Can you deliver your goals and requested features, Product Manager?

Were you expected to achieve metric-based goals/OKRs 𝗔𝗡𝗗 deliver specific features? In that case, you are set for FAILURE. What to do? Can unreasonable management be negotiated with?

Let’s start by saying, for the millionth time, that Product Managers are not Project Managers. We are set to solve problems and meet goals, by which I mean achieving set numbers for selected metrics. The ideal goal should be 120–130% of reasonably achievable. This way if you go 80% there, you are already a champ, but you have the motivation to go out of your way and actually achieve an ambitious goal.

However, this means you have to operate on trust from management. You need to have freedom and space to operate. Reaching those ambitious goals will require your full attention and development team’s focus (who often have conflicting tech goals of their own, but it is a story for another time). There is room for company-mandated features and changes.

And yet…

They do appear. Sometimes it is nefarious when an overly ambitious manager wants to use you, the Product Manager, to have his/her cake and eat it. Other times those requests will be completely reasonable and those cases can include: