13 Things Great PMs Don't Do

"When you stop chasing the wrong things, you give the right things a chance to catch you" - Lolly Daskal

I've worked alongside some exceptional PMs during my career at Google and startups. For a long time, I've maintained a list of things that great PMs don't do and that I shouldn't either. This checklist was easier for me to follow than doing everything great PMs do (and impossible to track).

Sharing the exact list (with some edits) with you.

#1 They don't take shortcuts in building products

"A great product is the secret to long term growth hacking. You should get that right before you worry about anything else." — Sam Altman

There is no dearth of temptations for building products such as copying a successful idea or aligning with the current hype cycle.

Great PMs understand that all of this are a good starting point for product due diligence and not conclusive factors. They take these intuitions through a thorough process consisting of speaking to customers, testing prototypes, rapidly iterating, and many more. They know there are no shortcuts to building great products.

#2 They don't shy away from change

"I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination." — Jimmy Dean

Change is inevitable in the product world. Org changes — reporting to a new manager, eng manager switching to a different team etc. Technical changes — cloud-first apps, supporting infra-as-a-code etc. Market changes — new competition, changing customer preference etc.

Great product managers understand that change is inevitable and that it can be an opportunity for growth. They embrace change and look for ways to use it to their advantage.

#3 They don't try to please stakeholders

"The only way to avoid pissing people off is to do nothing important." - Oliver Emberton

PMs work closely with various stakeholders. In making product decisions, they considering stakeholders interests and collaboratively decide the best path.

Great PM understand that while balancing stakeholder interests is important, it's okay to disagree when required to achieve product goals. For example, they will say no to a sales requests that don't have broad applicability or engineering projects proposed solely out of academic interest. In doing so, they are respectful of stakeholders' time and opinions.

#4 They don't expect immediate results

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now." — Chinese Proverb

Good things in the PM world take time. Collecting evidence, getting buy-in, iterating with customers, pitching to leadership etc can be a long, arduous journey.

Great PMs don't give up on grinding through the process just because results might not land this quarter or this promotion cycle. They are also equally good in communicating the impact of this work and balancing this with projects with near-term impacts.

#5 They don't attend meetings just because they should

"Walk out of a meeting … as soon as it is obvious you aren't adding value … It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time." - Elon Musk

PMs have to be in multiple meetings during the day. If not conducted right, meetings can be a collective waste of time.

Greats PMs excel at conducting productive meetings — taking notes, tracking action items, and ensuring meetings have a clear purpose. They avoid meetings for the sake of it and don't find it offensive to decline or cancel invites when necessary.

#6 They don't let emergencies define their day

"Your true essence is not defined by circumstances, but by the choices you make along your path." - anonymous

Emergencies are common in the product realm: product outages, VP escalations, launch-blocking bugs, and more.

Great PMs understand that solely focusing on urgent matters won't generate lasting product value. When confronted with such situations, they assess whether it's genuinely an emergency and establish protocols to prevent recurrences.

#7 They don't give away their most valuable resource — time

"Time is a created thing. To say 'I don't have time,' is like saying, 'I don't want to.'" - Lao Tzu

PM is a time-consuming role — countless design docs and mocks to review, customer meetings to attend, update to leadership, etc.

Great PMs save their time for high-leverage activities. Their calendar appropriately reflects the value they place on these items. They guard their time against getting caught in urgent, not important items or details that don't matter in a bigger context such as perfect synonyms for a side text in mockups or coding logic that doesn't have user facing impact.

#8 They don't wait for 100% data to make decision

"The biggest risk is not taking any risk" - Mark Zuckerberg

When it comes to making product decisions such as funding a new initiative or going for reliability reset, waiting for 100% of the data often proves to be too late.

Great PMs take calculated risks with clarity on potential downsides. They preempt requirements based on product direction, changes in user behavior, emerging trends, and more. In doing so, they are transparent of the strength and weakness of ideas based on evidence they have with leadership and team.

#9 They don't dwell on the past mistakes

"Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations." - Steve Jobs

PMs operates in fast-paces environments with incomplete information most of the time. Mistakes like mistimed launches, inaccurate estimations, or lapses in stakeholder communication can happen.

Great PMs accept responsibility for their behavior without allowing themselves to be weighed down by mistakes. They establish protocols to prevent similar mistakes and swiftly move forward to the next task or opportunity.

#10 They aren't afraid to change their minds

"You should never let anybody trap you with anything you've said in the past. Life is complicated; the world is complicated." - Jeff Bezos

A promising product proposal may not fare well in user testing. A decision to forgo an opportunity due to dev cost might be viable because of a new open source library.

While great PMs hold strong opinions, they remain open-minded and willing to be proven wrong with evidence. For instance, when building a product proposal, they will take feedback from stakeholders, validate with customers, and rapidly iterate on their proposal as new information trickles in. They don't get rigidly attached to their own ideas and prioritize driving towards the best outcome.

#11 They don't let things just slip away

"Those who wish to sing always find a song." - Swedish proverb

Launch delay happen for various reasons — prolonged debate on right API design, a launch blocking bug that is pending on the partner team, a pricing proposal awaiting approval from the VP etc. Unfortunately, some delayed launches never get done.

Great PMs are disciplined and relentless in pursuing this to completion and have a way to get things done — timely nudge, quick halfway conversation, bringing right data, asking for help when needed etc.

#12 They don't waste time on things they can't control

"Some things are up to us, and some things are not up to us." - Epictetus, Stoic philosopher

PMs don't have control over everything — whale accounts shifting to a new architecture, lay-off, tech lead transitioning to a new team, economic downturn etc. Dwelling on things you can't control often leads to frustration and is of no help.

Great PMs are noiseless problem-solvers. They don't crib about the uncontrollables and never add to the chaos. Consider a customer escalation meeting where everyone has raised pitches. Great PM will listen empathetically, make notes, and generate AI to make meaningful progress. Whatever be the constraint, they focus on getting the best of the things they control.

#13 They don't take criticism and feedback defensively

"Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things." - Winston Churchill

Scope of improvements always exist, whether it's in presentation messaging, feature prioritization, or other aspects. When we put time and effort into a project or idea, receiving feedback that points out flaws or suggests changes can feel personal.

Great PMs take feedback as a way to course correct or prevent similar mistakes. They acknowledge that different perspectives exist and refrain from becoming defensive. Instead, they take a step back and focus on extracting constructive aspects of it.

And a bonus one that often goes noticed. Great Product Managers don't forget to have fun! You shouldn't either :)