Top Product Management Frameworks Every PM Should Know

Product management is all about balancing innovation, strategy, and customer needs. While frameworks aren’t cure-alls, they provide a reliable structure to guide decisions and ensure you’re covering all the essential aspects of product development. If you’re aiming to sharpen your product management skills, these frameworks will help you structure your approach, stay focused, and deliver more value.

1. Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

The MVP framework, created by Eric Ries, emphasizes the importance of learning quickly and iterating based on real customer feedback. By developing a minimal version of the product with just enough functionality to solve a key problem, product teams can validate their ideas early on. This approach prevents over-investing in features that don’t resonate with users. With an MVP, you minimize risks and stay focused on what truly matters: solving customer pain points.

2. CIRCLES Method: Product Design

Lewis Lin’s CIRCLES Method offers a clear structure for product design thinking. By following a step-by-step checklist — covering what the product is, who it’s for, why they need it, and how it works — product managers can avoid missing any key details. This framework ensures a comprehensive understanding of the problem before jumping into solutions. It’s perfect for PMs who need to balance creativity with clear, methodical thinking.

3. North Star Framework

Introduced by Amplitude, the North Star Framework encourages focusing on one core metric — the "North Star" — that best captures the value your product delivers to customers. This central metric helps align the entire team’s efforts, ensuring that all activities and decisions drive toward a common goal. By breaking down this metric into actionable inputs, product teams stay focused on delivering long-term value, rather than getting bogged down in day-to-day tasks.

4. 5Es Framework: Customer Experience

The 5Es Framework is all about understanding the stages of the customer journey. It focuses on five stages — Entice, Enter, Engage, Exit, and Extend — to map out the entire user experience, from initial contact to post-purchase behavior. By diving deep into each stage, product managers can identify areas for improvement and uncover new opportunities to delight users. It’s an essential tool for building products that provide a seamless, enjoyable experience for customers.

5. Jobs To Be Done (JTBD)

The JTBD framework, popularized by Clayton Christensen, shifts the focus from personas to real-life situations and motivations. Customers "hire" products to perform specific jobs in their lives, and understanding these jobs helps PMs build more relevant, user-centric products. JTBD encourages product managers to look beyond surface-level features and focus on the deeper needs and desires that drive customer behavior.

6. Storytelling in Product Management

Storytelling is a powerful tool for product managers. It helps to frame the problem (the situation), the challenges (the conflict), and the solution in a way that resonates with stakeholders and customers. By using storytelling, PMs can create a compelling narrative that not only conveys the value of their product but also fosters emotional connection and alignment across teams. It’s an essential skill for communicating vision and ensuring buy-in from all sides.

7. DIGS Framework: Behavioral Product Thinking

The DIGS Framework, introduced by Lewis C. Lin, builds on the popular STAR methodology and aligns with storytelling principles. It’s especially useful for answering behavioral questions in interviews or when presenting case studies. DIGS breaks down into four steps:

• Dramatize the situation — Set up the challenge with heightened stakes to emphasize its importance.
• Indicate the alternatives — Showcase different potential solutions and why you chose your approach.
• Go through what you did — Explain the actions you took to resolve the situation.
• Summarize your project — Wrap up with measurable results or lessons learned.

The DIGS Framework is a structured way to reflect on past product decisions while telling a story that showcases your ability to navigate complex challenges.

Final Thoughts

The role of a product manager is diverse and ever-changing, requiring a combination of strategic thinking, creativity, and execution. Whether you’re building a Minimum Viable Product, refining a customer journey with the 5Es, or aligning your team around a North Star Metric, these frameworks provide the tools to succeed. For anyone aspiring to become a product manager, mastering these frameworks can help you develop the mindset and skills needed to thrive in this dynamic field.