Deputy PMs Finding the Smartest People in Your Company

Where do the best ideas for your roadmap actually live? If you think they only come from the product team, you’re missing out on a massive reservoir of internal product ideas that could redefine your business. A Deputy Product Manager is anyone in your organization—regardless of their official title—who possesses a deep understanding of your technology, customers, or market.

Industry research suggests that roughly nine out of ten product releases fail to meet their original business objectives. This happens when product managers work in isolation, relying only on their own limited perspective to decide what to build next. You can't afford to let ego get in the way of a great product, which means you must find the "deputies" who see the problems you’ve missed.

Marty Cagan explains that product managers are essentially in the idea business. To succeed, you need a constant stream of smart insights, and you shouldn't care who they come from. By identifying and empowering these internal experts, you transform the company from a top-down hierarchy into a high-octane discovery engine.

Smart Minds Hiding in Plain Sight

In Marty Cagan’s book INSPIRED: How To Create Products Customers Love, he introduces the concept of Deputy Product Managers. These are individuals in engineering, sales, or customer service who have an innate sense for the product but aren't officially in the PM role. Cagan notes that every organization has at least a few of these people, yet they're often ignored or even actively hidden by insecure managers.

This concept matters because product managers often struggle to balance the 'what' and 'how' of product development. You’re responsible for discovering a solution that is valuable, usable, and feasible. When you find deputies who understand these three pillars, you gain powerful partners who can help you validate ideas much faster than you could alone.

Find Internal Product Ideas Outside the Product Team

Your sales engineering and systems engineering teams are often goldmines for internal product ideas. These professionals spend their days in the field, watching customers struggle with your product and your competitors' tools. They see the real-world friction that doesn't always show up in a formal survey or data report.

Cagan shares the story of a systems engineer named Chris who was "hiding" in the Midwest. While sales reps were giving vague feedback, Chris could articulate exactly why customers were frustrated. He understood the intersection of customer pain and technical possibility, which is the exact definition of a great product mind.

Search for Hidden Product Talent in Engineering and Support

Don't overlook the introverts in your engineering team when searching for hidden product talent. Many developers have a natural product sense and a deep understanding of emerging technology trends. They may not be the loudest voices in the room, but they often see how to solve a customer problem in a way that’s significantly more efficient than your current roadmap.

Cagan cites an engineer named Alex who was shy but had an extraordinary grasp of the user experience. He wasn't interested in a title change, but he became a vital thought leader for the company. There’s often a 20X difference in productivity between average and top-tier talent, and that gap usually comes from a deep understanding of the product’s core purpose.

Break Through Biases to Build a Cross-Functional Product Team

Biases often prevent companies from utilizing their best people. Cagan points out that age, gender, and cultural norms frequently keep brilliant minds in the shadows. A young employee like Matt—who graduated college in his teens—might be ignored because of his youth, even though he understands the digital landscape better than anyone else in the building.

Similarly, employees from different cultural backgrounds might be hesitant to challenge a PM’s authority directly. You have to actively work to draw these people out and show them that their insights are valued. Your cross-functional product team is only as strong as its ability to surface the best ideas, no matter where they originate.

Real Success From the Ranks

The story of Mira, a talented Indian employee, illustrates how much a company can gain by looking past cultural filters. In a loud, male-dominated tech environment, her quiet brilliance was nearly lost. Once she was encouraged to act as a product leader, she established herself as the smartest mind in the room, guiding the product toward major wins.

Another example is Sam, an engineer whose manager was actively bad-mouthing him because the manager felt intimidated by Sam's intelligence. Instead of being utilized, Sam was actually being demoted. When the product leadership finally identified Sam’s talent, they realized he was a primary source of innovation for the entire department. He eventually became a key product leader after the toxic manager was removed.

Actions to Take This Week

You can't wait for your deputies to come to you; you have to go out and find them. Here are three steps to begin building your deputy network today.

1. Practice Management By Wandering Around. Spend fifteen minutes every day walking through different departments without an agenda. Talk to people in support or sales engineering about what they’re seeing this week. You’ll find that informal conversations reveal more than any formal meeting ever could.

2. Run a "Who’s Smart?" Survey. Ask five colleagues from different departments a simple question: "Who is the smartest person you’ve worked with here?" You will likely hear the same two or three names repeatedly. These are your potential deputies, and you should schedule coffee with them immediately.

3. Share Your Toughest Problem. Take a current roadmap challenge and present it to an engineer or customer service lead. Tell them you're stuck and ask how they would solve it if they were the PM. This transparency invites them to think like a product owner and helps you spot those with a natural aptitude for the role.

Why the Deputy Model Can Fail

If you don't manage the deputy relationship carefully, you can create confusion about who ultimately makes the decisions. Deputies are there to provide input and help with discovery, but the product manager remains the person accountable for the product's success or failure. If a deputy starts making commitments to customers or engineering without your sign-off, it can lead to devastating roadmap churn.

Some critics argue that pulling people from sales or support to help with product definition distracts them from their primary jobs. This is a fair concern, as these departments have their own quotas and metrics to hit. You must ensure that your deputies' managers understand the value of this collaboration so that the extra effort is rewarded rather than punished.

Identify the one person outside your department who always seems to have a better way of doing things. Schedule a time to show them your latest prototype and listen to their honest feedback. You aren't just looking for approval; you’re looking for the insight that saves your next release.