Why More Product Managers Are Burning Out Now
And what can be done about it
I’ve got the privilege to be connected with many Product Managers (PMs) throughout these years, and here’s something I learned from my conversations with them: we all have gone through some form of burnouts as a Product Manager.
In today’s article, I’m collaborating with Jeremy Ang, Global Strategy Director @ ByteDance to share our thoughts on the top reasons for PMs burning out, and actionable steps that can be taken to mitigate them.
To start with, here are some symptoms of burning out:
• Inability to focus
• Withdrawing/isolating yourself from your usual activity or social circle
• Increasing frequency in instant gratification behaviours, or constantly seeking dopamine hits (E.g., consuming sugary food, caffeine, alcohol/nicotine substance, non-objective social media scrolling, online retail therapy, gaming)
• Difficulty in falling asleep
• Lack of quality sleep (clocking in 6–8 hours of sleep but waking up feeling groggy and lethargic)
If you could resonate with at least one or more of the above symptoms, chances are you’re actually burned out. (Bonus: You might also want to check out this great article on burnout published by Heathline.com.)
Before we delve into what can be done, let’s explore why PMs are burning out.
Top reasons for PMs burning out
These are the non-exhaustive list of reasons:
Decision overload
PMs define strategies, roadmaps, product requirements and backlogs for the teams to execute on. These responsibilities demand PMs to make well informed and data driven decisions. In reality, it’s very common for PMs to base their decisions on intuition rather than data as they struggle to find data to back their decision making.
Excessive context switching
From stakeholder alignments, sprint ceremonies, user acceptance test, design reviews, to product discoveries, there are endless tasks piling up for PMs to execute on a daily basis. Also, not to mention the scary amount of unread emails and slack mentions when we just start our day.
Breakdown of communication
Product teams may have difficulty communicating or connecting with one another. This is especially true when teams are located remote cross locations.
Lack of empowerment
PMs may not be equipped to make decisions, access the resources they need, or dictate their focus. For top-down heavy organizations, the decisions made at the top could also shove priorities down at working level.
Insufficient reward
PMs often don’t receive adequate extrinsic or intrinsic recognition in exchange for their hard work.
Lack of fairness
Success in the organization could be driven more by visibility, relationships and favouritism than by performance; PMs often are not on even footing.
Imposter syndrome
Feeling like a fraud adds weight to mental burnout. It is also a vicious cycle — low self-esteem may demotivate one to engage in work related activities, which reinforces Imposter Syndrome.
Possible Mitigating Steps (and Tools)
• Be more data driven
PMs can consider using data tools like UBA and A/B Testing to prevent decision paralysis.
Companies like BytePlus (Bytedance) , Amplitude and Mixpanel now offer advanced products to help PMs make data driven decisions for changes in their products.
Bytedance (parent company of TikTok) for an example, is a major believer in A/B testing and carries out more than 7,000 experiments on a daily basis across all their mobile applications. These tests help PMs accurately decide what and how to optimize products for user retention and monetization, to enable many of its businesses super-scale over the last few years.
• Ruthless prioritisation for self
I particularly like the LNO framework popularized by Shreyas Doshi. The LNO framework provides PMs a guide on how to seek leverage to do the work that has 10x value or impact. Aakash Gupta, Group PM at Affirm, wrote a detailed guide on his newsletter Product Growth on how you can apply the LNO framework for yourself
• Be very open to talk to your manager
Having a strong relationship with your manager is of the utmost importance in growing your career. When you’ve built trust with your manager, you’re more open to share your thoughts and ask questions. Will Lawrence, a PM at Paxos, has written a guide on how to ‘manage up’ really well.
• Participate in a product communities, or have regular discussions with a mentor
I’m personally a member and mentor at mentormesh.io, Product Management SG (based in Singapore), and a premium subscriber of Lenny’s Newsletter. With the plethora of resources and support in these communities, you won’t feel alone in your PM journey. Some other mentorship networks include: adplist, mentorcruise.
• Reduce context switching
Google ‘context switching’ and there will be tons of productivity tools/hacks on how to improve focus and prevent context switching (e.g., Pomodoro technique).
My personal favourite is to allocate uninterrupted ~90 minutes of deep focus work for 2 - 3 times a day, if possible. Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist at the Stanford University School of Medicine, has suggested in his Huberman Lab podcast episode: Focus Toolkit, that the ideal length of each focus work cycle is about 90 minutes or less, and this is based on how our brain and body operate each day with 90 minute ultradian cycles.
• Improve focus and motivation by having healthy dopamine levels
If you find yourself blindly scrolling social media platforms, or consuming way above average caffeine/alcohol/nicotine substances, it’s time to take action to regulate your dopamine levels.
• Seek professional help
Always seek professional help when in need. Once a psychiatrist in Singapore told me that he wished more people were taking medical leaves simply for their mental health. Taking a short break to recharge is extremely essential, especially for PMs.
Personally, I’m very proud, and thankful to PayPal that the company has Wellness as one of the 4 PayPal core values. Everyone across all levels preaches the same core values at work. From employee benefits point of view, employees in PayPal Singapore are provided with free counselling sessions by top local counselling centers. Since the pandemic started, we’re also awarded with Global Wellness Days once every quarter to make space for whatever rejuvenates us and brings us joy.
Recap
Awareness - Be aware of the symptoms and ask yourself if you’re burning out.
Identifying the ‘why’ - Figure out the root causes.
Mitigation - Apply mitigation steps where necessary.
Burning out is a serious issue, and it’s important to identify early to prevent compounding issues later on.
I hope this article has been helpful. Do reach out to me on LinkedIn if you have any feedbacks, ideas, or stories to share.
Special shoutout to my buddy Amir Eltahan for proofreading this article.
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Great article! Burnout is real - good job! The big one for me I context switching.