Why We Don’t Hire Product Managers
I’ve been running Helpjuice for 12 years now — while we don’t publish our revenue numbers, we do quite well with a small team of, ±35 people.
Here’s my take: Most Product managers aren’t hired to innovate. They’re hired to slow down the death of a company or product.
I’ve yet to meet a PM who’s completely transformed a company, or made the product substantially better. You could argue that’s not their job — but isn’t that the problem?
Typically, PMs join after product-market fit. They ride the wave, adding features and optimizing what exists. But here’s the catch: the market is always evolving. The next wave of buyers is different. Products fall out of Product-market fit all the time.
Take the recent AI boom. How many companies truly re-engineered their products from the ground up? Most just sprinkled in some buzzwords and called it a day.
Instead, most PMs are out there optimizing, tweaking, and chasing low-hanging fruit with their RICE scores. It’s not their fault — their role is designed to reward low-risk, high-reward moves. It’s about keeping the wheel turning.
