Jira Syndrome

Stop hiring Product Managers to write tickets. Start hiring them to shape the future.

Too many teams confuse product delivery with product leadership. They fill PM roles with people who keep the board clean, manage standups and translate features into tidy Jira tickets. It looks like progress. But all you've done is create a high-functioning to-do list. That's not product management. That's task management.

Real product managers don't just move work forward - they decide what work matters. They ask the harder questions:

• What should we bet on?
• What problem are we solving?
• What's the outcome we're driving?

They think like GMs. They live in the tension between customer problems and commercial outcomes. They know the metrics. They sit in sales calls. They challenge assumptions. They protect focus. They say "no" more than they say "yes".

If all your PM is doing is cleaning up Jira, you don't need another one. You need a BA. Or maybe a project manager. But don't pretend it's product leadership.

Delivery is a muscle. Strategy is a brain. Stop building muscle at the cost of brains.