# EM/PM Relationships Aren't About Luck: 5 Tips for Product/Tech

DevFeed: [EM/PM Relationships Aren't About Luck: 5 Tips for Product/Tech](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/em-pm-relationships-aren-t-about-luck-5-tips-for-product-tech-26531.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://annajmcdougall.medium.com/em-pm-relationships-arent-about-luck-5-tips-for-product-tech-617c9a257135?source=rss-51f15275ef3a------2>)

Author: Anna J McDougall

Published: 2025-05-13T14:53:24Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Anna J McDougall](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/anna-j-mcdougall.md>)

Topics: [Code quality](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/code-quality.md>)

Tags: [code-quality](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/code-quality.md>), [compliance](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/compliance.md>), [engineering-management](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/engineering-management.md>), [engineering-manager](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/engineering-manager.md>), [engineering-mangement](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/engineering-mangement.md>), [identifier](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/identifier.md>), [improvements](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/improvements.md>), [iso](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/iso.md>), [management](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/management.md>), [product-engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/product-engineering.md>), [product-management](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/product-management.md>), [quality](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/quality.md>), [relationships](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/relationships.md>), [team-lead](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/team-lead.md>), [teams](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/teams.md>), [tech-leadership](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/tech-leadership.md>)

## AI overview

An opinion article presents practices for building effective engineering manager and product manager relationships. It emphasizes shared ownership across business, team, and product goals, with quality improvements--including compliance work--as part of an engineering manager's contribution.

## Source excerpt

EM/PM Relationships Aren't About Luck: 5 Tips for Product/Tech TeamsHeader image: purple background with the text "EM/PM Relationships Aren't About Luck. 5 Tips for Product/Tech Teams :)" and a photo of Anna and Tanja together.Introduction As my probation period at HelloBetter was coming to an end, my team's Senior Product Manager Tanja Lembcke remarked, "It's great working with an EM who cares so much about product." I could easily have said the same back to her, because it's just as valuable working with a PM who cares deeply about technology, something at which she truly excels. Together, we've become a strong team. Much of that relationship has developed naturally, but I've also noticed a few intentional practices that have helped us along the way. I want to share them here for all the product managers, engineering managers, and whoever else happens to like reading my sporadic blog posts. In the end, Tanja and I didn't just "luck out" working together. There are some tried-and-true strategies we both employ to make the most out of our work and get the results we need. If you prefer LinkedIn, you can view the short-form version of this post as a summary and carousel here. Tip 1: Purposefully be the intersection of business, team, and product As a Team Lead or Engineering Manager, it's important to operate at the intersection of business goals, the engineering team, and product. This means not only using the product but also critiquing it, asking thoughtful questions, and continually returning to the core "Why." It is all too easy to sit back and just wait for features to drop in your lap, estimate them, deliver them, and then dust off your hands with a "job well done" attitude that allows you to add a nice dot-point to your CV about value creation. What is much harder, is to actually focus on quality: that hard-to-measure, hard-to-prove value that is constantly competing with your time. For EMs, we tend to see the word "quality" and jump to the concept of code qu