Hey everyone,
I’ve been noticing a growing tension in the PM community lately, and it’s something I’m seeing on my own team. The Product Manager role seems to be stretching to a breaking point. Are we becoming the ‘product-everything’ person?
One day we’re expected to be AI experts crafting the perfect prompts, the next we’re deep in the weeds of a go-to-market strategy. We’re part-time data scientists, part-time UX researchers, and full-time stakeholder managers. While being a generalist is part of the job’s appeal, this hyper-expansion of responsibilities feels unsustainable.
When one person is expected to do everything, deep strategic thinking and true user discovery often become the first casualties. We end up servicing the loudest voice or the most immediate fire instead of driving long-term value. This not only leads to burnout but also confuses our engineering and design counterparts about where our focus truly lies.
It feels like we’re being pulled in a dozen different directions, making it nearly impossible to excel in the core mission of building products that solve real problems.
So, how do you protect your focus and push back against the ‘product-everything’ expectation without looking like you’re not a team player?