This document discusses how to build a sustainable career in product management through applying human-centered design principles. It recommends starting with empathy for yourself by understanding your values and goals. When problems arise, it's important to reframe them into actionable issues and find solutions. Building resilience, prioritizing relationships over just products, and practicing self-compassion can help prevent burnout. Overall, focusing on happiness and well-being at work is key to a sustainable PM career.

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6. Designing A Sustainable PM Career
Billy Xia, Product Manager at Meta

7. A B O U T M E
Past life: Management
Consulting
Liberal Arts & Science +
Business education
Now: Software PM
Video integrity &
recommendations
Advertiser brand safety
Creator monetization
platform

8. Sustainable: being able to continue over a period of time
2.
1.
How do you apply human-centered design to
your PM career
Why does it matter?
3. What tools and techniques can you use?

9. WHAT ARE THE SIGNALS THAT YOUR JOB IS NOT SUSTAINABLE?
● Lack of motivation to show up
● Feeling of void and emptiness
● Feeling of exhaustion and depletion easily
● Irritability
● Sense of helplessness
● Feeling of getting stuck at your project and task constantly
● Thinking of quitting constantly
● Insomnia

10. Burnout is more common than you think
Languishing is real
Our overall well-being is tied to our happiness at work
WHY DOES IT MATTER?
77% of respondents say that they have experienced burnout at their
current job. Nearly 50% of millennials say that hey have left a job
because they felt burned out
The absence of feeling good about your life. We are not functioning at our
full capacity and it affects our ability to focus and find motivation
Unemployment results in a 20% decrease in overall happiness and
well-being

11. 75% products fail - just like
companies
There is always not enough
time nor people
Many & messy cross-functional
partners
Something is always on fire

12. Resilience gives you the ability to
rebound and recover from setbacks,
challenges, and failures that you’ll
inevitably run into as a PM.
And happiness at work makes you, well,
happy. And who wants the PM job as a
torture? The job is hard enough so we
might as well enjoy the ride. :)
Resilience and joy are the biggest indicators of productivity and retention at work.

13. APPLYING HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN TO YOUR PM CAREER
“Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that
draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the
possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success”
TIM BROWN, EXECUTIVE CHAIR OF IDEO

14. STEP 1: EMPATHIZING WITH YOURSELF
YOU
Put yourself at the center of your PM career. In order to make sure we know
where to go, we need to building empathy for ourselves, by understanding
ourselves, better
What motivates you?
What matters most to you?
What are you optimizing for in your career,
now? In 5 years?
What are your values?
How do you measure success at work?
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

15. STEP 2: DEFINING THE PROBLEM
So… what is your problem?
Gravity problem
“The company has become so big that it can
no longer move as fast as it used to be”
Actionable problem
“I’m feeling stuck and stagnated at my
current role.”
ACCEPT & WORK AROUND IT REFRAME & TRY STUFF

16. STEP 2: GETTING TO THE RIGHT PROBLEM
Problem: I’m feeling stuck and stagnated at my current role
Situation: I’m not learning and growing enough on my job.
(Underlying situation: I enjoy learning new things because I’m just a
very curious person in nature )
Action problem: I’m not growing
because I spend all my time on
project mgmt. How might I free up
myself so that I have time to learn?
Action problem: I’m not growing
enough because the product is too
mature. How might I find
opportunities to grow myself?
Doable Option: Let your senior
Engineer or hire a Project
Manager / TPM to take over
project mgmt. responsibilities
Doable Option: Find
opportunities to do a hackathon
with a different team
What’s going on, really?
Remodel Reinvent
Action problem: I’m not
growing enough. But it's good
enough for now. How might I
reorient my need for learning /
trying new things elsewhere
else?
Reframe
Doable Option: Finally have
time for that Spanish class?

18. THE POWER OF REFRAMING
Reframing is about change in perspectives and how you re-organize your perception of a situation. It is not about
just looking at the positive side of things or renaming a bad problem.
It is good enough, for now!
It sucks!
How
● Acknowledge what you have achieved out of your current situation
● You are your own boss and owner of your career. Take control of what you can change
● What advice would you give to yourself if it’s your friend in your shoes?

19. 1. THE POWER OF REFRAMING
Problem: I’m feeling stuck and stagnated at my current role
Situation: I’m not learning and growing enough on my job.
But I’m also finally in a stable relationship and we are in the
middle of a global pandemic that seemingly has no end.
(Underlying situation: My current priority in life is to allow me to
provide support and stability to my family and my life)
What’s going on,
really?
Reframe: it is good enough, for now!
Action problem: I’m not learning enough at the job. But I
like the comfort and stability that comes with it. How
might I find opportunities to learn and expand outside of
work?

20. WHAT DID I LEARN?
I learned how to make homemade boba, among other things

21. 2. LEARN WHEN TO ACCEPT AND MOVE ON
● You are not superheroes or magicians. Don’t act
like one. There are things that you cannot achieve,
no matter how good you are
● You will likely fail and make mistakes at some
point. So will your team and your teammates
● You can only control what you can control and let
go of those you cannot
● Don't fall into the trap of gritting it out - sometimes the
best option is to leave. Ask yourself questions to define
who you are in the design process

22. 3. BE CAREFULOF THE “GOOD BUSY”
● Check in with yourself on your values,
priorities, and goals
● Set boundaries, prioritize, and delegate
● If you are on an exciting and important
project, timebox it and allow yourself some
down time to recharge

23. 4. FOCUS ON BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
Don’t just build products. Build relationships.
● Forced personal updates and check-ins
before meetings
● Be present and intentional in 1:1s
● Focus on being kind not just being right
How
● Check your tone and stress before going into
meetings: do not let your stress impact the
people around you!

24. 5. PRACTICE SELF-COMPASSION AND PRIORITIZE YOURSELF!
● Don’t be the worst critic of yourself. Celebrate
wins and yourself!
● Prioritize your physical, mental, and social
needs (movement / exercise, mindfulness,
social interactions, rest)
● Seeking help (friends, family, coaches)
○ BetterUp: life coaching platform

25. 2.
1.
Start with building empathy for yourself and understanding yourself
Resilience and joy are important to building a sustainable career in PM, and
really any job
RECAP
3. Reframe to the right actionable problems and use different tools to design
best doable options
4. Reframe to change your perspectives
5. Practice self-compassion and prioritize yourself

26. Materials for reference
● Book: Designing Your Work Life (Bill Burnett & Dave Evans)
● Video: How To Stop Languishing and Start Finding Flow (Adam Grant)
● Video: Building Resilience as a PM (Rachael Larsen)
● Article: PM Your Career Like You PM Your Product (Deb Liu)
● Article: What Is Design Thinking (IDEOU)
● Article: Resilience: A Strong Workforce Needs It
● Article: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness
● Article: Does Work Make You Happy? Evidence from the World
Happiness Report (HBR)
● Deloitte: Workplace Burnout Survey
● World Happiness Report
● Coursera: Applying Design Thinking Elements to Career Planning

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