5-Minute Tools for Product Leaders: Managing the Money Time

The term “money time” originates from the NBA. It refers to the decisive last minutes, when the stakes are high, there is little room for mistakes, and leaders should step up to help win the game.

I like to remind myself of being in the money time when a high-priority development project is nearing an important milestone, such as the release. These are times when everything should come together sharp, there is little room for error, and all cogs should be in place to smoothly deliver value on time.

Below I am sharing 7 hands-on practices I like to keep in mind when managing money time. They combine experience from leading 25 projects from start to end in small to large-sized companies, wearing both product manager and project manager hats.

1. Charge Your Batteries

In order to lead the way in high-stakes situations, you need energy. How you charge yourself depends on every person - maybe it is just listening to relaxing music for a few minutes before the next meeting, maybe a good bar of Snickers, maybe talking some fun. The point is not to forget to charge yourself. That is how you can charge the project, and create a cascading positive impact - without burning yourself out.

2. Own the Narrative

Be it on next steps, your own availability, or the expected resolution of an issue coming, it is important that you are a proactive and trusted source of forecasts and expectations on what comes next.

You can set up a weekly sync meeting, add ad-hoc updates on milestones in the Slack channel, or inform stakeholders daily in an email. The exact steps will all vary depending on the context. The point is to be conscious of that, in the money time, when the stakes are high and a deadline is coming close, you should be on top of the narrative and communicate proactively.

If you won’t be available for a day, drop a message to the teams and outline who they can contact on which issue. If there is an urgent issue coming up and you are not able to address it, drop a message with the expected turnaround time. If there is an important problem to stakeholders, do not wait for the next weekly sync, rather communicate in the meantime the status and next steps.

All these will signal to teams that they can trust you for guidance. They can focus their energy on the road ahead, instead of guessing statuses and next steps.

3. Keep the Ball Moving Fast

A leader taking action can easily become a bottleneck when work of multiple colleagues is closely coupled and there is little buffer remaining. Teams can resolve questions fast if a product leader facilitates solutions fast, or end up with a series of cascading delays if they need to wait for information or a decision.

Aim to respond within minutes if there is a question addressed to you in a Slack channel. If you cannot respond, manage the expectation - for example, drop a note that you are in a meeting and will come back in 1-2 hours. If you go on PTO, arrange for your back-ups and communicate clearly who the teams can contact. If someone else is addressed or a next step is unclear, step in proactively:

• Tag a colleague to whom the question should be addressed,
• Ask what is next or who should take it forward,
• Ask about timing expectations,
• Set up a meeting if needed,
• Call out if a faster resolution is needed due to timing.

The saved minutes will add up to hours, and the hours will add up to days. And even if you cannot answer fast, managing the expectation helps colleagues prioritize their work accordingly. For more context on bottlenecks check out this article.

4. Own the Status Overview

Keeping track of the main deliverables and issues in a central place can go a long way. Individual items are are likely available in JIRA or a PM software like Asana, though I have found it best to just create a standalone table that is easy to grasp in a single overview.

Whichever format works best for you and the teams, the point is for you to be curious about the big picture on how the project is doing, find a suitable format to synthesize, and sync with the teams for keeping things updated. This will help identify exact to-dos, manage priorities, risks, and increase a general sense of trust and transparency. You can track for example issues from end-to-end testing in a spreadsheet, listing the below:

• Issue,
• Context,
• Impact,
• Systems concerned,
• Environments,
• Reported by,
• Reported on,
• Owner,
• Priority,
• Target resolution date,
• Status,
• Comments.

Also, pay attention to cutting loose ends. You can scan Slack conversations at times if there is anything open and resolve if needed, or just put a note that this has been discussed. These small things also help with creating a sense of trust, transparency and progress.

5. Communicate Context

The leadership principle Start with Why points out that as a leader you can inspire others to take action by consciously communicating the 'why's and 'how's, not just the 'what's.

Imagine you realized that an email as part of new flows developed needs more information added, shortly before launch. You need to talk to raise this a change request to the team. You may approach communication in two ways:

• 'We need to add this to the email subject'.
• 'As I ran through tests I recognized there should be a distinguishing element to help identify customers for which flow they are exactly receiving this email. Thus, I'm asking to add this to the email subject, to help customer process it faster and easier. Do we still have time to change this?'

The second option likely achieves more trust, cooperation and motivation, as the team can understand, get involved and and possibly co-create a better solution. A development project is a creative collaboration, and it certainly will be needed to solve problems fast in the money time.

6. Decipher Mysterious Statements

“There are a few questions.” “We still have several issues.” “There are still some uncertainties” - three examples of common phrases that we tend to respond to a question on how we are doing with progress. As a product leader, it is a good idea to quickly interpret such phrases exactly, particularly in this stage, when being certain on next steps reduces stress for everyone.

The key is in replacing “a few”, “several”, and “some” with exact information. You can add for example “I am aware of these 2 open questions - let’s discuss please if there is anything else!” “In the issue tracker we have 3 open records - can you add any others please?” “What are the exact uncertainties, should I set up a meeting this afternoon?”.

This may seem like a small difference, but it helps turn uncertainty into certainty, a sense of 'infiniteness” into a sense of 'finiteness', and create clarity on the road ahead.

7. Be Resilient, and the Bad Cop if Needed

Resilience can have multiple interpretations - for me it is about maintaining the mindset to lead the way forward, to stand strong in your determination to piece the puzzles together, and manage challenges with this determination in mind.

If you need to exit the daily stand-up because you need to lead an end-to-end testing session, do it. If a colleague is not there to create an account for testing and you know someone else, pull them in fast. If a significant issue is coming up, consider deprioritizing from the launch. The key is in considering the project as your top priority, and thinking in flexible solutions on how you get to the destination.

This applies also to taking an unpopular role at times. Of course you shouldn't be rude, but you do need to be very persistent in asking colleagues to keep moving towards solutions. If someone asks whether a discussion could be postponed to tomorrow, there is a good chance you should say no at this stage.

Keep in mind that the common goal is to deliver - even if people will not like you in these moments, they will appreciate your leadership if all these efforts end up with a success, and you will likely both say thank you to each other at the end.

Closing Words on Trust

The SPEED of Trust is a leadership book that decomposes trust as the outcome of two key attributes: character and competence. It argues that the level of trust changes everything: if trust increases, speed goes up, and costs go down. The chances of the project delivering will increase if you can build and maintain trust in the money time. And the practices above work towards creating trust by leading the way in both in big picture and hands-on details.

Like you cannot win every game in the NBA, you cannot deliver every milestone as expected - but by stepping up to lead and giving your best in the money time, the odds will definitely go up, due to teams working with trust and focused on execution. So, roll up your sleeves and bring your A game in it.