3 Behaviors of Unsuccessful Remote Product Managers (and How to Fix Them)

In ProductPlan’s 2021 State of Product Management Annual Report, we found that when asked, “If forced to choose, would you rather work remotely 100% of the time or come into an office every day 100% of the time?” that 67% of product managers chose remote work. Such a sizable cohort opting for a non-office lifestyle is an early indicator that a massive shift is underway.Hundreds of millions of other knowledge workers joined early adopters of work from home when nations shut down public spaces to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in early 2020.Remote work was a growing trend well before the COVID-19 pandemic shifted things into overdrive. Flexibility, work-life balance, and shorter commutes were obvious draws for employees. Meanwhile, companies could cut back on office space and tap into a much wider talent pool.Unsurprisingly, the “new normal” has mixed reviews. Some love their new lives of joggers and mid-afternoon kips, while others long for the office’s commotion and camaraderie.With more companies changing their stance on remote work as the pandemic fades away, product management may well become a primarily remote profession in the coming years. For a role requiring extensive collaboration with colleagues—not to mention interactions with customers—that dynamic necessitates more than a good internet connection and a ring light to be successful.

Remote Product Managers' Responsibilities

Product managers must be much more intentional in their approach to remote work. Mostly to build and maintain a rapport with the stakeholders and coworkers they rely upon to get things done. A remote product manager is still responsible for:

• Identifying customer pain points and market opportunities.
• Conducting user research and validating assumptions.
• Prioritizing potential work items according to their impact on the business’s strategy and goals.
• Building out a product roadmap.
• Secure stakeholder alignment and buy-in.
• Partnering with engineering to ensure products deliver value.
• Work with customer support to create successful customer experiences.
• Collaborate with marketing and sales on messaging.

None of those tasks and responsibilities occur in a vacuum, and many require extensive interactions with peers. The lack of face-to-face interaction increases the degree of difficulty for many of these tasks, which is why remote product managers must break some bad habits to improve their performance in a remote setting.

3 Behaviors of Unsuccessful Remote Product Managers

1. Expecting in-person interactions to replace themselves.When you share a workspace, there are numerous opportunities for conversations. You might run into someone getting coffee, join them at a table for lunch, or share an elevator ride. You can also pop into their office or cubicle, holding an impromptu conversation without having to schedule a meeting or tap out a lengthy email.With those interactions off the table, one might opt to fill their calendar with virtual meetings. But the formality of these affairs doesn’t always lead to quick decisions or rapid exchanges of information. Additionally, “Zoom fatigue” has been a natural phenomenon remote workers face.

Collaborative Tools

Remote product managers must instead rely on a broader array of tactics to compensate for their absence from the office. Collaborative tools are a game-changer in this regard. Using these for prioritization, brainstorming, and asynchronous communication lets colleagues interact when convenient for them. Plus, there’s a digital trail documenting the process and outcomes of these exercises and exchanges.A record comes in handy when you’re trying to recall who said what and 'whys' behind decisions. A running record supports the broader imperative for any remote product management professional: overcommunication.Lacking the ability to use non-verbal cues and body language to confirm colleagues received, understand, and agree with the information and conclusions team members have reached. Instead, remote product managers must repeat and reinforce key messages to ensure their audience is genuinely on the same page.

Positive Interactions

Besides the tactical aspects of business interactions, remote workers must put extra effort into creating positive interactions. Whether it’s happy hours, lunch-and-learns, or one-on-one virtual coffees, these build and reinforce the interpersonal connections essential to getting things done, particularly when you’re not on-site.Finally, it’s easy to slip into an “all business” mode when working remotely. Don’t forget to have fun and celebrate the wins as a team, for their sake and yours.2. Not optimizing for asynchronous communication.With remote work, there’s a much higher risk for insufficient knowledge transfer. This is particularly troublesome for product management, who often struggle to get stakeholders’ full attention even when they’re all in the same room.Success requires total alignment on their understanding of the product, the vision, and goals. Simultaneously, every team needs different levels and types of information to do their jobs.Without the natural osmosis in an office, remote product managers must commit to developing a single source of truth. It should be accessible for all relevant parties while conveying the right knowledge to the right audience at the right time.To achieve this, you must rely on your toolset more than ever. Tools like ProductPlan help teams of all sizes stay aligned with the strategy and give them on-demand access to a tailored view of what’s germane to their particular roles and areas of responsibility.But getting the most out of these tools requires some upfront thought about managing information flow and designing processes rigorous enough to be thorough but lightweight enough they don’t feel onerous. Powerful features supporting custom views based on tagging and filters are only useful with a strategy and plan to use them fully.The more time you invest in optimizing your single source of truth, the more time enabled for execution and putting out preventable fires.3. Not knowing when to unplug.Ever since pagers, smartphones, laptops, and VPNs hit the scene, knowledge workers have dealt with blurred lines between work and home. Some managers expected employees to respond to messages day and night. Some workers feel obligated to take on unfinished tasks on nights and weekends.Being “always-on” is exhausting and can put many on a fast track to burnout. A Gallup poll found a dramatic increase in burnout for remote workers during the pandemic, as rates in the U.S. rose from 18% to 29%. Our own survey of product managers found burnout particularly problematic at large companies, where nearly 30% find the role emotionally taxing.And, with no physical separation between the two, it’s increasingly difficult to disengage from your devices and unwind at home. At the same time, it’s harder and harder to turn down incoming requests, leading to a larger part of your day spent on work versus other matters, which accelerates the problem.Remote product managers must stake out time and space for themselves. This is essential for their wn mental well-being, but it also leads to better work and increased productivity during their work hours. We need time to think, process, and analyze. This process doesn’t happen if we’re overtaxed and overscheduled for most of our waking hours.

Essentialist product maangers

To achieve a sustainable equilibrium, product managers should employ the principles of essentialism. Less is more because you’re putting superior quality work into the tasks you keep on your plate instead of putting forth a middling effort on a broader set of to-dos.The key to maintaining productivity—and your sanity—is learning to say no. This goes against many product managers’ natures, who embrace the multitudes of diverse responsibilities the role entails. But not creating boundaries and limits is a quick recipe for burnout.

Remote Product Managers' Community

Working well with others when working remote requires product management professionals to employ their full arsenal of soft skills. You’ll need to mix up your communication styles and meet colleagues where they are.Some prefer brief exchanges on an asynchronous chat platform, while others need a phone or video call to engage. Putting your own preferences aside and using mediums your coworkers prefer will make them more comfortable and those interactions more meaningful and productive.For product leaders and their teams, remote work poses an additional set of challenges and avoids some extra pitfalls. Building a remote team means hiring the right people, establishing communication protocols and cadences that work for everyone, and entrusting staff.Just remember, you’re hiring adults that shouldn’t need constant oversight. Their performance and ability to function independently will rapidly become self-evident. But screening candidates for their compatibility with a remote environment and your preferred communication methods can certainly help spot outliers that may not make for a good match.