Main idea

The number of tickets written, specifications kept up to date and reports circulated counts itself effortlessly, and that is what makes it a convenient evaluation criterion. Yet it measures activity, not contribution.

What a good Product Manager brings shows elsewhere: seeing what is changing in his market, naming the right problem before it becomes obvious to everyone, and turning down ten appealing ideas to push the single one that is worth it. None of these three leaves an accounting trace; the refusal, in particular, produces nothing you can show.

The convenient criterion and the right criterion therefore do not overlap — and heroically holding up an inefficient organizational machine maximizes the first while doing nothing for the second.

Layer added by "PM, Developers, and AI: Roles Are Blurring, Responsibilities Remain" (2026-08-01). The criterion hardens when producing stops being scarce. What remains difficult forms a short list made entirely of acts that leave no trace: choosing the right problem, understanding a market, reading the real signal behind a customer request, arbitrating between the short term and strategy, saying no, holding a coherent vision, creating alignment, owning the product, business, technical and human consequences of a choice. The moment that reveals the role is the one where no good solution exists — only two or three bad options, with different costs, risks and political effects.

Why it matters

This attacks a widespread evaluation reflex, including among PMs themselves, which reassures by its legibility and rewards the wrong thing.

And it protects the apparently unproductive time — reading, observing, letting an idea rest — which is precisely the condition of the judgment the role is supposed to deliver.

Nuances and limits

The absence of a trace has a flip side: judgment that produces nothing visible is also indistinguishable from an absence of work, and an unverifiable criterion easily turns into an excuse.

And artifact volume isn't always noise: in a team that is starting up, a clear specification is sometimes the most decisive contribution of the year.

Open questions

• What do you base a Product Manager's evaluation on, when what matters most — problems seen early, refusals held — leaves no trace at all?