Gut feelings

You: “I want to share some feedback. You are not providing the team with enough clarity, and I have to step in and make corrections too often”.

Product manager: “Yes I think it is confusing for the team. Shall I remove you from the alignment calls?”

You: “No, that is not the issue. I do not want to keep telling you what to do”.

This was not how you wanted the conversation to go.

You had a gut feeling a few weeks back. The team was producing below their capacity, and the product manager either did not see this, or did not know what to do about it.

You had two options: look for evidence to determine if your gut feeling was correct, or have a conversation with the product manager about your assessment.

You chose the first option. 

Fast forward a few weeks. Nothing has changed, and you have not seen any signs that your gut feeling was wrong. So you are having the difficult conversation. But you are not sure anymore if the issue is with the team, or the product manager. 

How can you recover the situation - without ignoring your gut feeling?

You: “Let us pause for a moment. I just realised that I have not been completely transparent with you here. I made an assessment a while back that the team is producing below their capacity. What’s your take on that?”

Product manager: “I am happy you asked me this…”

Be sensitive to your gut feelings, but avoid jumping to conclusions. Think of a gut feeling as a hypothesis. Trust your team to help with the validation.