Building Together: Best Practices for PMs Working with Engineers

Why should you constantly strive to better your relationship with Engineering?

SPEED.

Competitive advantages erode quickly. The only real differentiator is how fast you can ship value to customers.

To move fast, you and your engineers must be in sync. Your working relationship needs to be top-notch. Here’s how I foster that every day:

1. Learn their language — Understand the basics of coding, databases, and how software is built. This builds empathy and helps you gauge the complexity of requests—so you don’t make the arrogant mistake of saying, “This should be easy, right?”
   

2. Demand excellence from them and they’ll demand it from you. — You can’t expect high-quality execution if your problem definitions and requirements are weak. Clearly define scope, solutions, and edge cases. You won’t have all the answers, but engineers will quickly notice if you’re not putting in the effort. Be the kind of PM who gets sh*t done.
   

3. Own your mistakes — Too many PMs act like they never mess up. Create a culture of owning your mistakes, even when it’s only partially your mistake. You’ll be shocked at the loyalty that this creates.
   

4. Never be the bottleneck — If you are this could mean one of two things.
   A) You’ve got too large of a team or
   B) You’re not working hard enough.
   

5. Involve them in Product discovery & design — Get design input from them often, especially to get input on how much certain designs can add complexity. While they may not be THE user, the are often a user!
   

6. Recognize Consistently — Everyone wants to be recognized for their work (even if they say they don’t). Publicly praise engineers via company platforms, newsletters, or internal channels. Help other teams see their impact.
   

7. Celebrate together — The best engineers want to know the impact their contributions are making. Find ways to share internal metrics and big company wins that have resulted from their efforts. Everyone loves to win - make sure they feel it.
   

8. Always maintain the partnership — Product and Engineering should aim to serve each other, not just be served. When one side carries more of the load, the relationship breaks down.

A good relationship between Product and Engineering will have compounding results. The trust that is built overtime will enable your team to ship better, faster and quality product to your customers that will capture more and more value.

🚀 Speed is your only advantage