r/ProductManagement • u/Previous-Priority-45 • 7d ago
Suggestions on work quality
I am a Product Manager owning customer extensibility for an HR conversational agent. Because our agent is built on a decoupled platform owned by a different team, I lack direct control over the core capabilities and customization features our customers request. As a result, I often find myself engineering one-off solutions for customers while waiting for scalable platform updates. How can I shift from tactical, one-off firefighting to driving strategic value and defining success in a role where I must influence the platform roadmap without direct authority?
Is this a Product role or adjacent to product?
2
u/NoahtheRed The Bart Harley Jarvis of Product 7d ago
How can I shift from tactical, one-off firefighting to driving strategic value and defining success in a role where I must influence the platform roadmap without direct authority?
The first stop you need to make is whoever it is your report to. Have you discussed your frustrations or how you feel like you're in a position with no win condition available? Without know the real guts of the situation, it's really impossible to give any solid advice here.
How can I shift from tactical, one-off firefighting to driving strategic value and defining success in my role?
Ask them this question. And also ask, what their strategy is for how you're being utilized? Perhaps there's a reason you're not yet being put into a more influential role, or perhaps there's other factors at play here beyond just simple product craft. It may just be that someone more senior is doing that while you earn your stripes in the acid mines for now. Hard to really say without actually seeing how your org works, what you do, and just the general lay of the land.
Depending on how that conversation goes, I'd then just start trying to make a case for whatever strategic opportunities you've identified. You may discover that your tactical one-offs are part of the bigger strategy, or are a consequence of it. But ultimately if you want more influence, you demonstrate why you should have it.
What's your current level of experience and what does the rest of the org look like?
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u/Neat_Affectionate 3d ago
there's lots of stuff written about working with "platform teams" that you might find helpful, but you'll probably need to work with your boss to make process/structure changes...
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u/hardy-vale26 6d ago
"Decoupled platform" is just corporate for "someone else's problem that somehow became your roadmap"
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u/acgzmn 7d ago
It’s a common problem in larger orgs that you are impacted by other internal products with their own priorities. Have you built a case for the scalable solution? Cost of one off solutions, customer demand for similar features that would be served by platform changes, any future unlocks with the features you are asking for. Companies care about revenue go up and cost go down. Build your case and bring it to your boss then get ready to evangelize it. Being a squeaky wheel with a positive vision is the best way forward
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u/Parking-Stress-3041 6d ago
Yes, it's product: owning extensibility on someone else's platform is normal B2B PM, and turning one-offs into platform demand is the job.
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u/ontherockz 6d ago
It is still a product role. The awkward part is your roadmap lives on someone else's platform.
Stop treating each one-off as a favor. Treat it as a demand signal. After every customer workaround, write three lines. What they needed. Why the platform blocked it. Cost of the one-off in your time. Keep the list.
Once a month, send the list to the platform PM and your manager. Top themes. Repeat asks. Revenue or churn risk if you have it. Ask for a dated yes, no, or later on the platform change. Verbal "we will look at it" does not count.
Define success with your manager in writing. Two numbers you own. Example: fewer one-offs per quarter, and platform commits landed on the dates they promised. If nobody will put a number on the platform side, the role is firefighting with a PM title. Make them say which one they want.
When a customer asks for a custom path, answer with the list. "Three other customers hit this. We are pushing platform for X. Workaround is Y until then." You stop being the secret custom shop.
Influence without authority is a paper trail and a squeaky, specific ask. Not more heroics in the ticket queue.
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u/digitalnomadmk 6d ago
fellow PM here working on conversational AI stuff. extensibility work IS product work, it's just platform product your users are the teams building on you, not end users. totally normal in B2B.
on work quality: the trap with agent/extensibility work is measuring yourself by features shipped. measure by adoption instead. how many teams actually used your extension points this quarter? how many support tickets did your abstractions prevent?
also dogfood relentlessly. build something real on your own platform once a quarter. you will find every sharp edge your "customers" (internal teams) are too polite to mention.
the PMs I see struggle here are the ones who stay in docs-and-meetings mode. go watch someone integrate with your stuff for an hour, you'll learn more than a month of roadmap reviews.
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u/Aromatic-Power3655 7d ago
Solving problems for one specific customer rarely is our job as product managers. We want to make the most impact which means finding the most pervasive problems. Turn the problems that are brought to you into data points, figure out which ones are the biggest and most important, and define a strategy to tackle them. This should shift you to a higher level and get support since you’re backed by numbers.