I'm a Product Manager who used to be terrible at working with Engineering. I treated devs like feature vending machines and didn't understand why "just one small button" during a refactor was a war crime.
I realized that most PM training focuses on frameworks (RICE, SQL, Product Sense & Strategy) but ignores the actual job: managing political capital and technical trade-offs.
So, I built a "Flight Simulator" for Junior PMs. It's a text-based RPG where you have to navigate crises without burning your "Trust Battery" with the Engineering Lead.
The Stack:
Frontend: [React/Next.js/HTML]
Logic: State machine tracking 3 variables (Eng Trust, Tech Debt, Business Value).
No AI wrapper yet—this is hand-coded branching logic based on real mistakes I made.
The Scenario: You are an APM. Your VP of Marketing sold a feature that doesn't exist. Your Tech Lead is 50% through a critical database migration. You have to figure out how to solve the customer problem without touching the prod database.
I'd love feedback on the realism of the "Grumpy Engineer" dialogue. Did I capture the pain correctly?
Try it here (no login required for first scenario): https://apmcommunication.com/scenario