From IC PM to Product Leader: Navigating the Challenges of Leading Your First Team

In this piece, I discuss my personal challenges transitioning from an individual contributor PM to a first-time product leader, and how I turned a non-team player into my A-star team player

Fellow product leaders, let’s talk about those career-defining moments. You know the ones that blindside you, challenge everything you thought you knew, and ultimately drive you to be a better leader.

I have experienced multitudes of such transformative moments in my career. One such moment happened during my first week as a new product leader. I was managing a team tasked with building 0–1 products, and a team member had mixed feelings about joining my team.

Picture this: It’s 2014, and I had just stepped into my first product leadership role. I am equal parts excited and terrified, as I am now suddenly responsible for a team of PMs, designers, and engineers, across 3 time zones. Classic baptism by fire, right?

Then, on day one, I inherited an extra team member. But this isn’t your typical onboarding scenario.

Our first conversation goes something like this:

Me: “Welcome to the team! What are you hoping to achieve here?”

Them: “I don’t want to be here.”

Me: panics internally..“Okay… but what areas of product interest you the most?”

Them: “None. I don’t want to be here.”

Talk about a tough crowd.

Here’s the tricky part — They signed a 1 year long contract with the company. I can’t possibly show them the door, and they have made it crystal clear they’d rather be anywhere but on my team.

In desperation, I turned to my mentor. Her advice? “Give them more meaningful responsibility, not less.”

It sounded crazy. Risky, even. But I was out of ideas.

So, I took the plunge and put her in charge of our core streaming product. A critical role for a reluctant team member, right? You bet. Sometimes leadership means taking calculated risks.

The result? It worked like a charm. By the time I moved on, she was excelling. She even went on to lead her own team later.

This experience taught me invaluable lessons about leading product teams. Here are the three most crucial insights I wish someone had shared with me earlier:

1. Don’t Just Manage, Connect

It’s easy to get caught up in deadlines and deliverables, forgetting that your team members are human beings with complex motivations. Especially in product management, where people pour their hearts into their work.

Make time for genuine conversations in your 1:1 sessions. Understand their aspirations, their concerns, what drives them.

Trust me, this isn’t just feel-good advice. It is the foundation of a high-performing team.

2. Own Your Domain, Don’t Just Manage It

Overtime, I have seen leaders who run efficient teams but the tragedy was in articulating the strategic direction. As a product leader, you are not just keeping the trains running on time — you are deciding where those trains should go.

Immerse yourself in strategy. Deepen yourself in the customer problems. Ensure every decision aligns with the bigger picture. If you cannot clearly explain how your team’s work ladders up to the company’s goals, it’s time to re-assess.

3. Empower, Don’t Abandon

“I trust my team to figure it out” sounds great in theory, but there is a fine line between empowerment and neglect. Your role isn’t to micromanage, but it’s not to disappear either.

Think of yourself as a guardrail, not a roadblock. Set clear expectations, provide crucial context, how to measure success, and be available when they need guidance. The goal is gradual and adaptive autonomy, not sink-or-swim abandonment.

Looking back, that reluctant team member taught me more about leadership than any management book ever could. It’s not always pretty nor easy, but it is profoundly rewarding.

To all the product leaders, whether seasoned or just starting: embrace the chaos, learn from the curveballs, and remember — your team’s growth is your growth.

Now, I’m curious: What’s the most unexpected leadership lesson you’ve encountered?

Share your story in the comments. I would like to read them.

Keep innovating and leading.