working-with-pm

What problem does it solve?

Helps engineering managers diagnose and resolve friction with product managers so teams make better product decisions, avoid burnout, and align technical work with customer outcomes. It addresses common patterns where PMs or EMs act unilaterally, misunderstandings about ownership, manufactured urgency, and engineers being too distant from customers or usage data.

Core Features & Use Cases

• Relationship diagnosis: Quickly classify the PM–EM dynamic as PM-led, engineering-led, fake-balanced, or a true partnership and surface the main sources of friction.
• Actionable interventions: Provides the "It's Important to Me" card, a conversation script, escalation and boundary tactics, and an explicit responsibilities mapping exercise.
• Product-lens playbook: Concrete tips to get engineers closer to customers and usage data (launch vs. landing, session recordings, customer conversations) and ways to translate technical debt into business terms.
• Use case: Use when a manager reports "PM drives me crazy," when there's a roadmap disagreement, or when the team needs to become more product-oriented.

Quick Start

Ask the skill to diagnose and advise on your PM relationship by describing your role, team size, team mission, and a recent disagreement with your PM.