Why do we often feel exhausted at work? The reason lies in the four-leaf clover model—if one leaf is missing or if they’re cancelling each other out. How can we resolve this? This article offers a detailed analysis of the four-leaf clover model and its solutions, aiming to help everyone.
Today, let’s continue discussing why product managers feel so overburdened at work.
01 Common Solutions
When product managers feel overwhelmed, how can they resolve the issue?
Here are the common solutions shared by major product management bloggers or career planning bloggers:
Enhance Professional Skills: Improve your expertise by constantly learning more advanced and specialized knowledge.
Improve Interpersonal Skills: Learn the art of social interaction and gradually master the art of navigating office dynamics.
The first approach focuses on professional competence, while the second focuses on career competence.
However, in reality, even after learning specialized skills, there often seems to be no opportunity to apply them—making the learning effort feel wasted. A quick question: have you, as a product manager, taken any certifications?
On the other hand, over-studying workplace social skills might lead you down the path of Machiavellian office politics, making it easy to get lost.
These two approaches seem a bit lacking. Is there a more comprehensive solution?
02 The Four-Leaf Clover Model
Over the past year, I've had many product managers consulting me, all doing different types of work and asking various questions. I often wondered, is there some commonality across these questions that could be used to solve bigger problems?
Indeed, I realized the two common solutions I mentioned earlier weren’t very effective.
From reading more and more product management content, I gradually realized that many articles treat product managers like a passive entity—emotionless and without subjective awareness.
But product managers aren’t passive. We are independent individuals with subjective will and the potential to grow. We’re influenced by our environment, but we also have the power to make choices and resist external temptations.
If we treat product managers as independent individuals, many problems become easier to solve.
For a product manager to feel comfortable in their career, they need to develop four essential "leaves." Let’s call this the four-leaf clover model:
Professionalism: This answers the question of how to survive in a workplace. This includes how to deal with superiors, handle difficult colleagues, achieve high performance, manage employees, interview candidates, write emails, draft meeting minutes, and dress appropriately for work.
All these are workplace rules, and rules impose constraints. To survive in the workplace, we have to exchange some freedom for stability.
If you find it difficult to accept these workplace rules, plan early for a freelance career or entrepreneurship.
Expertise: As a product manager, how do you integrate into the company’s production chain? This includes how to design software products, write PRDs, define and plan products, and deliver them (product management knowledge is quite complex; these are just a few examples).
Most content from product management bloggers focuses on this area.
Core Values: Stabilize your inner self, so you aren’t easily shaken by external challenges. Professionalism and expertise can be taught by others, but core values are something you need to explore on your own, through continual clashes with the real world. There’s no right or wrong here—just what suits you and what doesn’t.
This includes your values, self-awareness, career outlook, and attitude toward money.
Sadly, many young product managers don’t know why they want to be product managers, or whether they’re suited for a state-owned enterprise or a startup culture. They follow trends blindly, joining when others do and avoiding when others avoid. (I was the same back then—made plenty of mistakes, but over the years I’ve gained some clarity.) In the future, young people will need to develop their own core values. The '80s and '90s generations were the first to explore this.
Self-Management: Develop various skills to improve efficiency. This includes learning ability, time management, and building a personal knowledge base.
Being a product manager is a complex job, and becoming a great one is challenging.
To understand business at its core, you need to grasp the logic of economic operations—this includes industrial economics, national economics, and global economics.
To understand customers at their core, you need to know human nature, including how to leverage its weaknesses and apply emotional intelligence.
To understand companies at their core, you need to know business management, organizational structures, and company building.
To understand technology at its core, you need to know the development paths of technology, the boundaries of tech, tech principles, and philosophy.
At the same time, you must reduce internal friction, continually seek personal value, and identify product value.
Most ordinary product managers can only master one area.
Many product managers’ four-leaf clovers are unbalanced. Perhaps they are strong in professional skills but weak in career skills. Or maybe they are strong in both professionalism and expertise, but lack core values and self-management. This imbalance leads to various problems.
03 Growth Flywheel
The four leaves of the clover model need to enhance each other and spin together, rather than cancel each other out.
What does this mean? Let me give you an example.
Professional expertise combined with core values can result in a strong product value system. After years as a product manager, I’ve realized that the product you are responsible for often reflects fragments of your values.
Is your product in line with your values? If so, your work will feel smooth and enjoyable. If not, you’ll feel constant tension and frustration.
For example, short videos represent a form of shallow entertainment. If you have a negative view of short videos and think they lower people's intelligence, you might struggle to be an effective product manager for a short video platform.
So, try to make the four leaves of the clover model complement and enhance each other.
04 Final Thoughts
In conclusion, why do product managers feel exhausted at work? There are two main reasons:
The four-leaf clover model is missing one or more leaves, or the growth is imbalanced.
The four leaves are canceling each other out and draining energy.
P.S.: Even if you replace "professional skills" with those of another profession, the four-leaf clover model still applies.
