Org & Influence

As a PM you cannot tell engineers, designers, or salespeople what to do — you have no formal power over them. Instead, you build influence by becoming genuinely useful: learn the business deeply, show up curious, and make everyone around you more effective. When people see you working hard to understand their world, they start to trust you and listen to you.

You can't order anyone to do anything, so you have to earn the right to be believed. That means always doing what you said you'd do, showing up with data, and helping people see the trade-offs honestly instead of just saying yes or no. The more reliable you are on small things, the more influence you have on big decisions.

Managing up means communicating clearly, showing your work through quality artifacts like PRDs and strategy docs, and making it easy for your manager and leaders to trust your judgment. Answer the question they actually asked — not a version of it. If a leader asks when something ships, give a date first, then context.

As a PM, no one on your team — engineers, designers, researchers — actually reports to you. You can't order people to do things. Instead, you earn the right to guide direction by being trustworthy, decisive when it matters, and genuinely useful to the people doing the work. Think of yourself less as a boss and more as a conductor: you don't play an instrument, but the music only works if you're doing your job.

When someone asks you to build something that doesn't fit your priorities, don't just say no — show them your current list of priorities and ask them to help rank where their request fits. This way you're not refusing them, you're inviting them to make a trade-off decision with you.