“Founder mode” should not be controversial or scary for PMs. I’ll break down why.
Nobody cares more than the founder about their product or company.
Nobody — at least initially — has more power than the founder. They own the company and are usually the CEO.
In a formula it is like this:
Founder mode = Deep Care + Power
It is probably correct that the person who cares the most about the product’s success has the most say on the product, but with one caveat: Expertise. So:
Successful founders = Deep Care + High Power + High Expertise
(Define expertise broadly here: domain knowledge, market insight, design thinking, management and coaching, creativity, self-awareness, leadership, and so on.)
Where PMs fit
Most PMs operate with zero or minimal real power. But Deep Care is an absolutely necessary trait — not the only one — to be a great PM.
You cannot be a great PM without Deep Care.
Deep Care is:
- Agonising over details.
- Being concerned with anything that might affect your product’s success, internally or externally.
- Unwavering commitment to the product and business success.
- Perhaps an unhealthy obsession.
Now let’s look back at the friction between PM and Founder-Mode.
A PM will probably never care about the product as much as the founder. But they should still care very deeply.
A PM will never have as much power as the founder. But they should seek to build and use influence as much as possible.
However, a PM can — and actually should — become more expert than the founder in the product. The larger the company gets, the more necessary it becomes, and the easier it becomes, as founder attention is more broadly spread. Incidentally, they may also end up caring more about their product than the founder if it becomes a multi-product business.
The founder’s role in this
Tying back to founder expertise then, the core expertise needed here is the self-awareness to know when the PM has:
- Overtaken them in expertise, and
- Has sufficient Care to run that product and make it succeed.
Thanks to Jason Knight for helping stimulate this on a shared Slack group, which originated from Marty Cagan’s post on Founder-Style Leadership.