12 Quick Reminders for Product Managers

Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash

If I have to quickly give myself or my fellow product managers some reminders, they will be:

1. Build for users, not for yourself (or engineers, or executives, or account managers). When making decisions, put users first. Talk to a couple users every month. Empathize with them.
2. Measure the value you add to users. Think about how you would objectively assess if a feature made things better for your users.
3. Don’t be an IT service org. Question the requirements coming from business teams. Align on problems to solve and objectives to hit, not on solutions.
4. Don’t jump to solutions. Uncover the deeper problem first. Ask 10 times “why” is this a problem. Asking right questions is better than finding right answers to wrong questions.
5. Make big bets, take small steps. Think about that 10x or 100x improvements could entail for certain feature or functionality. Then iterate over the solutions. Build a room before building a mansion. It’s easier to break down a room to build a better one. Redoing a mansion is a much bigger waste of resources.
6. Done is better than perfect. Ship it! The quicker you get feedback from production, the better your next iteration is. You’re never done but you should always be getting better.
7. Be human! Think about your users as humans. Their goals, frustrations and environments. Make experience maps to think through whether your work will make users happy/happier?
8. Ideate on problems and solutions more. Brainstorm more. No single person should have a monopoly on ideas generation. No single person should be held responsible for them.
9. Keep it simple! Think about what will work for 90% of the users in 90% of the cases. There’s no 100%. It robs you from pursuing big opportunities and crafting bold solutions.
10. Let go some times! If you helped make a feature, had strong opinions about it, and saw a future for it; stay passionate. But do entertain counter arguments and alternative approaches. Think about the continuation of all products beyond yourself and your service at the company.
11. Take time for yourself. If you have to stay up beyond midnight to make sure things keep running, something is wrong. Build for sustained long term, not for fire fighting.
12. Be a Product Manager, not Project Manager!

Lastly, if there are only 3 books in the world that any product manager should read (in my opinion)…

1. On fundamentals of designing products for humans:
   The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman
2. On what to measure and how to measure:
   Measure What Matters: OKRs: The Simple Idea that Drives 10x Growth by John Doerr
3. On how to build successful products:
   INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love by Marty Cagan