Lessons from a PM: The time I had to say “no” to my boss

The most important milestone between a junior and senior product manager is the first time they say “no” to their boss.

We all know that product managers need to be able to say “no,” but few of us know just how uncomfortable that can be especially when it’s to someone who signs your paycheck.

But think about it, if they wanted more of the same results they’ve been getting, they’d hire a “yes” man (or woman). Instead, they hired you because they feel you could do the job and bring something new to the table. By definition, that means they expect you’ll have to say “no” every now and then.

Early on in my career, my manager asked me to do a bit of market research and validate some assumptions with our customers. I did so and presented the results on our next 1:1. He soon asked me to take lead on an initiative inspired from that data, which I believed to be the wrong decision.

At this point of my career, I have said “no” before, but never to an entire initiative, let alone one from my manager. Despite my mind and body saying otherwise, the first words out of my mouth were, “I’m not sure about this, are you sure?”

Now, call it luck, but my manager looked back at me and asked “What do you mean?” In response, I told him my perspective of the data.

“You know, you bring up a good point. Maybe this isn’t the right approach. What do you think we should do?”

When I look back on that moment, two things stuck with me years later:

(1) I was lucky to have a manager that was open to opposing perspectives. Many people face not-so-welcoming managers which make saying “no” much more of a challenge than it should be. That’s not so good for people early on in their careers.

(2) Saying “no” (or any variation of it) is the first step to validating whether or not a proposed decision is in fact the right one to make or not. That initial “no” can be the difference between happy customers or weeks of wasted time.

Whether or not you’re a product manager, know that being able to say “no” is an important milestone to becoming a better decision maker. It doesn’t need to be flat out opposition; at the end of the day, it’s being able to challenge things that matters.