Person
You cannot manage others until you master the management of yourself.
- Self-management
- Personhood
- Emotional regulation
- Neutral thinking
About
An analytical, systems thinker and multiplier who leads themselves and stewards their team and their product.
The product management stack is based on the principle that to grow products within a large organization and shepherd teams sustainably, personal development, diagnostic analysis, and strategic thinking are all required. While being an expert in your product is valuable, we understand that promotability only comes after self-mastery and analytical acumen.
The Product Management Stack
People
To manage the decisions of people, you must know what they do, how they do it, and why they do it that way.
- Managing up
- Lateral collaboration
- Influencing without authority
- Building trust
Product
Product is not hard. With frameworks, it's masterable.
- Systems-level thinking
- Business strategy
- Advanced data interpretation and connecting disparate data points
- Strategic decision-making and trade-off analysis
Our founder's story
How the framework was earned
I kicked off my career in tech through a two-year Associate Product Management program at Indeed.com. I chose Indeed for its data-driven and experimentation culture. My first product was a massive, global design system implementation. I ran 30 different variables and over 60 A/B and multi-variate tests. The opportunity built my analytical acumen, refined my natural inclination for diagnostic analysis, and set me on a trajectory for more strategic leadership.
In year two, I replaced a senior product manager and independently led a team of 12 engineers, 2 designers, and 3 QA. I made go/no-go consultative decisions for product teams outside of my own core team. I was responsible and accountable for significant work, and it paid off indirectly: I built a reputation for strategic thinking and sound leadership through crises.
That led me to a unique strategic role as an NLP and Search Product Manager owning Query Understanding and Platform. There, I led a team of 8 engineers, 3 linguists, 4 taxonomists, a data scientist, and a product scientist across Tokyo and the US. I built the overall team strategy and drove the hiring of team members to support the areas I carved out.
After a sponsor shared that my strengths lay in strategy and leadership — and that I had a knack for simplifying complexity — I transitioned to a role in Corporate Development that took advantage of my skillset as a strategic, savvy, cross-organizational leader with an uncanny ability to grow things outside of their existing boundaries.
The Original Full-Stack Product Manager
FSPM is a leadership and commercialization framework based on self-agency, emotional management, effective collaboration, and generating outcomes using data and strategy. Here's how I've shown up in my career as FSPM.
- I created people management expectations for people managers in product and influenced the VP of Product to have them included in our Performance Management rubric
- I was trusted to help hire Senior PMs and Directors before I was at the PM level
- I practiced self-efficacy amidst changing management and team structures
- I increased my team scope and sourced new work for my developers when morale was low
- I built a feedback framework called SABINS and leveraged it to build trust and rapport with my cross-functional partners
- I sourced my own mentors and built an execution framework leveraging their insights, rather than relying on managers to progress my learning
Frequently Asked Questions
This is where we answer all your questions. Have a different one? Our team will answer it — we ensure a quick response.
Why isn't the entire stack about product execution skills, similar to engineering?
Engineers and product managers have distinct skillsets. An engineering skillset is binary — the code is either good or bad, operable or inoperable. Product isn't so. Success in the role is driven by how satisfied people are with how you think, how fast you think, and what you think. In some instances it's about what you believe and how you work, irrespective of quality. In a nutshell, it's nuanced — and that nuance requires whole-person development rather than confined hard-skill development.
How did you define the 3 Ps?
Through lived experience. Product came naturally to us, but we weren't being promoted. Relationships strengthened, company awareness of our work increased, and we saw our performance ratings go up. However, we weren't promoted until people felt they could trust that we knew who we were and could show up consistently in any room, with any exec or stakeholder, the same way. When an unwavering sense of self was developed, we were perceived as more reliable and therefore endorseable for promotion. The people and person components of product are the missing pieces for most PMs. Our goal is to contextualize them and provide the resources to bridge the gap to promotion and enable a sustainable career in product.
How do I get involved?
Book an intro call with us and tell us what you're looking for — a live cohort, an externship, or enterprise training for your team.
How can I book FSPM as a consultant?
Book an intro call and mention consulting. We'll scope the engagement with you on the call.
Ready to build your stack?
Start with the APM training program, or reach out about a cohort for your team.