Netease project management expert Lei Beibei, combined with ten years of practical experience in Internet projects, disclosed for the first time a lot of dry goods in the past years. What is the core problem for project managers to solve if they want to go smoothly on the way to promotion and salary increase? Is how to enhance their core competitiveness, that is, rise “value”. Only when their own value is more and more reflected, can they get better development.
Product and project managers in the Internet industry
In traditional industries, product manager and project manager are mostly concurrent roles, but in the Internet industry is rarely seen, why? We say that the process of Internet product exploration is like searching for unknown treasure in a vast ocean, which will face a lot of complexity and uncertainty. In the Internet industry, to do these two things well, they must develop some very opposite ways of thinking.
Once in get to read a paragraph, said that is, the more self of the people, the more suitable for product manager. Because Internet product managers need to find a sense of direction in the midst of chaos. It is important to note that this process of finding direction is not a one-time process, it is a long perceptual process. In this process, he needs to fully immerse himself in the user’s scene, maintain a high degree of sensitivity and concentration, and at the same time to say some intuitive things that he is not clear, to be different from ordinary people’s insistence. This trait, expressed in the outside world, will appear very ego. Some excellent product managers around me will have such characteristics. They are more self-conscious, and as a result, they may not care so much about other people’s feelings, and sometimes even seem emotional.
At the same time, Internet project managers who want to do well must possess some of the exact opposite characteristics of thinking. Because it takes more discipline than ego to get the team to work together at times on this transformative journey of discovery. The project manager has a strong collective consciousness, to know what position and mentality everyone is in in this process, what way we can better cooperate, whether the whole ship is on the right road, what is the right way to do things.
Product managers do the right thing, project managers do the right thing. The greatest test of a product manager is to maintain a sense of direction in chaos, while the core ability of a project manager is to integrate in a complex environment.
Product managers and project managers in the Internet industry are very close partners. These two roles belong to different departments, one in business department and the other in horizontal department. For example, in netease, it is project management department. In fact, there is no subordinate relationship between them, so it is easier for two people to balance each other and produce joint force. In the process of colliding with each other, they will also infiltrate each other and look at problems from different perspectives. It is true that a person can be trained to switch between these two different ways of thinking, but it is very difficult to wear two hats in a complex environment, and if the two forces are not integrated, they will become very disconnected.
In general, product managers are responsible for doing the right thing, and project managers are responsible for doing the right thing. The biggest test for a product manager is to maintain a sense of direction in chaos, while the core ability of a project manager is to integrate various forces in a complex environment and move forward together.
There are three levels of project manager growth
The job of Internet project manager, as long as you really dive into it, is actually very training. We have seen that two people with the same conditions, one went to work as a project manager, the other went to work as a RESEARCH and development function, after two years, their comprehensive quality is very different. Because in a project manager position, you can get the big picture, the growth of non-authority leadership across boundaries, far more than in any other function.
Combined with the practice of netease, we look at the growth of a project manager and summarize the following three levels.
The first layer:
1. Role positioning
When a project manager enters a new team, you can clearly see the boundaries that are everywhere. These boundaries occur mainly at the boundary between functions and functions. Although each role and function are complete, but connected together, from the point of view of the system chain, fracture is very obvious, it is difficult to carry out the work smoothly. These joints are prone to problems, creating potholes that everyone avoids. At this time, the role of the project manager is just like “Nu Wa patching up the sky”. You need to use your physical body to fill up these holes and become the connecting force that crosses the boundary.
To be the back of the Pot is the starting point of every Internet project manager. No matter you are a novice or a senior manager, you need to start from here, because the fracture of these boundaries leads to the failure of the team as a whole, and the overall goal cannot be achieved naturally. As a project manager, if you want to move the whole project forward, you need to learn these things by heart. This is the most important task in the first year. This task is not easy to do, it requires solid training, when I transferred from a functional post, I was basically in a state of anxiety, because I saw so many boundaries so many divisions, but I could not integrate them, so the first year was very hard.
Before on the Internet to see a joke, said that if a task make you special anxiety, pressure to your breath, the best comfort is just do it, what all regardless of strength to do, only to promote, so each development progress, you reduce your anxiety, the less you worry at the same time, promote much sooner, just bite the bullet kept on, There will always be a day of relief.
When we shared this joke among our project managers, we all felt deeply, because there are too many such things, no one is willing to follow up, but in fact, doing these things will really let us get a great exercise and growth. In the end, instead of worrying and suffering endlessly, just yell “fuck it” and push with your eyes open, and you’ll find new breakthroughs in the process.
This paragraph, is really in the first phase of the project manager’s true portrayal, mentality is a test. At this stage, the project manager needs to be connected to the world, with the authorization of the general manager for the UPPER PM, which is relatively better, while for the lower PM, it needs a long time of accumulation. In trivial work, he needs to get along with the frontline and win the trust of the team bit by bit.
2. Professional skills
At this stage, solid basic skills are very important in terms of professional skills.
3. Room for growth
About 50% of project managers rush to move up in the first phase without laying a solid foundation. We recommend that you go through the first phase for at least a year before you really realize what is sweet without sweat. There are also some mistakes in this stage. What are the mistakes most people fall into?
First, as a firefighter fighting fires everywhere, you will find that your own value is not significantly improved in this process, and many people may be confused and panic, but in fact, this is a good signal to remind you that you should think whether you have reached a point of growth; The second myth is that you keep using your body to fix the hole, and the hole gets bigger and bigger and you have to stay there and continue to take responsibility, which is not good for the team in the long run. Third, we say that the project manager should be on the ground, but if the relationship between the upper and the lower is not handled well, it is easy to suffer from the sandwich, thankless.
