks too, so it's not that it doesn't exist. But I've seen a lot of people thinking it'd easy work too be in pm and take that up.

Can you share your insights on what a good pm does vs what you've seen as mistakes? And why is it happening?

NeatSundial
NeatSundial
Zoho12mo

Not having knowledge or limited understanding of core PM work delivery and discovery. By delivery its not scrum it's scoping and setting priority. Majority of companies in India especially startups focus on delivery - scrum, tickets, etc and heavily skewed towards consumers. Matured orgs (public and series D+) i have noticed have better product management.

There is a release and program management team that scrum teams align and take care of feature releases. PM will mostly set the priority. Discovery varies from org to org but it is mostly defined properly.

Gupchup
Gupchup
Microsoft13mo

India doesn't have a lot of word class b2b companies where PMs could instill the user first approach. Even product leaders here lack in this aspect and hence not a lot of people to watch and learn from. Additionally, most companies are also heavily business dominated, so best product practices take a backseat in favour of fast execution.

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