9 Lessons from my 8th year as a product manager

9 min readSep 2, 2024

I was committed to this year’s product manager post, even though I’ve been working on overdrive these past few months. Despite a variety of external commitments, pet health issues, and a video content production cycle that never ends, I knew that spending the time to write up my last year of career growth would have an outsized impact on me.

The process of writing these learnings is just as valuable as the post itself; while the latter is a signpost for where I’ve been, the former forces me to ruminate over not only what happened, but the meaning behind it.

Last year, the theme was disruption, due to a number of external changes and organizational shifts. This year, the theme is metamorphosis, which is primarily an internal process. When a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, everything in the chrysalis is melted down into a slurry and reformed into something new. Metamorphosis isn’t an easy process, just as precious metal passes through a crucible to be purified into something more valuable.

I’m in a season where I’m covering for two other positions in addition to my own, as well as partially for my manager as she’s on extended leave. While I’m not working additional hours (a commitment to myself), this is a time of pressure, where I’m constantly prioritizing across my entire portfolio and setting expectations of those around me.

At the same time, I recognize that this additional pressure and the moderate amount of stress will grow my capacity, and I know that this season will not be forever. This philosophy allows me to manage my own expectations and see the light at the end of the tunnel.

This post, then, has forced me to pull back to a more holistic view of the past year, to exit the day-to-day and reflect on the major themes. With that, here are the lessons I’ve learned this past year.

For those of you who are interested, links to every post in the series is at the bottom of this post.

#1 Every career transition should feel like a level up

One of the most crucial conversations this year was with one of my mentors. I shared an opportunity with him that had a number of downsides, and asked him for his input.

His response has stuck with me: “Every career transition should feel like a level up.” And he then proceeded to tell me that it wasn’t just a title bump, but could mean work-life balance, the type of problems you’re solving, or the people you work with.

I’m 100% adopting this as my perspective going forward, knowing that what you want out of your career will change over time.

#2 Maintain and pursue relationships outside your organization

Last year, I wrote about how investment in relationships help me to get things done. I realized this year that I’ve benefited from some of the long-running 1:1s with people who aren’t in my organization anymore. I’m learning about innovation that is happening across the company, some of which can connect with the work I’m doing. I’ve been able to gain wisdom from their career stories, asked them the questions about my own career growth or current situations that could use external input, and have, in turn, been able to provide insight into their own current challenges that come from an informed, but still external, perspective.

The longer I’m doing this, the more I realize this network of people has developed into a loose personal board of directors. Everyone I meet with on a regular basis from outside of my organization comes from a different background, including product, design, and program management. I love spending time with these people and getting a broader perspective both on my own career and on our business at large.

#3 People don’t see what you don’t show them

Early on in my career, my manager ensured I had opportunities to get visibility to the work I was doing. Later on, I worked as a remote employee as a part of a team based at our headquarters; the advice I was given at the time was that I needed to be intentional about giving others visibility into my work in order to grow my career.

Fast forward to today, where I’m co-located with many of the leaders on my broader team. And this year, I got feedback from multiple sources that my work wasn’t as visible as it could be. When I reflected on why I wasn’t getting the level of visibility I needed to open opportunities for myself, I realized that most of the applicable skills I was developing (even outside the traditional workplace) was helping others succeed. Talking more broadly about that work seemed liked bragging, and therefore cheapened the investment.

I’m still navigating the thin line between wanting others to see where my effort is going to help others grow, and keeping it private in order to not seem like I’m taking credit for other people’s own work or claim a part of a story that isn’t mine. I have a feeling I will continue to struggle with this for quite some time, as this reluctance is deeply, culturally ingrained and taps into my sense of integrity.

In an unrelated vein, I’ve been able to address some of my colleagues’ deep concern about specific systemic issues they’ve noticed by giving them insight into the work that is happening on an organizational level to address them. Providing levels of visibility to key staff can decrease the overall sense of stress and anxiety that our teams experience, especially when processes or organizational structures are suboptimal.

#4 Cultural change requires consistent work and reinforcement

As a platform product manager, one of the persistent challenges is working at scale. Every friction magnifies when it’s experienced by a large number of people. And even worse, every process challenge, multiplied by this same large number, can manifest in significant organizational challenges.

At this point in our platform’s maturity, there are no more “quick fixes” that will improve everyone’s experience. The changes that need to be made are deeply ingrained, and change takes time.

I’ve been communicating this type of change as turning an oil tanker: change can be made by a comparatively small rudder, but it takes time, intentionality, and a lot of reinforcement to make this change. For some reason, this illustration helps set expectations about the time horizon for tangible results.

