Sailing Through The Product Management Role

The ‘pitman’ (pit manager) role in sailing, and its loose correlation to the Product Manager role

The ‘pitman’ (pit manager) role in sailing, and its loose correlation to the Product Manager role

When I first started learning to sail, I wanted nothing more than to helm (steer) the ship. I was fortunate to have a good teacher, so before I could do that, I had to work “the pit”, along with every other position on the boat. The ‘pitman’ (pit manager) role puts you in the middle of the ship, it’s a cross-functional role that supports the activities of the rest of the crew. There is very little decision-making authority, but because you talk to everyone, there is an opportunity to influence the course of the race.

A lot of Product Managers (PdMs) have worked different roles before taking the PdM route. Some of us start as Analysts, others Engineers, or Marketers. Those coming straight into PdM often start lower in the ranks, and are responsible for more of the backlog management and documentation, and less of the planning, learning the ‘ropes’ if you will. The following are some interesting approaches I’ve applied to my PdM style based on my 2 years of racing sailboats.

On a racing boat, the pit is where all of the main rigging lines are managed from. The halyards (used for hoisting and dropping the sails) come back to your clutch blocks (these stop the sails from falling), and winches. The boom vang (holds tension on the boom for the main sail) is easily accessible, as is the whole cabin of the boat where all of the extra sails, sheets (ropes for winching sails), snatch blocks, and pretty much everything else is kept.

In the pit, you are involved in nearly every aspect of managing the boat. You also have visibility of most of the crew, the water ahead, and the sails. You’re responsible for receiving critical tactical information from the front of the boat and relaying that to the back of the boat. You’ll also have to react to that information, pulling a requested sail, setting the spinnaker pole, and hoisting sails, but not before the shackle is set, or you might spend the next 5 minutes trying to catch a loose rope on a rocking boat.

When you’re in the pit, it’s your job to hoist the main sail, for sails or spinnaker, and to retrieve sheets and sails for and from the bowman. It’s imperative that you pay attention to every aspect of the boat, wind, water, and your competitors who often become obstacles you have to avoid.

The more time you spend looking out of the boat, the better you can anticipate what future maneuvers you’ll have to facilitate. You’ll also be able to cue up the rest of the team and keep everyone moving in sync by informing the bowman of the next maneuver, helping count down, and calling out your actions beforehand.

As far as jobs go, it’s an important one, and you’re juggling a lot of competing priorities at times. It’s important to know what the priorities are and be prepared well in advance. Sudden changes in the weather may mean needing to dig a buried sail out of your inventory, but hopefully you’ve paid close attention to the weather report beforehand and already have it ready.

There’s a lot of rope laying around, and you better keep it neat and tidy. The last thing you want is a snagged halyard while trying to make a quick sail change when rounding a leeward buoy. Every second that sail is down counts, and on a light wind day there might be no chance to make up that momentum.

A good pit manager can make or break a team, just like a good product manager can. All roles on a team are critical, but none can mess it up for everyone else as much as an inattentive crew member in the pit.

It’s not the responsibility of the team to stay in step with you, you have to move at their pace. They’re dealing with things on the deck (on the ground, in the trenches) that you’re not, and if a spinnaker’s not made (secure), you better not hoist. Sometimes we can put undue pressure on our teams to launch things that aren’t ready and they might end up taking shortcuts, cutting back on QA or quality because we’re in a rush.

Side note: If we want out teams to be honest with us about the state of things on the deck, then we need to listen and ‘hoist’ at their command. Effectively, we’re taking their efforts, their work, and lifting it into the world for all to see.

As a product manager, my job is to support and trust my team to do their role, as much as they’re trusting me to do mine. I relay information, and call out things I can see from my vantage point. Your team needs you, and you need them, counting down the deadline and keeping everyone in sync is critical, but if they’re not ready, you’ll just have to do what you can to work around it, supporting from the pit and staying ready. Trusting that they’re just looking out for the rest of the team.

This infers you have trust amongst your team. If you don’t, then that’s something you’ll have to work out before you can work together like a well rehearsed sailing team.

If a deadline is missed, the natural tendency might be to blame the team. “They knew the deadline, they clearly don’t have the same commitment I do.”, but you might not know the deck is slippery, or one of the hanks is stuck on the sail and they can’t get it off. They’re so tied up in the moment the didn’t tell you, but a careful observer will see this and ask how they can help, or offer workarounds. And in a good team they will flag issues for you ahead of time (remember, the team on the bow should be calling out obstacles).

Some things are just out of your control. During one of our races, we had a sail that was stuck to the forestay during a sail change. One of the hanks (clips) wouldn’t budge, and we didn’t have time to sort it out. We had to work around it, skirt the sail to the side of the boat, leaving it on the deck (making it a potential hazard). Then we had to hoist another sail, while working around it. Sitting adrift wasn’t an option, we had to make a fast call or loose the race. As Product Managers we can help our teams make those tough calls, keep everyone calm and coordinated, and start working on plan B.

Pit Manager and Product Manager are two completely different roles, no doubt, but there’s a lot to be learned through the way other types of teams work together. Everyone has their own flavour and approach to Product Management as a result of their experiences, and teachings. I’ve been in a variety of different leadership roles, and on a diverse set of teams that have lead to my approach. There’s something to be incorporated from every one of our experiences.

Just don’t forget to have fun along the way.