For new product managers, shipping a small feature within the first month is a critical learning tool. It is less about driving major outcomes and more about experiencing the entire end-to-end development process—from requirements to QA—which accelerates understanding of how the organization truly operates.
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Don't commit to a rigid career plan. Instead, treat your career like a product. Run small-scale experiments or 'MVPs'—like a 20% project, a volunteer role, or a teaching gig—to test your interest and aptitude for new skills before making a full commitment, then iterate based on the results.
For product managers not yet working on AI, the best way to gain experience is to build simple AI tools for personal use cases, like a parenting advisor or a board game timer. Using no-code prototyping tools, they can learn the entire development lifecycle—from ideation to prompting and user feedback—without needing an official AI project at work.
Building your own product forces you to confront technical realities like database migrations and architectural trade-offs. This firsthand experience provides deep empathy for engineering challenges, which in turn builds crucial credibility and improves collaboration with development teams.
Instead of tackling a massive six-month project, new PMs should focus on low-lift, high-impact wins. Shipping quickly builds trust and credibility with stakeholders much faster than aiming for perfection on a long-term initiative, which can leave a new PM 'walking on eggshells' until launch.
A new hire's first project was planning a major event happening in three months. This trial-by-fire approach is an effective onboarding method, forcing rapid learning of company systems, team dynamics, and external vendor management, which quickly and effectively integrates the new person into the team.
Early in a PM career, credibility is built faster by executing quickly and demonstrating a clear link to business revenue, rather than trying to come up with the most innovative ideas. Understanding how the business makes money is paramount for new PMs.
Founders embrace the MVP for their initial product but often abandon this lean approach for subsequent features, treating each new development as a major project requiring perfection. Maintaining high velocity requires applying an iterative, MVP-level approach to every single feature and launch, not just the first one.
To bridge the gap between a product's long-term vision and its current state, focus on "progress, not perfection." Deliver a quick, meaningful win for the customer—like a single workflow or integration—to build the trust and momentum needed for them to stay invested in the unfolding roadmap.
The product development cycle has shifted. Instead of writing a spec, Product Managers use AI coding tools like Bolt.new to build the initial working version of a product. They then hand this functional prototype to engineers for hardening, security, and scaling, dramatically accelerating the process.
To avoid developing bad habits, solo builders should simulate a corporate environment. Set artificial budgets, conduct real demos, talk to external users, and establish deadlines. This forces the discipline that traditional product management constraints provide and makes the experience transferable.