Let's start on the same page: a media company primarily presents itself through products offered to its audience: a website, a mobile application, a print edition, a YouTube channel, etc. Improving the experience of this product is the responsibility of the Product Manager. Above this role, product leaders (with varying titles such as "Head of Product" or "CPO" for "Chief Product Officer") are themselves tasked with defining the vision and objectives across these different products within the same media company.
What if we talked about an essential skill every product manager must develop: high-speed decision-making (DGV InOui). The faster you make the right decisions, the more successful your product—and your career—will be. Simple, right? 🤙
Here is another skill you must then master just as well: high-speed forgiveness (PGV InOui).
One doesn't go without the other.
When a test or feature doesn't deliver results, product leaders typically have two types of reactions toward the people reporting to them:
"Max, sorry about these disappointing results. I know you worked hard on this. What's next? What's the plan to get back on track, and most importantly, what have we learned that should inform the next test?" 🤓
Or
"Max, that's pretty disappointing. We need to think about how to communicate this to the whole group. To be honest, I would have liked us to do more research. Remind me why we ran this test now?" 😡
Of course, these are stereotypical reactions. In substance, the first manager will focus on moving forward and maintaining their enthusiasm for what's next, rather than blaming others. The bad news they just heard stays etched in their mind like a goldfish: it's rapid forgiveness. Or as Ted Lasso would say: "Be a goldfish".
The second manager will focus on managing internal perception, at the expense of understanding what could be gained from it, and will seek to identify a culprit: it could be a person, a trend, a moment—someone or something must be held responsible.
Just know that the second type of product manager is by far the most common. 🤷♂️
The best thing you can do as a product manager is to train yourself to react like a goldfish, even if you feel like you're faking it at first. Force your initial reaction to focus on the next step. Better yet: ask a question about what your direct report just learned. Create a healthy dialogue space. It took me years, not just a few months, to understand this, and there are days when I probably display most of the qualities of that first manager. 😌
From the other side of the fence, the most important thing for you is to identify what type of product leader you'll be working with, ideally during the hiring interview. The most effective way to discover this quickly is to ask questions about their past experiences, both successful and unsuccessful (be clear about both). Ask what happened, what worked, and what they learned. If the person focuses on a nice story and talks about the joy of internal stakeholders, run away. If the person provides concrete examples of efforts, tests that didn't really work, and what they did next, fight to get the job. 💪
To go further
- What lies behind the role of Product Manager? To understand what's hidden behind the person often considered the "CEO of the Product," you can consult the definition proposed by Thiga, a media outlet and consulting firm specialized in product culture, and supported by the Médianes studio.
- The concept of "High-Velocity Decision Making" was notably developed by Jeff Bezos, who made it a key pillar of Amazon's corporate culture.
- How to develop a sound product strategy for your media organization? Design, tech, marketing, editorial…within media companies, it's not always easy to bring all disciplines to the table. Read Maxime Leroy's column.
