I have a thing for Real Estate Reality TV. There, I said it. It started with Selling Sunset when I was awake at all hours with my first child and now I am super into Owning Manhattan.
Where Selling Sunset barely has any real estate these days, Owning Manhattan is still very much focused on winning/losing listings.
But mainly, Ryan Serhant is really compelling to watch. The show positions him as this nice guy in a ruthless world, the underdog. And who doesn't love a good underdog story?
Watching Ryan navigate the Manhattan real estate world, I kept seeing echoes of product management. He’s constantly making trade-offs, managing expectations, and trying to build something sustainable in an environment that rewards quick wins. Once I started seeing the parallels, I couldn’t unsee them.
Commercial impact is king
One thing this show makes really clear: the most important thing is closing. In one episode, Ryan’s team throws an elaborate marketing event for a listing - champagne, influencers, perfect lighting. Tons of foot traffic. Zero offers. The reaction? Move on. All that effort, all that buzz, but without conversion, it’s wasted resources.
Sound familiar? In product, you can build the shiniest features with the best engagement metrics, but if they don’t convert users or impact the bottom line, you’ve just spent time and money on a beautiful distraction.
Ryan’s ruthless prioritization of deals that will actually close mirrors how effective PMs need to distinguish between vanity metrics and metrics that actually matter.
It’s not about how many people look at your feature. It’s about whether they use it in ways that drive value.
Ryan as product
But here’s where it gets really interesting: Ryan isn’t just managing listings - he’s managing Ryan as a product.
Yes, he’s a realtor.
But watch what he’s actually building: a personal brand that he’s constantly iterating on. He’s active on socials, he’s spun off into educational content through his Serhant company, and of course, there’s the Netflix show.
He built a really solid foundation in real estate, used it to establish trust and authority, and is now branching into adjacent categories.
The Serhant company - where he’s literally packaged his methods and knowledge into a sellable product - is the ultimate productization play.
How many PMs talk about wanting to do this with internal tools or processes but never actually execute?
Think about your own product. What’s your foundation? Your core value? Where do you build trust with your users? And once you have that trust - what else could you offer them?
Ryan figured out that people weren’t just buying his real estate expertise - they were buying into his brand, his approach, his reputation. That’s product thinking.
The underdog as differentiation strategy
Let’s circle back to that underdog positioning from the beginning.
“Nice guy in a ruthless world” isn’t just good TV - it’s actually Ryan’s product strategy. In the hyper-competitive luxury Manhattan real estate market, everyone has connections, everyone has listings, everyone is polished.
So how do you differentiate?
You lead with authenticity. You position yourself as someone who genuinely cares, who plays fair, who builds real relationships rather than just closing deals.
It’s the same challenge PMs face. In a crowded market where everyone claims to be “user-focused” and “data-driven,” authenticity becomes competitive advantage.
The way you show up, the relationships you build, the trust you earn - that’s what sets you apart.
Everything is product
Here’s what watching too much reality TV has taught me: product management principles are everywhere.
They’re not confined to tech companies or SaaS platforms.
They’re in real estate, in entertainment, in how people build their careers and their brands. Once you start looking, you can’t unsee it.
Ryan Serhant is doing product management - he just calls it something else.
Now that you know you can’t unsee it - where are you seeing product everywhere? Reply and let me know what you find!