In practice, though, I’ve often seen this backfire pretty badly. When product managers are held directly accountable for hitting a specific quantitative number, they often disengage when they feel that number is out of reach. If you’re being held accountable for a certain percentage increase in new user growth, for example, and a competitor launches a product that you know is going to chip away at your market share, you might be tempted to just throw your hands up and get ready for an unpleasant quarterly review. In fact, you might be just as likely to disengage if you realize early on that
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