#5 Always seek to define the next level of clarity

My job as a product manager is about providing clarity to the broader teams, by defining both the challenges and approaches to address them. But it doesn’t stop with a single, overarching vision for where we’re going; it has to increase in fidelity over time.

I think of this as sculpting marble — at first, you have the big pieces carved out, but over time, the level of fidelity increases until you have a high-fidelity piece of art. I have to work toward that next level of focus of each strategy I drive until everything is laid out for execution. And of course, I have to invite my engineering and design partners into the process in order to ensure the final product is something we’re all aligned on.

Recently, one of my design partners put some time on my calendar to ask about a specific strategy he was concerned about. Much to his delight, I was able to share with him an early version of the document I’d drafted to define and scope the area he wanted to explore. Product manager win.

#6 Think about processes as part of the product

When you’re a feature product manager, you’re constantly thinking about the specific experience and workflow you’re delivering to your customers. But sometimes, your feature is partially a process.

One of my current initiatives is a design system built on top of our company-wide design system, and it’s not only the components and documents itself, but also the processes around developing new components, consulting on new experiences, communicating out to the developers and designers who are using it, and managing the holistic conversations with the product teams who use it.

#7 Set strict time boundaries, and seek true rest

As I mentioned in the introduction, I’m currently in a season of having to manage a larger portfolio than usual. Thankfully, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel (hello, new hires), but the sheer amount of work has meant a number of negotiations, prioritizing what matters the most, and just stopping.

One of my colleagues asked me how many extra hours I’m working in this season, and I told her I was trying as hard as I could to avoid working too many hours. I know that in order to succeed long term, I have to pull back my own perfectionistic tendencies and merely jog when I could sprint. As I’ve mentioned in the past, you run a marathon differently than you run a 100m sprint. You have to pace yourself in order to survive the longer run.

Runner crossing the finish line at a marathon

At the same time, I know that this season is not only cognitively more taxing, it’s emotionally more taxing. And so I have to intentionally seek true restoration, and not just things that numb my brain or heart.

#8 Reflect regularly on where in the scaffolding cycle you are

This past year, our product team added two brand new career switchers to our staff. While this is a huge commitment for their manager, it was also a commitment from our broader team to support them in their transition. For me, I had an opportunity to lean in to do some of the early definition and alignment around one initiative one of these new product managers was driving in order to set her up for success.

Scaffolding is an instructional methodology that teachers use to help students learn a specific concept or set of concepts. Roughly speaking, the process involves different types of activities depending on where the student is. When teaching a new skill set, I often break it down into the following themes: modeling, advising, supporting, and independence.

When I’m modeling, I do it and explain the thought process behind it. When I’m advising, I’m actively there to direct and give feedback quickly, but not directly driving. And when I’m supporting, I’m connecting regularly to listen and give advice on potential next steps. This is all in the name of ensuring the learner is fully capable of achieving results independently.

With this specific initiative, I had to stop myself a couple of times to ask, “Where am I in this framework? Does anything have to change about my current involvement?” And when I felt like the new PM was ready to fly, we had an intentional conversation about how the relationship was going to change. (She’s doing great.)

#9 Inspire by pointing out opportunity

I was invited last month to speak to our principal scientists at an offsite. Our platform is at an inflection point, and I’d been charged to encourage, exhort, and inspire this group of technical leaders for the next phase of the ecosystem’s maturity.

I focused my part of the talk reframing the platform’s current state from one of gaps to one of opportunity. I started out with aligning on common values, identified where we had shared responsibility, and clearly called out what it would take to iterate toward a future that we all wanted.

It’s all too easy to just focus on what’s broken without seeing the vision of what could be. And it’s my job as a product manager to help everyone see where their work can fit into a broader, optimal solution, and to paint a picture of hope.

As I close out this year’s reflection, I acknowledge that I am in a state of transition and transformation. I know there is much more in the year to come, including navigating a much-anticipated career shift and learning new skills. I will need to hold space for me to fail as a part of the learning process.

I have the privilege of change and the responsibility of leadership. I honor them both by being faithful and thoughtful in the work that I do, and consistently working towards realizing my own potential in this new opportunity.

I look forward to this upcoming year with anticipation and hope to have the foresight to savor every moment of change and challenge.

I’m flinging open the doors to year 9.

Bring it on.

Elaine is a principal product manager at Adobe. You can find her on Threads at @elainecchao. All statements in this essay are her own and do not reflect the opinions of her employer.

Photo credits:

Butterfly photo by Ana Martinuzzi on Unsplash
Tanker photo by Shaah Shahidh on Unsplash
Marathon photo by Pietro Rampazzo on Unsplash