Built Like a PM: The Compounding Power of Curiosity
The Habit of Saying Yes to Small Things
đ Hey, Iâm Becca. Every other week, we unpack how your lived experiences, habits, and ways of thinking naturally evolve into PM strengths. Youâve been building these skills for years â this newsletter helps you recognize them.
A few years ago, I made a small shift in my personal life: I started saying yes to things I normally would have put off. Not the big life-changing decision but everyday ones. If I wanted a cake, instead of going out to buy one, I tried baking it. When a friend mentioned a class or hobby, I went along just to see what it was about. YouTube became my go-to place, I learned how to do my hair, how to make new recipes, assemble furniture, how to fix small things around the house. Whenever I needed to learn something, I went looking for someone who had already figured it out.
None of it felt like a big deal at the time, but looking back, that curiosity started to form a habit. I stopped waiting to feel ready before trying something new. As I grew, curiosity became my default, and it began to build real momentum.
How small experiments turned into a working style
That small shift in personal behavior changed more than I expected. It taught me how to sit with the awkwardness of not knowing something yet, trying things just to learn made me care less about being perfect and more about making progress. Whether it was testing out a new recipe or figuring out how to automate a repetitive task, I began to see that progress shows up once you start.
That mindset eventually followed me into work and quietly became a differentiator.
As a product manager, this instinct shows up every day. The role is constantly changing, and rarely do you have full clarity before youâre expected to take action. There are meetings where I only catch parts of the technical details, and I leave feeling more confused than when I walked in. Earlier in my career, I would have waited for someone to walk me through it, I still lean on others now, but Iâve learned that when you come to someone for help after already poking around on your own, the conversation becomes easier for both sides, you can ask targeted questions that help them help you better. Think of it like walking into an open-book exam, if youâve never looked at the material before, you wonât even know where to look, but if youâve done some groundwork, you know which parts to focus on.
Curiosity changes how you collaborate
That approach has shaped how I work with others too. For example, when I write product requirement documents for designers, I now include a quick, rough âvibe-codedâ mock-up of what I have in mind. The habit of opening a tool, playing around, and figuring things out builds a small layer of new knowledge every day, itâs messy, sometimes stressful, but it works.
And it turns out this isnât just a personal quirk. According to Lennyâs Newsletter, PMs are seeing the most value from AI tools in:
write PRDs (21.5%),
create mockups/prototypes (19.8%), and
improve their communication across emails and presentations (18.5%).
Prototyping ranking #2 is telling. This data shows exactly what Iâve experienced: PMs are defaulting toward trying new things themselves instead of waiting for others. Prototyping ranking #2 proves that hands-on experimentation has become table stakes, weâre building our way to understanding, just like I learned to bake by actually mixing ingredients.
This kind of hands-on curiosity is becoming its own domain in product management. Some companies now have dedicated AI builder or experimentation PM roles built around the same mindset: learning by doing instead of waiting to be taught.
Quiet curiosity can be its own form of visibility
More personally, I am an introvert, which means Iâm more quiet in rooms than the average person and I take time to think before I speak. For a while, that felt like a disadvantage in spaces filled with bold voices, however, over time, I became known as the person who would raise her hand to figure something out when no one else had the time.
A former manager once told me that her job became easier because I took things off her plate before she even needed to delegate them. That feedback stayed with me because it reminded me that being visible doesnât always mean being loud, sometimes, it just means being willing to start.
I wonât pretend itâs always easy to raise your hand, but Iâve found that it becomes easier with confidence, and confidence builds naturally when you stay curious and keep learning on the go.
Curiosity opens doors you donât even know to look for
That same mindset has shaped the trajectory of my career. As technology accelerates, more organizations are forming small incubation teams to explore new tools and ideas before theyâre fully understood. These teams let companies move quickly while giving people space to experiment and build new skills. They attract those who are comfortable figuring things out along the way, the ones who tinker until something clicks.
That kind of curiosity keeps your work exciting and prevents you from feeling stuck in one role. For me, it led to me being offered my current position on an Agentic AI team, a newer and highly competitive PM track that might have been hard to reach from the outside but became possible through a lateral move, staying curious opened doors I didnât even know I wanted at first.
The quiet confidence of trying things
The simple act of trying something new, whether itâs baking, testing a time management tool, or learning a new system at work, builds a quiet kind of confidence. You start to see uncertainty as part of the process rather than something to avoid.
Over time, that curiosity turns into something even more valuable: a way of thinking that keeps you growing, adaptable, and ready to build like a PM.
Thanks for reading
Thatâs it for this first edition of Built Like a PM. If anything here resonated with you or reminded you of your own âtry it and seeâ moments, Iâd love to hear about them in the comments.
Thanks for reading, and see you in about two weeks for the next one. Built like a PM, one small habit at a time.