The Product Manager in All of Us: Strategic Thinking for Any Role

When my boss shared The Dangerous Animals of Product Management with our team, I quickly saw how universal its teaching were to all roles and industries. These “dangerous animals” are the tricky situations and dynamics that can derail even the best-laid plans.

Whether you're in engineering, marketing, or operations, we all face similar challenges - managing competing priorities, aligning different perspectives, and keeping projects on track. What I love about this book is that it doesn't suggest eliminating these challenging dynamics. Instead, it's about understanding them, meeting people with empathy, and turning potential obstacles into opportunities for better collaboration and alignment.

The 10 "Dangerous Animals" in the Workplace

1. WoLF (Works on Latest Fire)

WoLFs have a deep sense of responsibility. They're often the most dedicated team members who genuinely care about product quality and user experience. Their dedication and quick action are unmatched, making them invaluable to any team. When their sense of urgency is paired with clear priorities and strategic direction, they become an incredible force for keeping things on track.

Behavior: Constantly firefighting urgent issues but can be at the expense of long-term goals. Reactive tendencies can lead to burnout and derail strategic priorities.
Strength: Deep commitment to quality and urgency.
Solution:
- Create triage systems to prioritize genuinely critical issues. Build technical debt tracking into sprint planning.
- Build proactive “firebreaks” and time for maintenance such as “Fix It Fridays” into sprint planning.
- Celebrate their dedication while providing clarity on what truly needs immediate attention.
- Channeling their quick response skills toward high-impact priorities.

2. RHiNO (Really High-value New Opportunity)

RHiNOs are often the driving force behind crucial business growth, fueled by their ambition to seize high-value opportunities. They are the ones who passionately advocate for that one feature they believe will secure the dream client.

Their energy and drive are incredibly valuable, but they sometimes need guidance to balance immediate wins with the long-term health of the product. When their focus is aligned with sustainable strategies, their ambition becomes a powerful asset that can propel the entire team forward without straining resources.

Behavior: Hyper-focused on one-off, high-value opportunities or demands.
Strength: Visionary growth mindset and bold ambition.
Solution:
- Collaborate on defining clear criteria for high-value initiatives.
- Encourage scalable solutions that align with broader goals. Validate opportunities with data.
- Show the hidden costs of one-offs to drive balance.
- Creating quick validation processes for testing assumptions.

3. HiPPO (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion)

HiPPOs bring a wealth of experience to the table. Having seen their fair share of successes, failures, and everything in between, they have developed a remarkable ability to spot patterns and come up with bold, visionary ideas. Their instincts, rooted in years of lessons learned, are understandably something they trust deeply.

The key is not to dismiss their intuition but to partner with them to complement their vision with evidence. Simple steps, like creating a quick prototype or running an A/B test, can turn debates into collaborative learning opportunities while honoring their expertise.

Behavior: Decisions driven by instinct rather than data.
Risk: Undermines morale and increases risks due to unvalidated choices.
Strength: Intuition shaped by experience and success.
Solution:
- Blend data with storytelling to ground their instincts in evidence.
- Frame decisions as experiments to validate assumptions.
- Recognize and respect their insights while inviting collaboration.
- Create safe spaces for collaborative discernment.

4. ZEbRA (Zero Evidence but Really Arrogant)

ZEbRAs (Zero Evidence but Really Arrogant) draw their confidence from past successes. Their ideas often emerge from bold moves or gut instincts that led to significant wins, and they are never shy about advocating for what they believe is the right course of action.

Their decisiveness and bold thinking become even more valuable when paired with a culture that fosters collaboration, encourages evidence-based decision-making, and invites them to consider fresh perspectives.

Behavior: Advocates ideas confidently, without support. May leads to decisions that may misalign with goals or customer needs.
Strength: Boldness in innovation and decisiveness.
Solution:
- Foster a culture of evidence-based decisions with quick validation tests.
- Ask open-ended questions to explore and refine their ideas collaboratively.

5. Seagull Manager

Imagine a director dropping into a sprint review and shifting the project’s direction entirely, or an executive firing off late-night emails with "quick thoughts" that upend weeks of planning.

Seagull Managers bring a broad perspective and often spot connections across the business that others might miss. Their insights can be incredibly valuable, but their sporadic involvement or limited context can unintentionally disrupt progress. By keeping them more connected to the team’s ongoing efforts, their contributions can become more aligned and impactful.

Behavior: Swoops in with disruptive input, then disappears. This can create unnecessary work and disrupts team autonomy.
Strength: Broad perspective and cross-functional insights.
Solution:
- Increase transparency to reduce their need to intervene.
- Build alignment through consistent communication. Create regular feedback channels to align their input with context and timing. Set regular check-in points to prevent drive-by management.
- Help them understand current context before making changes.
- Validate their proposals before acting.

