(2020-07-02) High Agency Product Management

Abhishek Chakravarty: on High Agency Product Management: people that can execute a vision despite all odds and despite all the naysayers around them.

specific personality traits that would classify somebody as having, or acting with, high agency.

It is their ability to persuade others to see their version of reality.

In the context of Product Management, the ability to identify & persuade key stakeholders is what separates great Product Managers from the mediocre ones. In fact, High Agency is a must for a PM operating in a large matrixed organization with complicated reporting lines and org structures.

As a Product Manager, being able to sell your vision to stakeholders and persuade them to jump on board is key to getting things done and achieving that vision. But even before that, it is imperative to understand who you are dealing with before you can sell your vision to them.

Understanding the basics of people’s immediate and long term motivations, incentives, and immediate environments are key before you can influence people to do things for you.

Let us talk about some specific examples.

1. Getting your ‘Product Vision’ Funded

Selling your vision successfully and persuading people to fund your vision would involve you anticipating what they care about and structuring your pitch accordingly

You will need to start with selling the vision to your manager, the Sales & Marketing Leaders, the CFO & CEO of the business

It will take several iterations to successfully persuade the key leaders

You must keep these conversations very focused to receive an objective evaluation based on facts. You must come across as somebody that knows what they are talking about, that understands, and acknowledges the risks and rewards of your endeavor

2. Building the Right team

just as important is for the builders to buy into your vision.

this is a group of people with skills that is in extremely high demand today. If you want the very best builders to work on your product vision, you will need to persuade them on why spending time to make your vision a reality is worth their while

helping them visualize the opportunity to be a part of something big and meaningful

rubber meets the road as you move into the execution phase — the “messy middle” as some call it — when seemingly unending problems start rearing their ugly heads and complexities galore.

*With the wrong personalities in the team, this will result in poor team morale, missed deadlines, and budget overruns.

It is at this time when a High Agency Product Manager will be cogent, reinforcing the vision often, and motivating the team to push forward despite the impediments.*

3. Execution in the “Messy Middle”

The key really is to put your head down, persevere, and execute on these little details one day at a time.

A pro-tip to successfully navigating execution challenges is to anticipate them early— and start to develop a deep understanding of your organization’s departmental structures, internal workflows, priorities.

relationships help the PM to engage with departments and have very focused and efficient conversations, helping deliver business context, and persuading stakeholders in Finance, Legal, Accounting & Corporate to clear the launchpad for your product to take off.