Thoughts on: The 16 things I wish I knew starting out as an APM
From imposter syndrome to developing opinions.
This is a collection of the top 16 things I wish I had known when I started. I update this every once in a while, as my perspective changes.
1) Yes, imposter syndrome is normal.
Yes, it will get better with time. You’ll be surprised how time will make even the most intimidating tasks feel second nature. That being said, use that feeling of fear, shame, and helplessness as fuel to get you to the next level.
Most of all, start getting comfortable with not knowing. Every year there will be many, many challenges that will be totally new and unknown to you. When encountering these, focus on the feelings of curiosity and fascination to build a better relationship with not knowing.
2) It’ll never be enough… and it’ll never end.
Fall in love with the journey or you’ll end up hating the work. It will kind of always be a grind and it will always challenge you.
In some environments, others will indirectly chip away at your love for the work. Protect your passion as much as you can. Find ways to make the work move you. Find the magic in the creative process and find the magic in the impact the work has on people to keep yourself motivated and invested.
3) Stop trying to control everything.
Everything will get 10x easier once you realize control is pointless. You can’t control others, even when you have authority, you’ll barely be able to control people.
Focus instead on being a source of clarity, focus, energy, empathy, and passion. Creating and harnessing momentum is much easier and effective than pushing and dragging others.
4) You’re not paid by the word.
Precision and clarity are critical to getting ideas across. The less you say, the more each word matters. How you say it can also make all the difference.
5) Disagreements are a natural part of the creative process.
Never lose sight that the creative process requires conflict. At the same time, ensure that conflict can happen in a safe way. Never make it personal, always take the time to understand the other person’s thought process, and challenge ideas while acknowledging that you don’t know what the best outcome is (only that you’re seeking it).
Don’t be afraid to get into a really passionate discussion about something. If things end poorly, take the time to reach out and acknowledge your appreciation for the other person’s work, passion, and desire to get it right. Always mend fences when fences need mending.
6) Always take the time to form an opinion.
At the end of the day, your perspective is one of the key things you can add to a team. Remember though, your opinion is only valuable if you’ve really put in the work. You also don’t have to be a contrarian or fit some idealized template, it’s perfectly fine to look at a situation and have nothing additional to say if the team has said all that needed to be said.
In most cases, if the team knows you’re reliable, and that you’re going the extra mile, they’ll respect what you have to say. Even in environments where you feel like your opinion is not wanted, you’ll find that if you continue to develop it, you may eventually find a way to break through. A good opinion in the right situation makes all the difference.
7) Strong opinions, loosely held.
You’re seeking truth in projects, not self-validation. You want to be incredibly resolute about what you believe in but, at the same time, be ready to throw that belief out the window if you’re presented with highly compelling evidence or arguments against it. Being stubborn when you’re wrong is useless. Being stubborn when you’re right can be essential to the success of a project.
It takes a lot of willpower to make a meaningful impact, but it also requires an open mind and a strong ability to reset.
8) Relationships matter a lot.
Building and maintaining trust with stakeholders is essential to any success you’ll have. Relationship management will be key throughout your journey whether it is to foster a strong collaborative process, persuade others to change their mind, get help when necessary, or battle tough times. Without others trusting you, you’ll find the job to be impossible.
9) You deal in the What and Why, only sometimes in the How.
If you’ve come from an individual contributor background this will be really hard to shake off. Once you do shake it off, you’ll find that you can become an amazing partner to your teammates. The What and the Why is the stuff you have time and skill set for. In most cases, you won’t have the time, or oftentimes, the skill and knowledge to deliver an effective How.
Over time you’ll find a need for the How and the joy it can bring. Find safe spaces for the How whether it is in your personal projects or side projects in your work. If you abandon the How you’ll find it harder and harder to relate to your team over time.
10) Never compromise on common sense.
You’ll be blown away by how quickly common sense goes out the window. You’ll also be amazed how quickly you’ll lose it yourself. Compromising gets things done but push to never compromise on common sense. Without common sense, a lot will break with your products.
11) Nurture the creative environment
Create an environment for creative decision-making by communicating clear use cases, goals, and priorities, and having an open mind. Spend a lot of time learning how to make yourself a better partner to designers, engineers, and other creators. I highly recommend reading about music producers such as Brian Eno and Rick Rubin, and how they partner with artists in the creative process.
12) Cherish the craft
Software is a craft and most people on your team are artisans. Think about what motivates every team member and why they’re in this line of work.
When thinking of software, a famous line from Moneyball comes to mind: “How can you not be romantic about baseball?”
It is an unbelievable thing we get to do every day. In the work, in the details, there is magic. Creating is an incredible privilege, creating for others (especially creating things you love) is even more so. Don’t lose sight of that privilege.
13) You literally can’t solve every problem
There are too many problems. New problems are made every day (if not every hour). The sooner you stop playing wack-a-mole the more effective you’ll be.
Constantly ask yourself “What is the highest value problem?”, and do your best to constantly pursue that problem. Additionally, seek to build systems and documentation that enable others to tackle problems that you care about solving.
14) If you believe in an idea, pursue and validate it
Change is a constant. If you think something is worth pursuing, validate it by yourself and with the team. It might end up getting prioritized in the roadmap. Your belief that something is worth doing is one of the strongest intrinsic guides you’ll have through this messy world. Nurture it, develop it, and lean into it.
15) Simplicity is a key
Simplicity without quality loss is the key to many of your problems. In any problem you’re seeking to solve, start by finding the essential. When you’ve arrived at the essential you’ll find, most times, that you’re much closer to the answer than you previously thought (if not there already).
The areas in which I’ve had the most impact were the areas where I was able to reduce lots of complexity to an easy to understand concept that accurately described the phenomenon or mechanic at hand. Most progress is built on a very well understood concept or sets of connected concepts. The more effectively you can understand and effectively describe complex ideas the more impactful and wide reaching your work will become.
16) Be Yourself
The best PM version of yourself will be founded on who you are as a person. You’ll never be your best by being someone else. If you focus on finding the best PM version of yourself you’ll be something no one else can be.