How to thrive as a product manager in a non-product environment

Being an agent of change without portraying so

Product managers often start a job in an environment where stakeholders are unfamiliar with product management. These companies have revenue-generating products and achieved a product-market fit through intuition and customer-centric approaches during their early stages. However, they often reach a point where their current methods won't suffice to grow further. The product development team typically juggles a list of features based on customer demands and competition, while also handling numerous bugs and escalations. Leadership frequently introduces new, urgent opportunities, adding to the chaos. They need a structured product direction aligned with business objectives but lack the know-how to achieve this.

If you're a new product manager in such an environment, onboarding can be challenging. However, with the right mindset, you can become an agent of change and grow through this experience.

Respect the reality

Instead of cringing at how the world operates around you, cultivate respect for the company and the leadership team for what they have achieved. Yes, they may be very tactical in their approach, make haphazard decisions, seem chaotic, listen to the loudest voice, and so on. But recognize the fact that they have been successful in having a paid customer base. Grounding yourself in this reality will bring humility to your approach and make your job easier.

Define near-term success first

Make sure to define the 3-6 month success criteria with your manager during your first few weeks. Don't be surprised if your manager expects more tangible deliverables. Say you are expected to deliver X, Y, Z features, build a prioritized backlog, or deliver a roadmap to the leadership. So be it. Follow up with your manager with a more detailed version of these deliverables during the next 1:1. State your assumptions and agree to adjust the expectations midway through the performance evaluation period in case priorities change.

If these goals seem easily achievable, add stretch goals that will enable you to deliver real outcomes for your product. For example, set a personal goal to develop an expertise in the product area, customer persona, and business operations. Include the activities you will do to achieve this mastery. Ask for people you could connect to expedite your learning. Before subsequent 1:1s, send an update anchored around these goals. If the conversation drifts into new tasks or a pivot in the original core priorities, pause and ask how it would change your goals for the current review period.

Observe how the business operates, how product teams build and release features, and the challenges they face. Assess what they do well and where they can improve. Build rapport with key team players and stakeholders to help you navigate through the people and product areas.

Earn the license to preach

To drive change, you must first earn their trust by delivering, even over-delivering, on their initial expectations. If asked for a prioritized backlog with user stories, create a well-groomed backlog using available data, secondhand insights (like those from support and customer success teams) and your best judgement. Clearly state the assumptions behind your prioritization, such as highlighting sign-up issues and explaining the outcomes you're optimizing for. This introduces an outcome-driven culture and identifies knowledge gaps for future iterations.

One of my clients, let's call her Claire, was asked by her manager, call him Manny, to analyze the competition within her first month. Despite Manny's refusal to explain the end goal, Claire over-delivered by framing her analysis around product funnel stages (sign-ups, payment, engagement, etc.). She inadvertently coached Manny on the "why" behind the competitive analysis. Impressed, Manny had Claire present to the leadership team, leading to her inclusion in an elite offsite for product planning.

Cultivate a microcosm of product management culture

Use feature delivery as an opportunity to influence the culture. For instance, if tasked with a UX change, unblock the engineering team with a UX mockup, while also creating alternative low-fidelity mockups with your designer. Explain why you chose the default option and how the alternatives could have been better with more time and resources. This encourages stakeholders to consider experiments in future features.

For backlog prioritization, include representation from customer success, marketing, sales, and other relevant functions. Require attendees to input their feature asks on a shared doc before the meeting. Structure the intake process by the feature and the goal they are trying to hit. Prepopulate the list with a few samples to set an example. Without introducing fancy OKRs and metrics, you influenced your team toward a goal-oriented feature planning practice.

Frame tangible deliverables that elevate customer centricity

Start a weekly recap of your product area for relevant audiences. Along with released and upcoming features, summarize customer problems you're addressing. Frame these as hypotheses and follow up with learnings in subsequent recaps. Include customer anecdotes or insights from customer service.

When writing specs, state the feature goal and how they map to the company goals, even if they don’t exist. Ask for forgiveness by stating them as proposed goals and being open for feedback and correction. For example, “Based on my knowledge, increasing revenue through this product is our top company objective. And from what I have seen, improving the funding funnel is our best way forward. Our competition seems to do a better job here. What do you all think about this?” is a great way to initiate healthy conversations.

Find a veteran who speaks product

Identify a respected individual with strong product sense within the organization. Observe how they drive product decisions and leverage that culture-friendly language to frame yours. Seek their support when introducing new practices. For example, one of my clients built rapport with the COO, who was a former CPO at another company. He earned trust with this person and eventually earned to lead a high-visibility product initiative that helped him amplify the product culture in a broader scope.

In summary

The key is to give before you ask. To influence change, earn the trust of your manager and other stakeholders by delivering the tangible results first. This won’t be easy as the inefficiencies, chaos and flawed decision making will impede your velocity. Accept the challenge to be an agent of change by embedding the desired culture through your outputs and communication style. Start within your sphere of influence first and then model this behavior broadly. Deliver tangible outputs—specs, user stories, features—and use each opportunity to earn trust and shape the culture incrementally. Finally, leverage an ally to amplify your impact.