The Punk PM #45

Hey there, punk!

This week, Caroline Clark came to ProductTank Newcastle and delivered one of the most honest talks we've had. The topic was imposter phenomenon in product management.

Not syndrome: phenomenon.

Because it's not a condition you have. It's an experience you go through, repeatedly, regardless of how long you've been doing this. The room nodded a lot. That's not nothing.

But it got me thinking about something sitting alongside it; something that might be making it considerably worse.

Let's get into it.

Quote of the Week 🙊

Insight 🦉

Being a generalist in a world of specialists doesn't help when it comes to imposter feelings.

As a product manager, you sit across engineering, design, data, commercial, ops, and about six other disciplines depending on the week. Of course you feel inadequate when the lead engineer goes three levels deep on a technical constraint you only vaguely understand. That's not evidence that you're failing. That's evidence the role is working.

There's a meaningful difference between feeling like an imposter and being one, though.

Stage fright is not the same as not knowing the set. A nervous musician who steps up and plays their part, that's someone dealing with imposter feelings. A musician who steps up and mimes while the recording plays— that's something else entirely. And right now, AI is making it very easy for product managers to start miming.

If you're generating strategy documents with an LLM, presenting research you didn't do, bringing work into the room that you haven't actually interrogated, you're not experiencing imposter phenomenon. You're doing imposter work. The two are easy to confuse, and that's what makes this dangerous.

Imposter feelings are uncomfortable but harmless. They're a sign of something healthy—self-awareness, high standards, genuine care about doing the job well. But when those feelings push you toward shortcuts, toward handing the hard thinking to a tool because you don't trust your own judgement, you create the very problem you were anxious about. You've made the gap real.

The PM who feels uncertain but has done the work can get challenged and hold their ground. They know why they made the calls they made. They own the reasoning. The PM who felt uncertain and outsourced the thinking has nothing to fall back on when the C-suite pushes. The imposter feeling was temporary. The imposter situation is not.

AI is brilliant at clearing the decks. Use it to draft, to summarise, to speed up the grunt work. But the thinking, the judgement, the synthesis has to be yours. Not just because it makes you more valuable. Because it's the only thing that actually dismantles the feeling you're trying to escape. You can't prompt your way into genuine authority. You build it by doing the thinking, over and over, until it becomes undeniable—to the room, and to yourself.

Imposter phenomenon is something we carry. Fine, let's carry it. But becoming an actual imposter is a choice. Don't let AI make it for you.

Action 🚀

Next week, pick one piece of work you've produced with AI and ask yourself honestly: could you defend every point in it without going back to the tool?

If the answer is no, rework it until it's yours.

Inspiration 💡

The Knowledge Worker Identity Crisis: What's Left When AI Can Do My Job? – Doneyli De Jesus takes a clear-eyed look at what actually survives the AI transition. Retrieval and drafting are gone. Judgement, context, and decision-making aren't (at least not yet). Worth reading if you're figuring out where to focus your energy. Read more

When AI Triggers Our Imposter Syndrome – Marc Watkins writes from an education context, but the insight travels. Not knowing everything about AI isn't a weakness, it's the honest starting point. The people worth following in this space are the ones asking questions, not the ones pretending they have all the answers. Read more

Do AI Coding Tools Help With Imposter Syndrome or Make It Worse? – Eira May unpacks the double-edged nature of AI assistance: it can accelerate learning and break down intimidating problems, but leaning on it too heavily creates a more insidious problem—a false sense of competence that collapses the moment the tool isn't there. The confidence has to be built, not borrowed. Read more

Signing Off ✍️

If this resonates with you, hit reply and let me know. And if you think a friend or colleague would enjoy The Punk PM, feel free to share it with them!

Play it your way,

Toby