Product Managers are under incredible pressure to deliver features quickly.

And that makes them underdeliver outcomes.

How do you make the most impact when you have no time to figure out what changes will be more impactful?

Here’s the pattern that traps Product Managers in a bad situation.

Teams are pressured to move faster.

When speed is the goal, the instinct is to rush everybody.

“We are not moving as quickly as we need. Why isn’t that team working faster? Maybe they’re the ones slowing us down.”

So everybody keeps frantically cranking out deliverables.

But faster results may require slowing down parts of the process.

To deliver results quickly, moving in the right direction matters more than moving fast.

Adding a quick validation step will keep work downstream from being wasted. But managers are afraid the downstream people will be idle.

The counterintuitive solution is that they should move more slowly.

You need trust.

The need to show progress all the time is trapping you.

You know how to do better but you’re not allowed. It’s a matter of trust.

The solution?

Negotiate the freedom you need to deliver a bigger impact over the next quarter. Let them know that you may seem to be moving more slowly at first. But promise that the KPIs will move further in the right direction.

Then deliver on your promise.

You’ll be less stressed and become a hero in the eyes of senior management.

Do you see a flaw in this reasoning? If so, please let me know in the comments.