10 Proven Tactics to Thrive as PM

How to thrive as a product manager? The job encompasses so many different aspects that sometimes it feels like you’re running around like a headless chicken trying to get everything done.

It may feel overwhelming to build the product, fix the product, grow the product and promote the product. You might not even be involved in all the aspects; even one could lead to a frustrating experience.

But life as a PM doesn’t have to suck. The PM job is relatively simple but difficult. Here are ten tactics you can apply to turn chaos into order.

Focus on creating value.

If there were one rule, one axiom, one law that could be applied to all of the Product Management space, it would be this: Focus on creating value.

Continually ask yourself: is what I am doing creating value for my users, my stakeholders or my team? If the answer is no, push to the “do later” column.

Set your goal.

Seneca, a Roman philosopher, once wrote, “No wind is favourable if you don’t know to which port you are sailing.” Building and maintaining products doesn’t work without goals. Set a goal and work toward achieving it. If you think a goal is wrong, prove it quickly and set a new goal.

Trust your team.

Unless you are a team of one (writing code, designing and managing the product), you have a team. The team is looking to you for leadership. But what’s more important, the team is looking for your trust. Build the team by offering trust first. Let them help you.

Focus on one thing at a time.

Multitasking is a myth. Everyone has heard that. So, if everyone has heard that, why is everyone still doing it?

Sometimes, you need to switch between tasks or projects. But that should not be an everyday occurrence. If it is, something is seriously wrong. Maybe you can fix it. Maybe you can’t fix it right now, but you need to try to change how you work.

Experiment, Experiment, Experiment.

Have an idea? Test it out, prove it is worth the time and effort or abandon it. Experimentation is the mother of invention. Create a hypothesis, create a plan to test it, and test it. Rinse and repeat for any of your ideas. It could be done in as little as 10 minutes, or it could take a few weeks, and it could save you thousands of dollars and months of time.

Prioritize, Prioritize, Prioritize.

This goes back to the #1 rule of product management, creating value. Your job is to give your team a direction to go in. To pick a direction, you must decide what will create the most value.

Sometimes, you may have many things that could create the most value. So, the difficult part comes now: you have to decide what will create the most value with the smallest amount of effort. Prioritize.

Embody the Pareto Principle.

This goes along with prioritization and value creation. What 20% of your tasks and actions could create 80% of the desired result? Focus on that first. Double down on this tactic.

Use a framework, but modify it if needed.

Sometimes, a framework claims to solve all your woes. You try it, and it works in the beginning, but then it creates more problems. It is not the framework’s fault. The framework is a guide. It is meant to be implemented and modified to fit your circumstances.

Take your time with One-Way Door Decisions.

If possible, delay one-way door decisions. This is a concept from Amazon. A one-way door decision is a decision that has a lasting effect and is really hard to reverse. For example, selecting a programming language for your product is a one-way door decision.

The opposite of this is a two-way door decision. These decisions are reversible and less impactful, such as deciding on the colour of your company logo.

Take your time with one-way door decisions. Make lots of two-way door decisions quickly.

Take a break

You are not a machine. You are a human being. The more your work, the bigger the decline in the quality of your output. Come to think of it, even machines suffer the same problem on a larger timescale. So take a break. Recharge. Enjoy that movie. Play those video games. Be present with your family. There’s nothing but pure benefit in taking a break.