Product Managers Should Learn This Trick From Traffic Police
Product Managers should learn this trick from the traffic police.
You might have noticed this before: even when traffic is flowing smoothly at an intersection, you see some traffic police waving their hands to guide vehicles. You might wonder why they do this when everything seems fine already.
But there's a clever reason behind it.
TL;DR: Traffic police wave when traffic flows smoothly to establish presence and perceived authority. When they need to actually stop or redirect traffic, people comply because they've been following the officer's guidance all along. PMs should do the same: stay involved in what the team does at a high level, so when you need to redirect priorities, the team follows naturally instead of resisting a stranger jumping in.
The invisible logic of traffic police
Their waving creates a sense of guidance. It makes people think the traffic is moving because of the officer, even though it would probably flow fine without them.
This isn't manipulation. It's smart positioning.
Only when they establish this presence, when drivers are already in the habit of looking to them for direction, can they stop or redirect traffic smoothly. A sudden hand raised by someone who's been invisible gets ignored. A hand raised by someone who's been guiding the flow for the last 10 minutes gets instant compliance.
The authority to redirect comes from the consistency of presence, not from the urgency of the moment.
The PM equivalent
Similarly, Product Managers should get involved in high-level discussions on everything the tech team does.
Not to micromanage. Not to control every decision. But to maintain awareness and presence. Because your responsibility is to make informed decisions when prioritizing, redirecting, or cutting scope. And you can only do that well if you understand the landscape of what's being built.
Only when you're consistently present can you suggest changes or redirect efforts naturally. The team accepts your input because you've demonstrated understanding of their work. You're not a stranger dropping in with opinions. You're someone who's been in the flow.
What happens when PMs jump in cold
Just like traffic police can't suddenly jump onto the road to stop or divert vehicles without having been there all along, Product Managers can't suddenly jump into a situation to change or reprioritize things without working with the team continuously.
When a PM shows up cold:
- "We need to change direction on this feature" → Team pushes back: "You don't even know what we've built so far"
- "Let's deprioritize this" → Team resists: "Where were you when we scoped this?"
- "I think we should approach this differently" → Team dismisses: "You haven't been in any of our discussions"
The PM is technically within their rights to redirect. But the social capital isn't there. The team hasn't seen them participate. They haven't earned the credibility to redirect.
When a PM who's been present makes the same request:
- "Based on what I've seen in our standups, I think we should pivot this" → Team engages: "Makes sense, we noticed some issues too"
- "Given where this is heading, let's deprioritize" → Team accepts: "You've been tracking this, we trust your judgment"
- "What if we approached this differently?" → Team explores: "Interesting, let's discuss"
Same PM. Same request. Completely different reception. The difference is consistent presence.
What "staying involved" actually looks like
This doesn't mean attending every engineering meeting or reviewing every pull request. That's micromanagement, not presence.
Effective PM presence looks like:
- Attending standups regularly (even if briefly)
- Reading sprint updates and asking thoughtful questions
- Understanding what each workstream is building and why
- Being available for quick clarifications without being a bottleneck
- Occasionally sitting in on technical discussions (to learn, not to direct)
- Sharing context about customer feedback and business priorities in real-time, not just during planning
The goal: the team should never be surprised by your awareness. When you mention something they're working on, they should think "of course they know that" not "wait, how did they find out?"
The trust equation behind this
Traffic police can redirect traffic because drivers trust the system. They've been following the officer's signals. There's an implicit contract: "I wave, you follow. Later, when I need you to stop, you stop."
For PMs, the same contract exists:
- You stay informed about the team's work (you respect their craft)
- You provide useful context when asked (you add value to their decisions)
- You don't interfere with the "how" (you trust their expertise)
- When you need to redirect, they trust you have a good reason (because you've been present)
Each interaction where you add value without overstepping is a deposit. Each sudden, uninformed redirection is a withdrawal. Build the deposits over weeks and months so that the rare withdrawal doesn't overdraw the account.
The timing insight
Notice that traffic police don't start waving only when there's a problem. They wave when things are smooth. The smooth period is when they build authority. The problem period is when they spend it.
For PMs:
- During smooth execution periods: stay involved, learn, contribute context, build trust
- During pivot moments: leverage that trust to redirect smoothly
If you only show up during pivots, you'll face resistance every time. If you're present during smooth execution, pivots feel like natural course corrections, not disruptive interventions.
Common mistakes
The ghost PM: Only appears during planning, then disappears during execution. Shows up at the end to ask "why isn't this done?" No presence means no authority to redirect.
The helicopter PM: Attends every meeting, comments on every decision, questions every technical choice. This isn't presence, it's suffocation. Teams will actively hide work from this PM.
The right balance: Present enough to be informed. Absent enough to not be in the way. Contributing enough to add value. Quiet enough to let the team own their work.
The bottom line
The traffic police analogy is simple but powerful: authority to redirect comes from consistent presence, not from positional power.
PMs don't have formal authority over engineering teams. They can't pull rank. They can't give orders. But they can earn the kind of credibility that makes redirection feel natural rather than forced.
Stay involved. Stay informed. Stay present. So when you need to change direction, the team follows your lead naturally, just like cars follow the officer who's been guiding them all along.
How ProductResume helps
This kind of influence, staying close to execution while leading through presence, is exactly what hiring managers look for in experienced PMs. Your resume should reflect continuous involvement in delivery, not just planning. Score your PM resume to see whether your experience signals real execution leadership.