Embracing winning - A self doubter's story

I'm Anna 👋 Product Manager at Progression - here to tell you my story about dogfooding one of our features.

First off I'll tell you about the feature - we're calling it "Wins".

We spoke to a bunch of our users and heard their difficulties remembering all their achievements in the run up to a check-in (career conversation). Common "solutions" from them include scrolling back through apple notes and trawling through calendars in the hope of finding examples to support these conversations.

It's easy to remember the big things but not the small - we're only human after all. But to showcase your best self and truly understand what's going on it's useful to have both. We've built "Wins" to combat just that. Helping you to keep track of the little wins as and when they happen.

My story

I'm about to get vulnerable here and bare all about my personal journey with Progression's Wins feature. It's an honest account with a sprinkling of bias as the Product's PM - I'm only human! But here's hoping you can take some winspiration from my story and have the confidence to give it a go.

I struggle a lot with imposter syndrome (along with an estimated 70% of the population). I find reflecting positively on my own performance at work difficult. I seek out feedback, good and constructive. Both come! But the good stuff never sticks - the constructive does. Something's not working for me. It's time to change...

Wins seemed like the perfect catalyst. I'm relatively new to Progression and with a new feature launching that could help me with a burning problem then why not? What a perfect opportunity to embrace it and try it myself!

My first wins

My first win was really hard to write - so first off that's normal. I didn't want to boast, that's not me. I'm doing stuff but it's not groundbreaking - so is it good enough to put down?

Had this not been my product I might have never written this. But I'm kinda glad I did!

My first win

As you can see, in the true style of a self doubter, my first win contained self deprecation but had a positive spin. I felt like I had to justify everything (at this point you couldn't create private wins so I knew my boss would see this!). It took me a while to write - it's almost an essay. It gets easier - I promise - keep going!

Win number 2 - from Jonny

My second win was from my boss (Jonny our co-founder!) and that gave me a HUGE confidence boost and a big fat dopamine hit. He's just told me he think's were pretty aligned - phew! Maybe my first few months have been going okay... Maybe I've got this?!

Am I winning yet?

After that I decided I was going to embrace this! I had a place to put down my achievements in my own words; somewhere to look back and reflect. A place that I'm in control of and I can look at on my down days.

The more wins I've logged the easier it becomes. If I get some good feedback after a workshop I'll log a win and take note. If I've dug in to some data and discovered something I'll drop in a win. Having a bunch of wins to look back on has allowed me to reflect on my skills as a whole. I've got a better idea of what I need to actively work on to improve my PM skills and succeed. I'm starting to build a roadmap. It's a step in the right direction.

It's only been a month so I'll report back as time passes. But looking back here are a few of my favourite self recorded wins so far. I'm not sure I'd have remembered these otherwise - but they're actually pretty cool!

Examples of wins

So what's next?

It's not a completely comfortable experience for me yet... It's not a habit, but it's not nearly as painful as I thought it would be. And after all if I'm ever going to have the confidence to champion my own abilities I have to get comfortable talking about what I'm good at. If I have evidence that makes it easier - right?!

As PM the great news is there are a tonne of things we can be doing better - so watch this space. I can't wait to improve it.

As an individual and a self-doubter I'm feeling more confident in my abilities and have a plan to double down on my strengths. I can't wait to keep growing.

Now it's your turn - give it a go! Starting is the hardest part I promise ☺️