How Fast Do Product Managers Learn and Grow

So, what factors into the need for product teams to adapt the Growth Minset? Three out of four product managers have been in their roles for two years or less. Additionally, many product managers often find themselves operating more like order takers who are building what sales or engineering has demanded. Too many product leaders struggle to mentor their people given the demands of their role. On top of that, talented product managers leave for organizations with top-performing product cultures.

The Cost of a Fixed Mindset

We’ll get into what the Growth Mindset is in a moment. The opposite of it is a Fixed Mindset. This is when you’re stuck in your ways and not willing to learn from adversity. 

These challenges can lead to 30% failed product launches, lost engineering throughput, talent churn, and missed revenue in a typical business. Ineffective product management leads to ineffective products, which is a very costly situation leading to larger organizational problems.

So, how can we flip it and turn your product team into a competitive advantage for your organization?

Enter the Growth Mindset

Simply put, the Growth Mindset is all about seeing any challenge, obstacle or adversity as an opportunity for learning. 

It’s all about making each day better than the last and learning from any mistakes we’ve made along the way. The best product teams learn from the things that didn’t work and iterate and improve their products to avoid those issues in the future. 

So, Where Do Product Teams Stand Today on The Growth Mindset?

Many product managers and product leaders, by nature, are curious people. It’s what draws them to the role.

We were curious where PMs saw themselves in terms of having a Growth Mindset. So, we created an assessment to identify how product managers rank. We sent the assessment out to our entire email list and got an overwhelming response.

The Bountiful Group 

If the totals ranged from 60-80, that represented The Growth Mindset. We call this range the Bountiful Harvest group. The products you build should grow and flourish.

Nearly 70 percent of those who responded fall into the range of having a Growth Mindset. We’re proud of our network for ranking this highly, but can’t say we’re surprised. If you’re in product and already seeking out resources like Products That Count, you’ve probably got the Growth Mindset on full display.

The Budding Group

Anyone who answers totaled 50-59 is close and by learning about The Growth Mindset should be able to reach a more optimal level. This range is called the Budding Group. All the ingredients are there, but you just have a little more time until you’ll be fully ripe with the knowledge of the Growth Mindset.

16.07 percent are nearing the range of having a Growth Mindset. We believe in the Budding Group!

The Compost Group

A score of 49 or below represents a pretty strong Fixed Mindset. You’ll need to be really open to learning and growing and shifting how you approach your day to day life to improve, but it’s not impossible. This range is called the Compost Group, because it still has the power to fuel flourishing growth down the line.

14.29 percent of those who responded suffer from a Fixed Mindset.

How to Have a Growth Mindset

Here a few ways you can become a great product manager and work on nourishing a Growth Mindset:

1. Be open to identifying your gaps in knowledge. Nobody knows everything, as much as they might wish they did. Understanding where you’re weakest in is an actual strength. Especially when you’re willing to seek out others on your product team, or coaching or mentorship to help fill in those gaps in knowledge.
2. Embrace the process. The Growth Mindset isn’t about having all the answers today. It’s about constantly being in pursuit of them and finding new questions to be answered.
3. Open yourself up to feedback. Hearing from your boss that something wasn’t done correctly is seldom a great feeling. However, when you learn to reframe it as another opportunity to get better at what you do, it softens the blow and can even leave you feeling positive. You’re going to be better from having learned the lesson.
4. Seek out Personalized Product Mentorship. Learn all about the Growth Mindset and so much more when you or your product team invest in yourselves. Discover how you can help transform your product team into a competitive advantage.