Managing Up, Part 1: Understanding What You Can Expect from Your Boss
Hello there, lovely product people! I wanted to share a quick note to let you know that this article is a little different from what I usually share here. While my blog typically highlights work I’ve already done (e.g. frameworks I’ve developed, podcasts or talks I’ve given, clients I’ve worked with), this post actually represents a work in progress. I’m in the midst of developing a talk and I wanted to share some of the content I’ve been working on. In other words, this is far from polished. I hope sharing some of my thoughts here will help me refine what I’d like to say in my talk. And if you have any feedback on any of the content here—please don’t hesitate to let me know by sending an email to info@petra-wille.de.
To begin, take a moment to think about your boss. Consider a few questions about this person:
Have you ever wished that they would support you more?
Have you ever wished they were a better manager?
Maybe you a specific situation comes to mind, such as:
A meeting where you felt unsupported and you wish they’d had your back
A time when you were looking for more guidance on making tough product trade-off decisions
A moment when you were hoping for professional development in the form of specific opportunities, a stretch project, or even just a discussion about which skills you want to develop
An important milestone when you were hoping for more strategic directional clarity
In this series, I’ll be sharing some tips on boss management, also known as “managing up.”
Why “managing up” is an important topic for me (and you!)
Why do I care about this topic?
As a product leadership coach, I coach your boss. While I may not be working with YOUR boss specifically, I work with dozens of product leaders every year and I see how often they’re struggling with the things I outlined above.
They struggle to be the boss that you deserve. And in fact, they struggle to be the boss that they want to be.
So oftentimes, everyone feels unfulfilled. But because it’s a hierarchical relationship, it’s hard for either side to admit that they’re not happy and their needs are not being met.
So what can you do to overcome this impasse?
As an individual contributor/doer/maker, you might struggle to clearly state your expectations of leadership. By the way, I’m not blaming you for that—it’s not a common practice in most workplaces. So maybe you have some ideas about what you are expecting but you’ve never expressed them because you’ve never seen anyone else do this. Or maybe you’ve never even thought about sharing your expectations with your manager because you didn’t realize it was something you could do.
So, to sum up: As a product person, your expectations are often implicit and vague. You might even wonder if you’re allowed to have those expectations. You might question whether it’s your right to be so demanding of your boss. You’re not sure if your expectations are realistic or not and if it’s even acceptable for you to raise them with your boss.
My goal in this series is to help you understand what you can expect from your boss (and how to help them get better in any areas where they’re lacking). Let’s start with a simple question: What is their role as a leader?
10 things you can expect from your boss (AKA “The 10 Boss Responsibilities”)
The chart below offers an overview of the ten things you can expect from your leader, AKA “The 10 Boss Responsibilities.” These ten boss responsibilities are the ones I’d say are vital to any product leadership role. They cover most—but maybe not all—the tasks your leader has (by the way, if you’re looking to dive into this topic, I cover it in more detail in chapters 1, 4, and 5 of my book, STRONG Product People). They’re the common denominator I’ve found while working with dozens of product leaders over the years.
You may have heard of the broad categories of Product, People, and Process. These describe the main areas leaders are responsible for. But for this series, I'd like to apply a slightly different lens by focusing on specific competencies leaders should have. When leaders have all these competencies, they should naturally be able to manage their Product, People, and Process.
As you might expect, no one can be perfect in or dedicate all their attention to all ten of these competencies. The amount of time managers dedicate to each of these responsibilities will vary depending on their company’s product maturity, industry, size, etc.
Directional clarity
Leaders should ensure that there is clarity in the organization's strategy, goals, working principles, and values, fostering alignment not only among peers and upper management but across the entire team. In order to achieve this, they must also have a clear idea and vision of where their product or portfolio of products is headed.
Process oversight
Leaders should ensure that appropriate processes for product and design excellence are identified and championed within the team. They are responsible for making sure that process development is on someone’s radar and that it gets the attention it needs.
Cultural advocacy
Leaders are the stewards of the team's culture, advocating for a supportive and positive environment that reflects the company's values and encourages innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement. I share more about the leader’s role in building culture in this blog post.
Role clarity & ownership
Leaders are expected to provide clear definitions of roles within the team, but also to encourage team members to take ownership of their roles and contribute to role definition and evolution. Product leaders are also responsible for making sure their product people are minimizing the four big risks in software development (delivering a desired outcome by building a product that is usable, feasible, valuable, and viable for the company to build). In the cases where leaders are responsible for product strategy, they also need to handle strategy research, competitor analysis, and innovation along with the leaders from other disciplines.
