Some weeks you’ll feel unstoppable. Others, you’ll feel like you did nothing—just meetings, context-swapping, and tough conversations.
As we said on the podcast:
“Joining a new company, you are totally out of your element because you don't know. You have no historical context. You have no institutional knowledge here. And your job is literally to learn as much as you can. And that might mean that you're not actually doing a lot of work right now.”
Here are the hardest parts of the EM job, and what I do about them.
The productivity void (especially early on)
You will feel unproductive while you’re actually doing high-leverage work.
“You'll spend a lot more time in meetings, and that is productive, but often doesn't lead to you feeling like you've had a direct impact on something.”
What helps
Write a weekly managerial impact log (decisions unblocked, conflicts resolved, risks surfaced).
Track invisible work (RFC reviews, hiring moves, stakeholder resets) alongside delivery.
Define “productive” with your team: tickets and PRs and design reviews, estimates, handoffs.
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