Most issues that sink technology projects don’t start with code. They’re born upstream. Fed by silent springs of misaligned priorities, unvalidated assumptions, and snarls of constraints. This is where great product managers can steer the course and guide even the most tumultuous projects to a successful conclusion.
According to a Bain & Company technology report, strong product management is “perhaps the single most important ingredient” in achieving software development goals. Their research found organizations that excel at it are over 40% more likely to meet key performance indicators such as the Rule of 40 (a standard used to evaluate whether teams are balancing growth and efficiency).
In our work, the most important measure of success is impact. Product managers are key to maintaining that impact. They keep teams anchored in the right problems, align intent with implementation, and can identify and address small cracks before they become costly failures.
At Coforma, product managers operate in a liminal space where policy constraints sometimes rub uncomfortably against real user needs, timelines clash with shifting priorities, and major project ambiguity is just another Tuesday. They translate needs from product teams to stakeholders (and vice versa) and keep everyone around them grounded in both purpose and project practicalities.
We recently spoke with four of our product leaders—Senior Product Manager Anna Hawk, Group Product Manager Buddhima Kurukulasuriya, Group Product Manager Laureen Kattan, and Product Manager Adam Caniparoli—about the impact of their roles and why cat-herding can be a valuable skill set.
Working in the White Space
Digital services projects demand a rigorous structure—delivery timelines, Scrum cycles, compliance checklists, predefined scopes. But there’s also the space in between, which can be a quagmire of unanswered questions, changing priorities, and the tension between what’s asked for and what’s actually needed.
“Backlog refinement, user research—those are the table stakes of what we do,” Anna says. “But beyond that, it’s about continuing relationships and having transparency with clients and end users, so we can deliver the right products when they need them.”
Product managers rarely walk into neatly defined roles. More often, they inherit a broad goal, a tangle of priorities, and a team that needs direction. From there, they step into the ambiguity—facilitating, unblocking, refining, and translating. As Buddhima puts it, “I see myself filling the white space between all the functions of a team.”
They become roadmap stewards and solution conductors of a project (although Laureen maintains, “It’s more like herding cats than it is conducting an orchestra”).
Product managers also form the connective tissue between product teams and stakeholders, which is particularly important when product owners and contracting officers are stretched thin.
“Our federal counterparts manage half a dozen teams or more,” says Laureen. “They don’t have the bandwidth to be in the day-to-day with our team. They look to Coforma product managers to make sure things are moving, the team is on track, and to check in regularly with clear updates.”
Translating Across Disciplines
No two teams start off speaking the same language. Engineers speak in systems and code. Stakeholders speak in policy constraints. End users speak in lived experience. Meanwhile, everyone uses different acronyms.
Part of a product manager’s job is to translate across all these functions and experiences, shaping, simplifying, and reframing information for the audience that needs to hear it. They also pay attention to the subtext underlying concerns, possible points of friction, and the ripple effect of decisions.
“There’s a lot of negotiation involved,” says Buddhima. “A lot of catching miscommunications and knowing what someone actually means.”
That’s part of what makes the role so valuable, and so challenging. “We get information from ten different people, places, or systems at a time,” Anna reflects. “The key is distilling it all down so it’s easily understandable and can be repeated anecdotally to all the relevant parties. I may have clarity, and my team may have clarity, but if the business owner doesn’t have clarity, then we’re not doing our job.”
Product managers also need to know how to read the room and adjust their message. As Laureen puts it, “It’s really about knowing your audience—what resonates with them, how to speak to them. For example, when I’m talking to engineers, I need to understand how much policy context is helpful and how much will take them off track.”
And when the message still isn’t landing? Product managers shift tactics. “If at first you don’t succeed, try again,” says Anna. “Maybe you put together a deck with some high-level ideas in bullet points. Or, you design visuals, letting stakeholders see the points you’re trying to convey.”
Blending Vision with Execution and Being a Strategic Ally
Product managers are the rare people who see both the forest and the trees. Skilled in vision and execution, they’re strategic allies for their teams, stakeholders, end users, and the product itself.
When budget cuts, policy shifts, or new priorities rewrite the roadmap overnight, product managers become stabilizers, helping teams pivot without burning out, and stakeholders weigh what needs to be done immediately versus what can wait.
“It’s about having both empathy and practicality,” Anna says. “We’re empathetic to our teams, and to business owners who often have no control over policy shifts. But we also have to be practical. If something needs to launch now—and might be rolled back tomorrow—what’s our plan to shift back without losing momentum?”
This can be a tricky act to balance. “We may have things we need to deliver tomorrow,” Laureen adds, “but we’re also hearing about possible future directions that may or may not happen for a year or more. Our job is to stay the course in the short term while keeping an eye on the horizon.”
Solving for What’s Needed and Human-Centered Communication
A defined scope doesn’t always equal a defined problem. Despite this, most contracts arrive with a proposed solution in place. The real work begins with asking: is this actually solving the right problem?
“We ground the work in the problems we’re trying to solve, rather than jumping straight to the solutions,” says Anna. “The vision is where you want to go, but you need to understand the problems in order to figure out how to get there. That’s what informs your direction.”
Pushing back on solution requirements because you know it will result in a better experience for the end user can be uncomfortable, but this is where product managers shine.
“The very first thing any of us have to do is build relationships,” Anna continues. “That way, when a hard problem comes up, or we realize the original solution isn’t the right fit, we can come back with different ideas that still meet the same goal, maybe in a more elegant and scalable way.”
When that happens, it’s the product manager’s job to bridge the gap between what’s expected and what’s truly needed.
“Even if the solution is defined in the contract, it might not be aligned with what they think they’re solving,” Laureen remarks. “That’s why we like to do a lot of upfront discovery. So if we see a need to shift, we can support that decision with user feedback or research. That way, it’s a recommendation grounded in evidence.”
When priorities do change, it’s time for collaborative problem solving and leaving egos at the door. “I’m not here to be right,” says Buddhima. “I’m here to get it right. Which means I’m okay being wrong. You can tell me that and I won’t be offended. It’s more like, okay, got it. Now, let’s figure it out together.”
It’s also where our human-centered approach to communication comes into play. “I think Coforma’s product managers—and really, the whole company—are so good at just treating people as humans,” Adam observes. “That humanness is so important for building trust. It lays the groundwork for everything else we need to do to be successful in our role.”
It’s this “applied humanity” that really sets our product managers apart. For our partners, that means having strategic allies who can corral chaos, lead with empathy, and stay grounded in what matters most: improving people’s lives.