It's 2025 and well past the time to stop idolizing tech start-up / big tech culture. There's been a long-running myth that tech companies, especially start-ups, have the magical ingredients to innovation, from the visionary founder, the boundless devotion of an under 30 workforce, the 'secrets' to tapping emerging technologies and a "fail often and fast" culture of speed without accountability.
Arguably all companies require technology today and many have look to adopt "digital enablement best practices" to transform or accelerate their development. But it's important for the overall culture of the organization to recognize these toxins, and a key role to de-toxify is the product manager.
Why is the product person key to curing the culture? They sit at the intersection between the different parts of the business and the product team, often having to say “no,” and are responsible align the product vision with the company’s values. Here are 5 toxins, and how PM can address them:
Always On
I was part of a company in 1999, during the first dot com boom, where our leader taped an article on a common room wall that featured two twenty-somethings in a start-up sleeping under their desks, and wrote “This is our competition!” The message was clear, that we needed to have the same 24/7 sense of urgency in order to compete.
A way this toxin manifests is in the after hours messages on platforms such as Slack or Teams or worse, group text; asking for updates, sharing some new ideas, or simply stressing the urgency of the product development. These messages often come across as test to see who actually gets it: the so called need for the laser like focus that trumps all else.
Product Management Anti-Toxins:
If this is you, drop it 🙂. Model a behavior of disconnecting from work for the team. If this is coming from the top, model it there too, and be explicit about what the SLA is for you and for your team.
Establish the conditions for what is an “emergency” and what is “urgent,” and incorporate into a sustainable work cadence.
Make sure there is some slack in order to create resilience. So when something happens that must be fixed, it can be addressed without disrupting the work.
Breaking Things
An extreme example is a report that allegedly Elon Musk went around disconnecting servers when he first arrived at Twitter (now X.) The idea was that if the disconnected server didn’t bring down the service, then it probably wasn’t necessary.
There is a need for continuous discovery and experimentation in order to apply evidence to the product development life-cycle. But the idea of “moving fast” to see what breaks is lazy way around understanding the implications of the change, and avoiding accountability
Product Management Anti-Toxins:
Review your team’s Definition of Done (DoD) to consider impacts on user experience, accessibility, even ethical considerations.
Set metrics that account for other conditions than shipping fast.
Have a system for ongoing experimentation that prioritizes “getting it right” over “getting it out.”
Innovation Theater
Often an established company will look to be more innovative by play-acting what it perceives is done at start-ups and innovative tech companies, but without any means to follow through successfully. So called idea speeders and hack-a-thons without the structure, culture and the true desire to innovate (not just look the part) can lead to disenfranchisement of that very talent it was meant to encourage and activate.
Product Management Anti-Toxins:
Avoid side projects and establish a sustainable process for capturing and evaluating ideas large and small, and integrates into the product development life cycle.
Make sure you have included change management into your process. Many ideas die on deployment simply because the conditions for their success weren’t thought-through and created.
Track and measure innovation impact including adoption, retention and revenue
Shiny Objects and K2s
New technologies are often the catalysts for innovation, their application is not always clear without experimentation. However, they can also be mirages in search of a problem to solve. This can lead often to building something simply because we can. This can be particularly tempting when catchy jargon and a lemming mentality are applied. (I’m looking at you Web3!)
Product Management Anti-Toxins:
Allow for slack in your product team, especially the engineers, to experiment, prototype, and generally “scratch the itch” of wanting to understand the new tech. But keep it within the process of innovation with empiricism, and test how it might benefit your product.
Be suspicious of what may come across as a “gold rush” mentality. Often the money is not in the actual “gold,” but in selling the picks and axes.
Reality Distortion Field
It was said that Steve Jobs could create a “reality distortion field” and convince people that was hard or impossible was doable. I once worked for a man that I describe as “Steve Jobs, but without the talent.” He applied the bullying to get things done his way over listening to reason. Sometimes the field follows those that play the “visionary” part, making unfounded predictions. And they can often show up in the room as the HiPPo in the room (Highest Paid Person). The main problem with the reality distortion field is that it is used in the absence, or to counter the presence, of evidence and empiricism.
Product Management Anti-Toxins:
It’s not easy dealing with the field, and you may have to apply your PM diplomatic skills, but keeping to evidence based management is the best antidote.
Reinforce that innovation is a team sport and facilitate cross-functional brainstorming and collaborative behaviors.
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