Ten Pieces of Advice for New Product Managers

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Prologue – Why I’m Writing This

In 2018 I was lucky enough to attend a Carnegie leadership training. One exercise left a strong impression on me: “Write three pieces of advice for a newcomer.” From those short messages you can glimpse a person’s past experiences and what they value most at the moment.

Inspired by that, I’m writing “Ten Sentences for New Product People.” It’s both a look back at my own journey and a summary of the seven years I’ve spent as a product manager. I also hope these ten sentences can give a little guidance to anyone who’s wrestling with the question “Should I become a product manager? What kind of product manager do I want to be?”

01 Don’t Let Labels Define You – And Don’t Give Up Too Easily

When I first graduated I worked in product operations. I knew nothing about product management during campus recruiting, but after I started working I collaborated closely with PMs and began to see how interesting their work was. I also heard that product managers earn significantly more than operators. All those factors made me naturally want to switch to product.

After weeks of hesitation, many days of mulling it over, and repeated encouragement from friends, I finally brought the idea to my boss.

His reply was short and cold: “I don’t think you’re cut out for product.”

That hit me hard (see my post [Why I’ve Been Unhappy Lately]). I’m grateful now that I didn’t quit then.

The turning point came a short while later when I was passively reassigned. Encouraged again by a friend, I used the transfer as an excuse to approach the product director directly and expressed my desire to move from operations to product.

I was fortunate to be at a transparent, inclusive company with a boss who supported employee growth. He arranged for my new supervisor to give me some product tasks in addition to my operational duties. A few months later the company opened a brand‑new department and hired product managers. Although my product‑manager experience was minimal, I seized the opportunity and officially transitioned from product operations to product manager.

Two lessons emerge from this story.

First, don’t let others label you lightly. Whether in interviews, on the job, or elsewhere, people don’t really know you; only you truly understand yourself. If you want to do something, go for it—even if you fail. Failure is still a result; you can look back without regret because you tried.

Likewise, avoid labeling others, especially when you’re a manager. Often we don’t see the whole picture, so we have no right to judge. It’s always easier to pick flaws. Everyone experiences confusion, doubt, and fear; in those moments people may not need cheering up so much as a judgment‑free space. That’s the greatest kindness and support we can offer.

Second, opportunities sometimes have to be chased. Prepare yourself and never give up on what you love. If I hadn’t taken the initiative to approach the director, nobody would have known I wanted to move into product, I wouldn’t have gained even shallow product‑manager experience, and I certainly wouldn’t have been ready when the chance finally arrived.

02 Your Passion Can Be Felt by Others

In the spring of 2015 I interviewed for a product‑manager role together with a friend. At the end of the interview the recruiter told me I couldn’t be hired (the team wasn’t planning to bring on junior PMs) and then referred me to another group within the same company. My friend received no referral.

Years later, over a dinner with that recruiter, I asked, “We interviewed on the same day—why did you refer me but not my friend?”

He replied, “There’s no specific reason; I just sensed that you really wanted to be a product manager.”

I can’t recall the exact questions from that interview. I don’t even know what I said—maybe the excitement of launching my first feature, maybe dissatisfaction with my current work and a yearning for product, maybe just a spark in my eyes while talking.

In the end, the details don’t matter. What matters is that people can truly sense your enthusiasm.

If your passion is visible, go ahead and charge forward.

03 A Good Mentor Benefits You for a Lifetime

In my fifth year as a product manager I finally became a user‑product manager. That’s when I discovered my unique strength: a heightened sensitivity to detail and user experience. I could spot interaction‑design quirks, visual inconsistencies, even typo errors that others missed. I realized I owed that to my former supervisor.

When I had just switched to product, my manager was a perfectionist when it came to experience. Whether it was the typo “登陆” vs. “登录,” punctuation, or the spelling of iOS vs. Android, everything had to be spot‑on. He even created a detailed PRD template that specified every required section down to the exact use of punctuation. At the time we grumbled about his nitpicking.