Personal development facilitation
Leaders should facilitate personal development by ensuring there are mechanisms in place for coaching and skill enhancement, as well as by providing time and resources for growth opportunities.
Networking support and conflict management
While leaders are not solely responsible for your networking, they should actively support it by providing opportunities and guidance, as well as backing you up and assisting in managing conflicts effectively.
Empowerment through trust and autonomy
Leaders are expected to create an environment where trust is the foundation, and where team members are given the autonomy to make and act upon decisions within their domain.
Feedback culture and recognition
Leaders should foster a culture where feedback is regularly exchanged in a constructive manner and where recognition is given when due, promoting a motivating and accountable environment.
Resource enablement
Leaders are responsible for ensuring that the team has access to the resources needed to execute their strategies effectively. While I don’t like using the term “resources” to refer to people, this competency also involves making sure their teams have the right people with the right balance of knowledge, skills, and experience that will help the team be successful.
Integrity and ethical leadership
Leaders are responsible for modeling ethical behavior and integrity, setting the standard for the team, and ensuring that all members are encouraged to act in the organization’s best interests.
I encourage you to go through this chart and think of your boss’s behavior and actions. Give them a rating—on a scale of 0 to 5—in each of these areas:
Directional clarity
Process oversight
Cultural advocacy
Role clarity & ownership
Development facilitation
Networking support and conflict management
Empowerment through trust and autonomy
Feedback culture and recognition
Resource enablement
Integrity and ethical leadership
The scores that you give could be a good starting point to guide a feedback conversation with your boss. But before we talk about how to approach this conversation, let me introduce you to a helpful leadership metaphor.
Another helpful framing: The ships vs. shipyard metaphor
I know that remembering all ten of these leader’s responsibilities might be hard, especially when you’re in the middle of a conversation with your boss. So let me share a metaphor that’s a little easier to remember.
My recommendation to you: Use this metaphor when you need to start a conversation on the spot and you can follow up later when you’re more prepared with the list of ten responsibilities and your ratings or suggestions for them.
In defining a leader’s role, I like to describe it in terms of ships vs. the shipyard (by the way, you can read more about this topic here). This can help you to make the distinction between your leader’s responsibilities and your own.
Imagine a large shipyard where massive ships are being built. There’s a lot of work that goes into designing and crafting the ships so they’re able to go out to sea and carry their freight all around the world. But at the same time, there’s a lot of activity that’s happening within the shipyard to ensure that the containers arrive at the right time and place, that ships have a place to dock and unload, and that all the human beings in this busy environment are safe and supported as they go about their work.
As a product person, you are responsible for the ships (the products you’re building) and your leaders are responsible for everything around those ships. In other words, they’re the ones who keep the shipyard running smoothly and safely.
Why your boss might not know this already
Now I’d like to let you in on a little secret: Not every boss is aware of the things I’ve just pointed out. Not every boss is aware that they should be coaching their product people, helping build a great product culture, etc. This may be due to the company culture, the shortcomings of their own leadership training, or their own boss’s leadership style.
That’s the first challenge when managing up: You need to figure out how your boss sees their role. What do they think are the core parts of their job? Where do they see themselves adding value to the company?
If they haven’t mentioned some of the things from my list and if you’ve given them low ratings in those areas, then you’ve already identified some areas you can talk to them about.
Let me share some topics from my leadership coaching. For example:
Leaders often don’t have clear expectations for their product people (whether it’s product managers or designers, they’re lacking a definition of what a competent, good product person looks like). I always encourage leaders to create their “definition of good,” and you can read more about this topic here.
Leaders don’t have directional clarity to help guide their organization. Or if they have it, it takes me an hour-long coaching session to understand it, which means the format is not digestible, precise, or by any means helpful.
Leaders are often lacking product strategy, or they have one that is insufficient for guiding their teams.
Even if leaders have a product strategy, it’s not one that’s aligned or agreed upon with others outside the product organization or used in decision-making.
At this stage, you may be thinking, Petra, how do I get my boss to realize that their job is to do XYZ and then actually push them to do these things, like support me in my personal development, help me identify my own skill gaps, help me learn new things, or realize the strategy needs more work and then actually create a new strategy, share it, and take action based on it?
That’s what we’ll be covering in the next post in this series, where we’ll be looking at a specific example and some of my tips and tricks to help you manage your boss in this situation.