Being a Product Manager SUCKS!

With 921,000 results on LinkedIn for the title of "Product Manager", breaking into product management has become harder than ever.

Having been a product manager for almost a decade, I have seen the role at various sizes of companies, in a few countries, and across industries. The role is different at every organization, but there are a few commonalities that not everyone is aware of. So I want to tell you about the aspects of the role that most haven't heard about.

1. You can never claim credit for successful impact

The success of a product is always the result of the hard work of the engineers, designers, marketers, and other team members. As a PM, I am the coach for the team. Every successful product makes me proud, but belongs to the team. And anyway, by the time something shows signs of success, I am already focusing on 3 projects ahead of it.

2. You are always blamed when things go wrong

This is the other side of the same coin. Whenever something goes wrong, it's the coach who is blamed. As the PM, it's my responsibility to ensure that we've thought through all the use cases, prioritized all the bugs, and launched something that solves the customer's needs. Anytime that doesn't happen, the buck stops with me. I deal with customer escalations, app store reviews, adoption and retention metrics, and other outcomes related to my product.