Looking back years later, his exacting standards gave me the edge I have today. The completeness and meticulousness people now praise in my PRDs are largely because I built on his template with a few tweaks. I’m grateful for the solid habits and foundation he instilled.

His influence went beyond that. When he first stepped into management, he was voraciously reading leadership books and putting their advice into practice: soliciting preferences before assigning tasks, holding at least one‑on‑one meetings each month, organizing team book clubs, and so on. After I later worked with many other managers, I realized how precious those seemingly “obvious” practices truly are.

Because of him, I constantly ask myself whether I’m a good role model—whether I can become the person others will thank in the future. A great mentor can benefit you for life, yet such mentors are rare and hard to find.

04 If You Love It, Stick With It

Because I came from operations, my first product work was on internal back‑office tools (e.g., configuration panels for ops). Later I moved to B2B back‑office products (e.g., merchant management consoles). After clearly telling my supervisor I wanted to work on user‑facing products, I began building BC‑centric features (e.g., red‑packet functionality that had both a user side and a merchant/ops config side). After several twists and turns I finally landed on a pure user‑product role.

The path wasn’t smooth. The biggest obstacle was the “discouragement” from supervisors. More than one manager told me, “User products have no future,” “User products are dead‑ends,” “What’s needed now are products that understand commercial logic.”

On top of that, I doubted myself. Authority figures were warning me, and I hadn’t fully articulated why I wanted to build user products, so I wrestled with a lot of inner conflict. Yet feelings often precede rationality: every time I worked on a user‑product project I felt unusually happy, even though I couldn’t pinpoint why—was it because I’m a visual person, because I liked influencing others, or because I could brag about it?

Fortunately I’m the type of person who follows my gut. I didn’t know exactly what excited me about being a user‑product manager, but I kept listening to that inner voice and chose that road whenever a decision arose.

I intend to keep persisting, even though it’s hard.

05 Work Hard, But Keep an Eye on the Road Ahead

During my second to third year on the job I hit a very confusing phase. I had mastered the core PM skills and could own requirements independently, yet I wasn’t clear on “Who am I? Where am I? Why am I doing this?”

In a conversation with a former interviewer he told me, “You need to dig in and work, but also look up and see the road ahead.”

My interpretation of “looking up” is that, at a certain stage, you must not only focus on the tasks at hand but also understand where the larger project is heading, what path it has chosen, and why. Once you have that context, you can think about how to align your work with the project’s direction.

Years later, in 2021, I read about the concept of “going with the flow” in Xiaomi’s 10‑year anniversary book Forward Without Hesitation. Founder‑CEO Lei Jun is adamant about following the tide; even his investment fund is named “Shunwei Capital.”

We should ride the wave of the times, follow the company’s direction, align with project goals, and then achieve our own objectives and value.

06 Just Do It

In high school I loved the saying, “If you don’t sweep your own house, how can you sweep the world?” I’m not sure whether the phrase influenced me or my hands‑‑on nature made me love it, but today I firmly believe product managers must be doers.

Compared with traditional industries, the biggest advantage of the internet industry is speed: rapid launches, quick bug fixes, low remediation cost. In other words, internet products can be validated fast.

Product managers should leverage this characteristic. Don’t get stuck over‑thinking; just act.

Of course “just act” doesn’t mean charging ahead blindly. It means, after you’ve clarified the logic, move quickly to launch, iterate, and validate—small steps, fast pace.

Often you only discover previously unseen problems once you start building. Only by doing does theory become practice, and only by doing do you get a concrete result—whether success or failure.

07 Big Logic and Small Details

Everyone says product managers need logic, but what does that really mean? Different people interpret it differently.

I think a PM’s logical rigor shows not only in avoiding formal logical fallacies (interested readers can check Simple Logic for a primer) but also in being MECE—Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive. For any major issue, you should be able to categorize it without overlap or omission, thereby grasping the core problem.

