Charity Ibhadon, Global Product Director at WPP, took to the #mtpcon London mainstage to argue that product management is hard, but should remain enjoyable and purposeful. Her keynote walked the audience through five stages, from the chaos of the role to what changes on Monday morning.
Watch the video in full, or read on for the key points.
The Chaos
Why does product feel so hard? Product managers sit in constant tension, Charity explains. Somehow you're expected to hold it all together and remain calm.
Reflecting on her career, moving from Investment Banking into her first product role at ASOS, she assumed the job would get easier as she grew. But the problems just get bigger, decisions heavier. What changes is your capacity to live with that.
The trap many product people fall into is working harder: more meetings, more documents, more hours. It just makes you more tired.
Product isn't a control problem, it's an adaptation problem. Find a way to work well within chaos and uncertainty.
The Scars
One of the hardest things in product is when strategy or vision changes. The quicker you let go of the old version, Charity argues, the quicker you can progress.
She shared her own resilience framework on three things to protect in a product role
- Energy
- Perspective
- Recovery
Let any one break and everything gets harder. She also offered three key principals that she has used to recover from burnout
- Protect your energy above your time. Context switching drains your ability to think, and thinking is the core of the job.
- Stakeholder conflict is not failure, it's alignment in progress. If there's no disagreement, there's no depth. Make tension productive.
- Not every launch works. In those moments, you gain clarity faster than you would from success.
The Noise
When Charity started in product, there were no frameworks, books, or best practices. Now there are thousands. That volume makes you feel more behind than ever — even when you're not.
In her view, fear drives engagement and monetisation. That's why the content works.
Not every voice helps. Learn the difference between what will help you grow and what will make you panic.
The Joy
Product is a long game, and it will keep evolving. The best PMs, Charity argues, are the most curious, curiosity is what drives good questions and real problem-solving for customers.
Humour matters too. Teams that can laugh together handle difficult moments better.
The fun test
If nobody paid you, what would you still enjoy in your role? That's where your real energy lives. For Charity, it's workshops and tackling meaty problems.
An operating system to live by
To protect energy and avoid burnout, Charity shared four principles:
- Don't absorb every problem
- Protect recovery time
- Optimise for learning
- Enjoy parts of the work
What changes on Monday morning?
Charity closed with five actions to take back into the role:
- Remove one meeting. Look at the calendar properly. She does this regularly with her direct reports. As a leader, telling someone they don't need to be somewhere carries real weight.
- Talk to a customer. Doesn't matter if you're B2B, B2C, or anything in between. One conversation.
- Reframe a conflict. What looks like a standoff is alignment in progress. Name it that way.
- Unfollow one source of noise. One Substack, one LinkedIn account, or one Reddit thread.
- Create one moment of enjoyment. Find the part of the work you'd do for nothing. Make sure it shows up this week.
Product won't get easier, it will get more complex. The goal isn't to make things easy. "It's to get better at enjoying something difficult."