Of course, these growth Spaces also bring opportunities to us. Project managers who have truly experienced this test will surely usher in a period of higher sense of achievement and step into the second layer.
The second layer:
1. Role positioning
On the second floor, the project manager became an overpass connecting all directions, and finally realized what the core hub is. The work efficiency of the project is significantly improved, and people’s dependence on you will gradually increase. Many things must be promoted by you, and others can’t do it. This is really a time when you will become a god-like being who has the right to speak on the top and the masses on the bottom. You will be inseparable from the top and the bottom, and you will gain a great sense of accomplishment and superiority.
2. Professional skills
At this level, fewer routines are needed. In the face of increasingly complex environment, chaos is not clear, our direction and goal is no longer a single, but dynamic and multiple variable play more and more can’t meet the need, we need to learn to flexible, flexibly to look at the change of the target, an adaptive adjustment team’s pace, treat mechanism cannot conformism, but in the present environment to do the best fit.
3. Room for growth
In fact, many project managers stay in this stage for the rest of their career, because this stage is a relatively comfortable period, if not really take the project management professional line, he is likely to stop here, or to develop into other roles.
What are the problems that are easy to fall into at this stage? The first is doing more than you’re supposed to in order to feel needed, which leads to burnout. Second, you will easily become the bottleneck and risk of the team, because the team cannot live without you. If the overpass is broken, the whole team will be paralyzed, which increases the vulnerability of the system virtually. In the long run, the team will become more and more degraded. If you feel your limitations, then you need to move on.
The third layer:
1. Role positioning
What’s the next floor up? According to practice and exploration, we find that the project manager will have some changes in his own positioning, stepping out of the original boundary, began to pay attention to the whole system, with a global awareness. Like a gardener or coach, the project manager realizes that the best way to make the system work is to improve the team’s ability to manage itself.
2. Professional skills
How to cultivate team self-management ability? We have also summarized a lot of experience in the actual practice. The following is a case of agile transformation for a product department. Different from directly engaging in project management, we will train some students with project management potential into Scrum masters in a planned and orderly way. From one-day start-up to one-week observation, from demonstration in the first month, to escort in the second month, to nursing for three months, and finally to long-term support and companionship as a consultant.
Throughout the process, Scrum masters are brought together to do occasional public class sharing sessions, and informally every two weeks to share their own difficulties and system issues across the environment.
Self-management in a team with a mature transformation mechanism brings great productivity liberation. Through self-management, people’s autonomy has been greatly improved and their enthusiasm has never been higher.
3. Room for growth
At the third level, you see the team as a system or whole, and you think about how the team can develop better. This is when you need to measure the relationship between your personal growth and the growth rate of your team. If your team is growing faster than you are, then you are a bottleneck because the team is self-managing and growing, and you need to let the team grow on its own. You have to believe that even if you let go, you can find your irreplaceable value in this model.
What are the problems that are easy to fall into at this stage? Let others stand on the stage, it means that their own sense of existence decline, the stars no longer revolve around you, you need to learn to adjust themselves, do not let “empty lonely cold” become an obstacle to your progress. To achieve further progress, you have to learn to let go, and strive to find the next higher mountain, continue to refine your core competencies, to exert more self-value on a broader level.
What is PM’s core competence?
Finally, let’s return to PM’s core competencies. Looking into the future, PM’s ability will go in two directions: one is that it will be replaced by some standardized and instrumentalized things, which is the general trend. Some original processes will be instrumentalized through standardization; The other direction is the ability of cross-border integration and connection, including the ability of individuals, teams and organizations to make cross-border connection and resource integration, unite different stakeholders to jointly achieve dynamic goals and complete integration across larger boundaries. This part of ability will be very scarce in the future.
An idea three levels above
If you stay aggressive, at every level, we get some transformation, open bigger doors, see bigger landscapes. If you continue on the professional path, what will be above the three levels? I think there’s probably no right answer to that question. In three layer above, you will have more wide field of vision, from a single project management of the project, you can go to the project management, from multiple projects, you can go to the project and project between the part of an “empty”, think about how to build mechanism from the organizational level and cultivate the soil, all of them have a benign development environment.
In our project management department, there are many project manager after a year or two and exercise, found out the direction of the other more suitable and opportunities, products, operations or business other jobs such as transformation, he in positions to get a comprehensive project management exercise, this experience made him have a global thinking, made him more clearly what you’re good at.
Each layer is the scenery, not necessarily the highest level is the most suitable for you; On the growth path of project manager, as long as you clear and master the role positioning and professional skills at each stage, you can see different scenery and harvest different fruits at each stage, and achieve perfect promotion, salary increase and self-breakthrough.
Role positioning and professional skills, you can see different scenery at each stage, harvest different fruits, perfect to achieve promotion and salary increase and self-breakthrough.
Author: Lei Beibei, netease project management expert, CSM, PMP. ScrumGathering conference, Agile China, Top100 Summit, AgileTour Conference lecturer. During more than nine years in netease, I have been responsible for project management of cloud storage, light blog, cloud computing, cloud reading, comics, education, aesthetics and other products. I have rich practical experience in cross-department communication and cooperation, building an efficient RESEARCH and development team, and organizing agile transformation. One of the main authors of One Thousand and One Nights of netease.