Is logic alone enough? My answer is no. A product can’t rely solely on big‑picture logic while ignoring details. Overlooked details become user‑experience problems, which are unacceptable because details determine success or failure.

An example of ignoring details

“Where should I look? Where should I click?”

An example of caring about details

In NetEase Cloud Music, the playlist‑position feature lets you tap the small floating window at the bottom right to jump directly to the currently playing song in that playlist.

08 Product Management Is an Experiential Science

A product manager must draw on logic, psychology, economics, management, and more. Therefore the role isn’t just writing specs and drawing mockups; it’s more like a doctor diagnosing a problem and prescribing a treatment—whether that treatment is a new product or a set of operational tactics. A PM who can solve problems is a good PM.

Thus I view product management as an experiential science.

A practical issue: no university curriculum currently teaches how to identify and solve product problems. Consequently, PMs must learn, practice, and reflect continuously to build experience.

In other words, the more requirements you write, the more varied problems you confront, the clearer you become about which actions yield which outcomes—that’s what makes a top‑tier product manager.

09 Build Products with Warmth

In April 2019 Didi announced the creation of a Driver Service Department and planned to hire 2,000 driver‑service managers within the year. Previously internal teams were called “platform governance” or “service control.” The subtle shift in terminology reflects a mindset change: from “drivers are governed, managed, controlled” to “serve every driver well.”

The most talked‑about issue this year is the plight of delivery couriers trapped by algorithms. The logic is simple: the left hand represents users demanding speed; the right hand represents couriers chasing earnings; the platform claims neutrality but actually isn’t (speed‑first slogans, delivery‑priority algorithms, penalties for delays).

At that moment we realize product work can feel a bit cold. No need to invoke psychology textbooks—most people understand the basic truth: everyone wants to be understood and respected. So, as product managers, how should we act?

I hope we can all create warm products that connect people to the world’s beauty and spread small acts of kindness.

Didi launched a feature called “Didi Praise” in 2019, intended to let passengers acknowledge drivers’ good service. I like the idea, but the implementation feels a bit forced and prone to abuse. Still, it’s a promising start.

Another touching design comes from NetEase Cloud Music: villagers in the “Cloud Village” share personal stories in comments, and listeners can give them a virtual hug 🫂 (see the lower‑right corner of the screenshot).

How heart‑warming is that?

10 Understand Human Nature—and Use It Wisely

What is human nature?

• Everyone wants respect, recognition, and understanding.
• Everyone is curious, craves freedom, and sometimes shirks responsibility.
• Everyone likes timely feedback and rewards.
• The world contains both light and darkness, good and bad people.

…and so on.

Understanding human nature isn’t just a requirement for user‑focused PMs; it’s essential for all product managers. Only by grasping it can you anticipate whether a design will work as intended, even for a tiny feature or rule.

I once heard a Didi colleague recount an early‑stage “Emergency Call” feature: about 90 % of daily calls were false alarms—most users were simply testing whether the button really reached 110. That unexpected outcome revealed a shallow understanding of human nature.

Beyond that, a PM must first understand humanity, then harness it responsibly. Many of WeChat’s successes stem from this—e.g., the “Like” button in Moments (“I’m awesome, praise me!”), the “Friends are watching” cue in Video Accounts (“If friends are watching, I can’t miss it”). Countless similar examples exist.

However, PMs must also restrain themselves and avoid exploiting human weaknesses. Unbridled curiosity, fear of loss, and other innate drives can be manipulated, but we should not use them for selfish ends. We need personal boundaries. For instance, a recent promotional message from NetEase Yanxuan (a Mid‑Autumn Festival campaign) left me feeling disgusted. Many other cases exist, but I’ll let you discover them yourself.

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That’s the ten sentences from seven years of experience.

May I stay true to my original intent and keep persisting. ✊

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Originally written by Estela Young and published in Chinese on 一只产品汪的自白. Translated and edited for DriftSeas with permission.