6. PUFFIn (Plans Unending Feature Factory Initiatives)

PUFFIns are fascinating because of their relentless drive for progress. They are often some of the most productive team members, constantly pushing forward and refusing to let things stagnate. Their tireless energy can drive meaningful progress, especially when their efforts are aligned with larger strategic goals.

PUFFIns excel at keeping the team busy shipping features. The key to maximizing their impact is helping them connect their productivity to meaningful outcomes, ensuring their work drives real value.

Behavior: Jumps from task to task without a strategic focus. Prioritizes busywork over meaningful outcomes.
Strength: Tireless drive for productivity and progress.
Solution:
- Tie initiatives to clear strategic outcomes.
- Create visible links between tasks and business goals.
- Align their enthusiasm with measurable impact.

7. GOOSE (Guesstimating Overly Optimistic Scheduling Estimates)

GOOSEs genuinely believe in the team’s ability to deliver quickly and efficiently, which can be incredibly motivating. The challenge, however, lies in their tendency to overlook the complexities and uncertainties that come with most projects.

GOOSEs thrive in a world where everything goes according to plan. While their positivity is refreshing and can inspire the team, grounding it in realistic timelines helps build trust and improve outcomes. Their optimism, when paired with a practical approach, becomes a powerful driver for success.

Behavior: Unrealistically optimistic about timelines. Think the developer who estimates tasks assuming no interruptions or bugs.
Risk: Over-promising leads to missed deadlines and reduced trust.
Solution:
- Do a scoping exercise. Breaking projects into smaller, more estimable chunks.
- Using historical data to inform timelines.
- Build in buffer for unknowns.
- Create visibility into dependencies. Account for all stages of a project.

CoBRAs are remarkable for their decisiveness and ability to cut through complexity. They excel at making quick, confident decisions, which can be invaluable in high-pressure situations. While their clear visions and efficiency are strengths, adding a layer of nuance can make their decisions even more effective and better aligned with broader goals.

Behavior: Decisions influenced by unconscious biases. Think of the executive who dismisses new approaches because "we tried that before," or the manager who only sees evidence that confirms their existing beliefs.
Risk: Skewed judgment and missed opportunities.
Solution:
- Identify and address common biases (e.g., confirmation bias, optimism bias).
- Invite diverse perspectives for balanced decision-making.
- Use structured decision frameworks.
- Document assumptions explicitly.

9. PUMA (Promotes Unusually Meaningless Assumptions)

PUMAs have an excellent pattern-recognition instinct. They're often sharp observers who can spot trends early. Your PUMA colleague might be spotting real opportunities but just need help building a stronger case before pouncing. Their sharp instincts for spotting trends are fantastic, and strengthening their case with broader evidence can turn early ideas into actionable opportunities.

Behavior: Acts on shallow data or anecdotal evidence. Think of the engineering lead who rewrites the architecture based on a single Reddit post about a new framework.
Risk: Wastes resources on poorly validated ideas.
Solution:
- Stay in the problem space longer.
- Use small experiments to test assumptions.
- Require multiple data sources.
- Encourage broader market analysis.
- Create standards for evidence.

10. YAK (Yet Another KPI)

The YAK (Yet Another KPI) never met a metric they didn't love. They truly want to understand what's working and what isn't. Their attention to data is valuable but needs focusing on what truly matters. Their passion for measurement ensures nothing is overlooked, and refining their focus on key outcomes can make their efforts even more impactful.

Behavior: Fixates on vanity metrics rather than meaningful outcomes.
Risk: Misaligns team efforts with actual business goals.
Solution:
- Focus on outcome-driven metrics.
- Foster psychological safety to encourage honest discussions about data.
- Define clear north star metrics.
- Create hierarchies of metrics.
- Regularly review metric relevance.

Strategic Thinking and “Influence without Authority”

One of the most powerful insights from 'The Dangerous Animals of Product Management' isn't just about identifying these workplace dynamics but it's about how to influence without authority. This type of strategic thinking is about asking the right questions, aligning efforts, and keeping the team on track.

Let’s be real, we have all had our “dangerous animal” moments. Sometimes we're the WoLF rushing to fight fires, other times we're the GOOSE, blissfully certain everything will go perfectly to plan. The WoLF’s urgency, the RHiNO’s ambition, and even the Seagull Manager’s feedback can become strengths when approached with empathy and curiosity.

The key is not to fight these tendencies but to work with them to channel them in ways that bring out everyone’s best through the natural instincts. Influence without authority is about being the kind of teammate who listens, asks the right questions, and helps the whole team thrive.