The role of a product manager is about influence, empathy, relationships and leverage. Building that remotely can be tough but this shouldn’t deter you from being successful in the new role.
Here are some of my tips inspired majorly by Ken Norton’s article and my experience being a product manager at 3 companies now :
People:
1. Setting expectations with your manager — sharing your calendar in a 15 minute 1:1 helps you align your priorities for the week. Saying NO becomes easier :)
2. Know the team, more importantly their motivations and frustrations.
3. Setup virtual coffee sessions with most important stakeholders and also your “engineers” and build rapport by touching items outside of work. This builds a comrade for you to get things done.
4. Share a document that describes your “working” style. This sets the right expectations for your team members and also helps you learn about their style and any fine tuning that maybe needed gets done upfront.
Product:
1. Use your advantage of having a “fresh” lens when understanding the product. Look at the data, metrics, friction points and your customers impartially till you become seasoned. Take notes.
2. Find something “bite-sized” to add “immediate” value.
Personal:
1. It is important to set some personal goals, the frequency of which is upto you and the phase of your company in the business life cycle. This will prevent you from being reactive or falling in a cycle of doing “proof of worth jobs”.
2. Write what’s not written.
ASK FOR HELP.
