Breaking Glass Without Breaking Trust - follow up story

Driving change as a product manager even when your boss puts you on pause

What happened after writing a recent Product Management IRL article? These insights are for premium subscribers to Product Management IRL.

This week’s backstory is about gracefully breaking rules:

Breaking Glass Without Breaking Trust

What Prompted this Article?

I discussed validating the upcoming product release with Aiden, my team’s program manager.

Aiden: Let’s check with your boss about the feature demonstration.

Me: My boss depends on me to validate requirements. How can I validate without a demo?

Aiden: The test team doesn’t have time to do a demo before the release. You know this. Why are you pushing for a demo anyway?

Me: I expect to break glass as a product manager. We need to check the requirements before shipping. Let’s meet with the test team before escalating.

When I said “break glass”, memories came flooding back of confronting senior leaders. These are some uncomfortable memories!

I’ve seen too many product managers hurt themselves by following orders from above. The worst situations for product managers are when product work is put on hold.

I wrote this article to help product managers be productive when their leaders pause their work. Here is the balancing act:

What Happened After this Article?