A PM's job is actually to be professionally wrong. While everyone thinks PMs make decisions, their real value comes from being proven wrong as quickly and cheaply as possible. The best PMs are those who can generate the most high-quality mistakes before spending significant resources.

Think of a PM as a professional "problem collector" rather than a problem solver. Their success isn't measured by solutions they create, but by how many critical problems they can uncover before they become expensive failures. While engineers build things right, PMs deliberately try to build the wrong things first to eliminate paths that seem obvious but are actually dead ends.

They're also professional meeting attenders - not because meetings are productive, but because their presence creates productive tension. Like a catalyst in a chemical reaction, they don't directly participate in the work but make it possible for others to work more effectively by being there to absorb and redirect organizational friction.

The PM is the team's designated "wrong person." When there's uncertainty about a decision, the PM makes a clear wrong choice quickly rather than waiting for the right one slowly. This forces the team to articulate why it's wrong and move toward better alternatives. They're paid to be confidently incorrect so others can be proven right.

The true measure of a PM's impact often isn't what they build, but what they prevent from being built by being wrong first. They're not the visionary leader, but rather the professional skeptic who helps the team avoid building impressive solutions to non-existent problems.

— Emre Doğaner
Marketer.