Deb Liu

Some of the best PMs I have ever worked with are terrible PMs for their career. They just drift from job to job. But if I said you had to write a spec for your career, what does success look like? How are you going to get there?

The most important career decision you make is who you marry. You will have a much more successful career if your home life is in balance. It's like a yin and a yang.

Someone who's always learning is always going to exceed someone who's the expert today. You can have the most impact, the job you know the best, but then you stop learning. And if you're learning all the time, you're not necessarily having impact.

You don't have to know how to write this spec or PRD or briefings, but instead show your passion around the product itself, around the use case, around the customer. Show who you are and why you care. You have to be able to fall in love with the problem.

You are your own best marketer. If a great product is out in the world, but no one is told about it, did it exist? It's not just having the product, it's having great product marketing to go with it.

I wouldn't want to do that because it's self-promotion. But instead, what if I called it educating about all the great work your team has been doing? Helping people see why your team should get more resources, you have to actually share what you do.

If you think your self-review is self-promotion, you're just not going to do a great job at it. What if I called it educating your manager about all the great work your team has been doing?