Your success depends entirely on people who think you're probably unnecessary.
Working with developers is like collaborating with highly intelligent wizards. They're powerful, principled, peculiar, sometimes problematic, and prone to casting their own spells if left unsupervised. Let's get this out of the way right now. Your product's success hinges entirely on your relationships and what you can do to get the best out of them.
Developers are naturally suspicious of PMs, which is fair enough. They've probably seen a few who failed spectacularly, who couldn't communicate properly, or who dismissed technical concerns like they were minor inconveniences. So you need to earn their trust.
Here's what most PMs probably miss. Even though they're wary of you, they actually want guidance. Sure, if they don't trust you, they'll be vocal about having input on all major product decisions. But honestly, giving them that burden even under those circumstances is a bit unfair. They want leaders with confidence who can lift that decision-making weight, whether they'll admit it or not.
Most developers could not care about business drivers, juggling conflicting priorities, or the soft skills that engineers rarely have. They just want someone who can make those calls confidently, so they can focus on what they do best.
Your relationship with Engineering makes or breaks everything. This chapter teaches you how to decode developer personalities and motivations, translate their estimates into reality, and earn their trust even when they're testing you. Because when you really earn their trust, they'll not only build what you ask for, they'll deliver beyond what you thought possible.
The developer personality field guide - From The Soldier to Captain Grumpy to The Superstar, learn how to recognise eleven distinct developer types and how to work with them
The psychology of estimates - How to decode what they're really telling you
The Elastic User problem - How to be the consistent voice of the real customer
Feed their love for problem-solving - How to give them creative challenges with boundaries
When developers challenge your decisions - How to demonstrate what PM brings to the table without getting defensive or losing the room
The Product Manual gives you the complete survival guide across every PM challenge: building a plan, stakeholder management, saying no, working with developers, validation, launches, and all the messy reality between theory and practice.
360 pages. No fluff. Just what actually works when you're in the trenches.
Written for PMs with 0-3 years of experience who need answers that work in the real world.