The first six months are critical for a senior hire who has skills but lacks internal network and company knowledge. New leaders must prioritize finding a supportive manager and shipping a small project quickly to learn the organizational mechanics, rather than assuming their experience is enough.
Before building an AI agent, product managers must first create an evaluation set and scorecard. This 'eval-driven development' approach is critical for measuring whether training is improving the model and aligning its progress with the product vision. Without it, you cannot objectively demonstrate progress.
Instead of relying solely on one-on-one meetings for alignment, PMs should craft a compelling vision. This vision motivates engineers by showing how even small, tactical tasks contribute to a larger, exciting goal. It drives alignment, clarity, and motivation more effectively than just a roadmap.
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.
To foster creativity and avoid burnout, PMs should treat side projects as fun, interest-driven learning opportunities, not another set of goals. By following curiosity without pressure for immediate ROI, they create space for serendipitous insights that benefit their careers in the long run. The dots connect later.
At large companies like Meta, product reviews can become performative ("product theater"), focusing on pre-wiring executives rather than engaging in messy, ambiguous problem-solving. This focus on efficient alignment can stifle true innovation, pushing builders toward smaller, more dynamic companies.
AI agents have flooded job portals with applications, making the traditional resume drop useless. To break into competitive AI PM roles, candidates must bypass this noise by finding a human connection for a referral. Recruiters now primarily rely on direct outreach, making networking essential for getting noticed.
While AI doesn't change the PM's core job of picking problems and aligning teams, it demands a new skill: delegation. PMs must unlearn the instinct to solve every problem themselves and instead learn to delegate tasks to AI, while owning the evaluation of the output. Idea generation is now cheap.