Good salary, but lack of structure and support hinder success - Principal Product Manager Lennox International Employee Review

I am a product management professional with more than 20 years of experience across multiple industries and organizations. Unfortunately, my experience within this Controls product management organization was the most challenging experience of my career. The biggest issue was not workload or complexity. I have handled difficult launches and high pressure environments throughout my career. The core problem was the lack of structure, onboarding, role clarity, and leadership support. When I joined, the organization had already experienced significant turnover within the product management team. There had been a long period without stable product management ownership, while multiple important product launches were already underway. Critical foundations such as product requirements, business cases, prioritization, and ownership structures were either incomplete or still evolving. Despite this environment, expectations were set at the level of a fully ramped and deeply trained product manager from the very beginning. There was little onboarding, limited guidance, and inconsistent feedback regarding priorities and expectations. I made significant efforts to create alignment and transparency. I initiated recurring 1:1 meetings, maintained detailed tracking documents, regularly communicated status updates, and openly raised concerns about onboarding gaps and role clarity. I also escalated concerns constructively in an attempt to improve the situation. Unfortunately, those efforts did not lead to meaningful support or organizational changes. After approximately eight months in the role, I was unexpectedly terminated for “not meeting expectations,” despite ongoing efforts to build structure and improve execution in a highly challenging environment. This experience was personally difficult because I genuinely tried to succeed and collaborate positively with the team. Being terminated was both shocking and disappointing, especially after a long career without performance related issues. For anyone considering opportunities within Controls (Smart Thermostats, etc.) team of Product Management, I would strongly encourage asking detailed questions during the interview process about onboarding practices, leadership expectations, team stability, role clarity, and the history of turnover within the organization. Those questions matter more than titles or compensation.