April 12, 2025
How Ineffective Product Management Teams Stall Progress Instead of Driving It
If you’ve ever lived in a neighborhood governed by a particularly overzealous homeowners association (HOA), you know the feeling: every decision is slow, the rules feel arbitrary, and creativity gets boxed in by a fear of change. Now, imagine if your product management team operated the same way.
Unfortunately, in some organizations, that’s exactly what happens.
Instead of empowering teams to move fast, experiment, and build value, a dysfunctional product management team (PMT) turns into the equivalent of an HOA—acting more like the gatekeepers of progress than its champions.
Endless Bureaucracy Over Empowered Decision-Making
In the worst-case scenarios, product managers (PMs) become process enforcers instead of product enablers. Every initiative requires a form, a meeting, a cross-functional review, and a multi-page spec—only to be stalled again because it doesn’t align with “the roadmap.” Just like the HOA that demands your front door be painted beige because it’s always been beige, the product team can become allergic to change, favoring comfort over innovation.
Prioritizing Control Over Customer Value
Effective PMs obsess over customer problems and business outcomes. Ineffective PMs? They fixate on governance. They enforce “best practices” that are neither best nor particularly practical, and they push back on new ideas because they didn’t originate from within the PM team. That’s the equivalent of rejecting a homeowner’s energy-efficient window upgrade because it doesn’t match the old design language—never mind that it saves money and benefits everyone.
Micromanagement Instead of Leadership
When PM spend their time dictating how design should design, how engineering should estimate, and how marketing should write copy, it’s no longer collaboration—it’s micromanagement. Great PMs create clarity and space for teams to do their best work. Bad PMs, like meddling HOA board members, become involved in decisions that aren’t theirs to make, slowing down progress under the guise of “maintaining standards.”
Protecting the Status Quo Instead of Challenging It
The hallmark of a strong product org is its ability to question assumptions, experiment, and ship iteratively. A PM team stuck in HOA-mode resists disruption—even when it’s necessary. Whether it’s saying “no” to risk or “not yet” to change, these teams unintentionally preserve the status quo at the cost of opportunity. In a market that rewards agility, that’s a losing strategy.
Turning It Around: From Gatekeepers to Guides
Product managers should be the people clearing the path, not putting up roadblocks. When done right, PMs create alignment, prioritize ruthlessly based on value, and foster a culture of experimentation and ownership. They aren’t the HOA of the organization—they’re the ones inviting others to dream bigger and build better.
So ask yourself: Is your PMT helping build the future, or are they just making sure all the lawns look the same?
Still She Leads 
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