Cracking the PM Interview: How to Land a Product Manager Job in Technology (Cracking the Interview & Career)

by Gayle Laakmann McDowell

5. Product managers just set up meetings. Some people think that a PM’s job is just to get the key stakeholders in a room together to make decisions. Good product managers don’t just serve as passive conduits of other people’s opinions. Instead, PMs research the area and come up with their own point of view and frameworks for making decisions. PMs do need to meet with the key stakeholders and understand their opinions and priorities, but then they synthesize those perspectives, lay out the tradeoffs, and come up with a recommendation that will satisfy all of the stakeholders. In any meeting or conversation, the PM needs to represent the interests of all the people who are not in the room. Product managers are able to reduce the number of meetings their teammates need to attend because they’re able to represent the team to other groups and find productive ways of communicating that don’t require meetings.