I’ve been at Twitch for a year and already feel burned out. I’m getting a performance evaluation and am not meeting expectations as a PM. My boss can tell I’m working hard but not smart. How do you know if you’re cut out to be a PM or not? What other roles does a PM transition to? Should I just go to a less competitive industry/company? This is the second company that I’m probably going to get fired from.
Did you find any good mentorship from more senior PMs?
I did find one and he’s been helpful. It may be too late though.
Scrum master, dev manager, or project manager are easy outs for a PM who can't deliver.
OP if you don't like PMing, there's also TPM/project management too
I was able to deliver one feature that’s done super well. Another one is really promising (experiment results show that its effective) and have identified the 2018 roadmap that should help us meet our metrics. It’s the execution that’s burning me out. I worry going into a scrum master or a project manager role is shooting myself in the foot.
What did you do before? Are you more about planning/strategy?
I was in grad school and was in back office finance. My sibling is recommending that I work at a non tech company as a PM.
Non tech PM roles are available in your parent company - Amazon
Go for a role where the tech lead or a project/program manager does the day-to-day project management. I am the same way and I’m still a good PM. I can actually do project management amazingly well in small doses but it burns me out like nothing else. So I can swoop in to “rescue” and get a flailing project on right track within a week or two, or I can jump in to get something shipped and out the door, but I can’t handle project management on an ongoing basis. Each time I take it on I get great results but I need recovery time.
Being a PM is hard. Critical thinking, something you’ve noted as a weakness, is by far and large the most important skill for new PMs. If that’s not something you care to live and breath, I’d suggest you move to a tactical execution role.
Appreciate your frank reply. It definitely is hard to do with so many variables that come with it. It seems silly though. Can you be successful if you’re not a critical thinker in this world? Can you train to be a better critical thinker?
Sure you can become a better critical thinker. Deep dive on EVERYTHING, ALL the time. Explore alternatives, ask Why, and also ask Why Not. Challenge everything you know during every decision. It will not only make you a better PM but a better person in general.
Can you give an example where there was an issue with your critical thinking? Was the issue that you didn't foresee certain problems or your proposed solution was not well thought out?
I wouldn't let your Twitch experience faze you. The product team there is terrible and it's almost a badge of honor to get churned out of there.
Don’t give up. My first job out of grad school was maintaining a crappy legacy product at a hot Startup in Austin, and I left after a year with my confidence lower than before. But since then I’ve had several startup roles and now am doing the “big company” thing and it’s all varied. One experience doesn’t mark your trajectory. If something is toxic, you have a choice.
Appreciate the words of encouragement!
Sorry to hear that. Did they provide a reason for why you are not performing? Does it Align with what your other company said?
Yeah. They said that I don’t have subject matter expertise and am not thinking critically at the problems I’m trying to solve. I don’t believe I have the confidence from my team