Swimming Hard, Surfing Smart

Mastering the Flow

As product managers, we often like to think that we’re in control. Setting direction, establishing the pace, and steering our product to success. But reality? It’s not always that straightforward. 

Sometimes, we’re swimming hard, putting in a lot of our own energy to make progress in the direction we’ve chosen. Other times, we’re surfing, riding the momentum of external forces, whether it’s the team, the organisation, or the market. 

Both modes—swimming and surfing—are essential. The trick is knowing when to swim and when to surf, and how to do each effectively. 

Swimming Mode: Setting the Direction and Pace 

When swimming, the product manager is in full-on action mode. You might be shaping the vision, defining the roadmap, or pushing forward despite challenges. You could be working with an inexperienced team who need a lot of your focus and input to get the product shipped. It’s hard work, requiring stamina and persistence, but this is where you have the most control over your direction and goals. 

Example: Swimming through ambiguity 

Product discoveries are hard.  No matter what tool or technique you’re using, as Product Manager you’re going to be making tough choices. Even more so when there’s little external momentum to push you forward. 

Recently I worked on a big product problem with a multi-disciplinary team that was bamboozled by the scale of their challenge. They’d been thinking about it for months, had gathered data, user research, interviewed stakeholders. But they couldn’t work out the right direction to go in. There were so many problems to solve, which one to tackle first? The organisational strategy was ambiguous and not clear enough to guide their decisions.  

We got unblocked by facing into that ambiguity, putting a lot of effort into defining our North Star Metric as a team and then assessing each of our potential opportunities against that goal.  It wasn’t ideal – there should be a common North Star across the organisation - but it worked for enough stakeholders and was good enough to get us moving.  The team weren’t really comfortable making those choices about what to focus on first.  It took a lot of energy and leadership from me as Product Manager to pull them along in that direction. We swam through the ambiguity, set a course, and moved forward into experimentation. 

When you're in the swim mode, it often feels like you're fighting the current, especially if you're working in an environment where product-led thinking isn’t the norm. Maybe you're spearheading a new product that the organisation isn’t fully behind yet. You’re constantly rallying stakeholders, convincing leadership, and setting clear priorities for your team—all while trying to maintain momentum and avoid burnout. 

Challenges of Swimming: 

• Maintaining energy and direction: Constantly having to direct the team and sustain forward motion. 

• Resistance: Whether it's from legacy systems, organisational inertia, or conflicting priorities, pushing through can be tough. 

• Uncertainty: Sometimes you’re swimming without fully knowing where the finish line is, or what challenges are coming up ahead.  

How to Swim Effectively: 

• Be a beacon: In times of ambiguity, clarity and vision are crucial. Make sure the team understands the “why” behind the “what”. 

• Focus ruthlessly: When you’re in swim mode, not everything can get done. Be firm about what moves the needle and cut the distractions. Now is the time for detail work. 

• Take breaks: Swimming is hard, and it's important to pace yourself and your team to avoid burnout. 

Surfing Mode: Riding Momentum and Adapting to External Forces 

In surfing mode, you’re riding the wave. The market, your team, or organisational forces are moving fast, and you’ve got to harness the flow. While it might sound much easier to ride that energy and make progress, it comes with its own set of challenges—namely, giving up some control over the direction and pace and being confident in the choices you’re making. You might be able to cut across that wave, but at the end of the day you’ll still be on the same beach. 

Example 2: Surfing the video wave 

Sometimes, things bubbling up that are going to take most of your choices away from you.  

A few years ago, I was the PM for a product which provided breakdown cover for home appliances. One of our goals in the digital team was to get online appointments booked quickly and effectively – with the right engineers sent out to fix the right appliances. I had a roadmap of improvements planned to make that user journey better.   

And then video appointments happened.  Our of our breakdown engineers had the idea that a remote video call with a customer would help them triage the issue better and get the right parts ready for an in-person visit. They might even be able to walk the customer through how to fix the problem themselves if it was a simple fault.  It was a better experience for customers, because all they really wanted was their washing machine working again, and potentially a massive saving for the company. The organisational excitement was huge. 

That year, instead of delivering the roadmap I’d worked hard to shape, I spent most of my time launching a new feature to book a video call. It wasn’t our idea or original choice as a digital team, but it was one of the biggest single impacts on our outcome metrics I’ve had as a PM.   We surfed the wave. 

Think of a time when the market suddenly shifted, and the product priorities had to change quickly. Perhaps your competitor launched a feature that changed user expectations, a shift in customer behavior forced you to pivot, or your organisational strategy changed, and you had to react. In moments like this, surfing is about being agile, reading the direction of the waves, and adjusting course while maintaining balance. 

Challenges of Surfing: 

• Limited control: You’re not the one determining the direction; external forces are. It might be time to ‘disagree and commit’ to someone else’s strategy, if you can see that it will help you move towards your ultimate goals.  

• Staying on the wave: Surfing requires strategic awareness, adaptation, quick thinking, and having the confidence to go all in on big bets. 

• Maintaining alignment: The team can get pulled in different directions when you’re riding external waves. Or it can go too fast, wipe out and ship something that doesn’t work.  

How to Surf Effectively: 

• Stay agile: When surfing, flexibility is key. Be alert to changes in the environment around you, prepared to pivot quickly and communicate changes clearly to the team. 

• Embrace momentum: Ride the wave. Harness the support from your sponsors. Deliver small wins often, to keep excitement levels up. 

• Understand your balance points: Surfers steer the board with slight shifts in their weight distribution. Work out your own points of leverage to lean on. Often that’s stakeholders, hitting leading indicators, or managing comms messaging. A small intervention has a big impact where there’s already a lot of energy. 

The Balance Between the Two: Knowing When to Swim and When to Surf 

The art of product management lies in knowing when to swim hard and when to surf smart. You won’t always have the luxury of picking one mode for an entire product cycle.  

Reading the Signals: 

• Is the team moving forward without your constant push? Nice! You might be in surf mode, so let them set the pace and keep a light touch on alignment. 

• Is your product in early discovery with no clear roadmap? This is a time to swim, focus on the details, and establish your direction.  

• Are market conditions changing rapidly? You can’t swim your way through that. Be brave. Adjust your direction, pick a wave, and surf that momentum. 

• Do you have a new team coming together? Be prepared to invest serious energy while you swim through those first few sprints to establish direction and progress. 

• Is your product part of a well-defined wider strategy?  Often as PMs we’re not asked to shape our goals, just deliver them well.  Recognise when you’re in that situation - and see how far you can go riding those waves. 

Understanding these signals helps you adjust your approach and stay effective. It’s all about being adaptable—because product management is never just one thing. 

Conclusion: Know When to Swim, When to Surf, and When to Rest 

Balancing between swimming and surfing modes is essential to thrive in product management. But just as important as knowing when to swim or surf is knowing when to step back and recharge. Product management is a marathon, not a sprint, and sometime the best way to tackle the next challenge is to step away, relax, and come back recharged and ready to go again.  

So, when the product’s shipped, the team’s aligned, or the market’s calm, take a moment to sit back, grab that well-earned cocktail, and enjoy the view from the beach. You’ve earned it!