First Time Hiring and Managing in Product

I agree with everything Kirk and KC mentioned already. The one thing I'll add is that what makes you a great IC is different in many ways to what will make you a great manager. For an IC, success is driven mainly by actions. For a manager, success is driven mainly by frameworks.

What I mean by frameworks is that you have to design a system that helps your new PMs understand why they are doing things and how success will be measured. The actual mode of execution that your new PM takes can be different from your tried and true methods - it may be that your super power is being highly technical while your new PM is more user experience oriented, and because of that your actual tactics may vary. This is fine so long as the frameworks are well understood as to how to best communicate with cross-functional units, how to communicate upwards, and how to measure progress and success.

Since you'll be wearing both hats for a bit, you can leverage your IC work as illustrations of the framework you'll be communicating, and where and when it's ok to deviate from your examples.

Over time, you'll want to be able to showcase how hiring additional PMs and letting go of IC duties will be a net positive to the company. Allowing the team to flourish within your given framework will help you define how you will provide multiple returns on additional hires vs. simply assigning more IC work your way. Best of luck!

Shreyas Doshi has a good list of how to deal with the demands of product https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1444715650505605121?s=20

A common approach is to brute force it and throw more time at the problem-IMO what you want to do for your IC responsibilities is figure out where there's leverage for you, where you can train and get more effective, and items you can give away/delegate.

Becoming a manager it's a little more tricky-you may have had good managers in the past or more likely have built a library of anti-patterns of management. One key thing to recognize is these are in the context of you and not everyone would like to be managed the way you want to be managed. Your objective as a manager is to provide an environment where your direct report can be successful as a person, on your team(s), and at the organization. I would focus on creating tight feedback loops via 1:1s and other mechanisms to inspect what's working/not working. You can start with strategies/mechanisms that have worked well for yourself, just don't get frustrated when they don't work with someone else.

A few books I'd recommend: Julie Zhuo, Making of a Manager Lara Hogan, Resilient Management Ken Blanchard, The New One Minute Manager Camille Fournier, The Manager's Path Wooden on Leadership

Heavy plus to Kirk's suggestion to talk to mentors! That can be a great way to learn about different management styles/strategies and also get feedback on specific situations you find yourself in.

Anya I've been through this before. It's actually challenging. Things that worked for me: writing out all the things you do now + all the things you need to do with the new report. Try map out those activities to owners (i.e. try to ask for help on the smaller things) and set expectations with your new hire how you are going to be involved in their work. Try to phase things in and out to give you buffer.

It will be overwhelming but the more work you can do set expectations and communicate with them, the more forgiving everyone will be. The thing to accept is you will be doing more work and it will be more stressful/more chances for things to get dropped but that's part of the process. It's more about recovery/adaptability than being perfect.

I would also talk to mentors in this topic: https://www.get-merit.com/leaders/all?cursor=1&topics=5cf7fbcd1d357900040c25eb