How does one suppose to be a Product Manager, when you only develop features ordered by the VP or CEO? Is there a way not to waste your talent? Well…

This story is as old as time.
You see a job listing for a product position that promises you will shape strategy, construct a roadmap, translate it into a backlog, and execute a plan to hit the goals the business needs.

You are asked to prove your experience in doing exactly that.

Side note: the honest version of this experience usually comes either from a pre launch startup or something you built yourself, but let me continue.

You go through the interviews. You explain your product process with passion. You show you can run discovery, synthesis, prioritisation, experimentation, delivery, and iteration under pressure.

You get the job.

You cannot wait to finally apply all your talent to building something meaningful.

And then the reality hits.

Hard.

Your manager drops a completed roadmap on your desk.
You are asked to comment on it, maybe adjust the order of two tasks, and then commit to execution.

No real input.
None of your ideas.
No meaningful discovery.
Only a discovery parody to satisfy a corporate standard.

You tell yourself that it is fine.
You are new.
You are still learning the domain.
Next quarter you will show them your worth.

But three months pass.
Nothing changes.

Three more months.
Still the same.

You might collect great ideas. You might run productive internal sessions. You might hold gold in your hand in the form of actionable user feedback. You might know exactly which experiments could move your metrics.

It does not matter.

Sorry, no time. The initiatives from upstairs must take precedence.

Slowly, your product muscle atrophies.
You are dragged into meetings about tiny UI details.
You chase deadlines that have nothing to do with product work.
You put your name on features you would never select yourself.

Eventually, you do one of three things.
You settle.
You quit.
Or you act.

Not rebel.
Not throw a tantrum.
Act.

Below is what acting looks like, and how to do it without destroying your relationship with your leadership.

1) Voice your concerns until something changes

Do not silently accept assignments that drain your talent.
State the risks. Explain the tradeoffs. Offer an alternative path. Do it calmly and consistently.

At first, you will hit a wall. That is expected.
But persistence matters because no manager enjoys a continuous flow of grounded, rational objections from a PM who clearly sees the bigger picture.

This is not about being annoying.
It is about giving leadership an unavoidable signal.
The day they realise you are not objecting to complain, but because the current path contradicts the company’s interests, is the day you gain influence.

To execute this well:

• Prepare a short document every time you raise a concern.

• State the objective.

• State the risk of the proposed solution.

• State your alternative with expected impact.

• State what data you would need to validate it.

• Keep it simple.

• Repeat.

You are essentially running a long-form influence campaign.

2) Perform guerrilla work

This is where many PM careers quietly turn around.

Play the corporate game on the surface. Deliver what you must.
But in the background, nurture your own initiative.

Build a tiny MVP.
Something that can be crafted with minimal engineering attention, often with no engineering at all.
Use no-code tools, prototypes, or simple rule-based workflows.
Frame it as a harmless side support to the main work.

Then measure it.
If it moves a metric, even a small one, you have evidence that your instincts are correct.

Evidence changes everything.

How to execute this well:

• Choose an idea that does not require backend coordination.

• Make it self-contained.

• Inform engineering only when needed, not as a dependency, but as a courtesy.

• Launch quietly.

• Track impact.

• Prepare a one-page post-mortem with results.

• Present it as something you did to help the product, not as a rebellion.

This builds credibility very fast.

3) Ask for ownership in small, negotiable increments

Most PMs make the mistake of asking for full ownership at once.
Leadership rarely grants it.

Instead, ask for one decision.
One slice of the roadmap.
One KPI to own entirely.
One problem space that you will take off your VP’s plate.

Why this works:
Managers hate losing control, but they love reducing their workload.
If you position your request as relief, not ambition, you get a different answer.

Execution tip:

• Choose an initiative that leadership does not enjoy managing anyway.

• State how you would handle it end-to-end.

• Promise weekly updates.

• Show early wins.

• Then expand from there.

4) Turn real user evidence into political leverage

Executives override PMs because they trust their intuition more than yours.
Replace intuition with irrefutable evidence.

Run 5 quick interviews.
Collect 20 real quotes.
Pull a simple data slice from analytics.
Show a short clip of a user failing in your product.

Suddenly, the conversation is not PM versus executive.
It is reality versus assumption.

Execution tip:
Make evidence visual.
One screenshot or one video clip beats a ten-page slide deck.

5) Create alliances inside the organisation

No PM succeeds alone.
You need design. You need engineering. You need analytics. You need sales support.

If those groups start repeating your arguments without you prompting them, your influence skyrockets.

Execution tip:

• Turn every cross-functional meeting into shared learning.

• Send small insights after each session.

• Offer to help others win their battles.

• People remember who supports them, especially when they feel ignored by leadership.

Why are PMs micromanaged like this?

The uncomfortable truth is that most executives operate under pressure far greater than what they communicate. They fear missing targets. They fear board scrutiny. They fear making the wrong bet. And fear has a way of convincing people that control equals safety. Many leaders were never taught real product thinking. Many have been rewarded historically for shipping lists of features, not solving user problems. They believe they are helping by choosing what to build. They believe they are reducing risk. They believe they are accelerating progress. In reality, they are suffocating the very people hired to guide the product.

It is easy to view this as oppression, but in most companies, it is simply fear wearing a suit.

Should you leave such a company?

Now comes the important part. You should not quit immediately. It is tempting. You imagine a better world somewhere else. You assume that another organisation will treat PMs as strategic partners. Sometimes that happens, but often it does not. Many companies replicate the same top-down habits, and if you leave too early, you never learn how to earn ownership. You never build the muscles that let you thrive even in imperfect environments.

And those muscles matter because a story of reclaimed ownership is gold in a job interview. Being able to say that you walked into a constrained environment, acted with discipline, demonstrated value, and carved out real product responsibility through persistence and results is one of the strongest narratives a PM can present. It shows leadership, resilience, strategic clarity, and professional maturity. It makes you memorable.

So you should fight first.
Build small wins.
Show evidence.
Take initiative without waiting for permission.
Earn each inch of influence.
You might transform your situation from the inside. And even if you eventually decide to leave, you will do so as a stronger PM, not a defeated one.

Closing words

Most PMs experience this tension at some stage of their career. It does not mean you are failing. It does not mean your talent is wasted. It means you have arrived at the part of the profession where real leadership begins. The moment you stop expecting ideal conditions and start shaping your environment is the moment you truly grow. Do not wait for permission to be the Product Manager you wanted to be. Start acting like one. The rest follows.