✳flâneur — a map of the web's best reading

Being a good PM at Google - by Chris Perry

thechrisperry.substack.com · 3,273 words · saved by 1 readers

Nobody told me how to be a good Product Manager at Google and I made a lot of mistakes. Mistakes help you learn, but are also no fun to make. Here are eight things I've learned the hard way. Read this and learn the easy way. Being a good PM is hard because: Every PM job is unique and requires different skills Success is extremely hard to achieve Most of your success depends people and variables you can't directly control GenAI makes this even harder: the centre cannot hold. Everything is changing all at once: the product landscape, the jobs to be done, the capabilities, and the job of a PM itself. Lastly, being a PM is hard work. You are not an ivory tower professor mandating brilliance from on high. At every stage, at every step, you need to be the most engaged, hardest working member of the team to ensure success. As Indira Gandhi said, "There are two kinds of people, those who do the work, and those who take the credit. Belong to the first category". Do the work. Ship something good

Being a good PM at Google Things I've learned over 12 years building products you love Chris Perry Jul 29, 2025 52 9 3 Share Being a good PM is hard Nobody told me how to be a good Product Manager at Google and I made a lot of mistakes. Mistakes help you learn, but are also no fun to make. Here are eight things I've learned the hard way. Read this and learn the easy way. Being a good PM is hard because: Every PM job is unique and requires different skills Success is extremely hard to achieve Most of your success depends people and variables you can't directly control GenAI makes this even hard

Explore this link on the map →

related reading