An important part of being a product manager is being able to GSD. In other words, execute! In the PM world execution isn't like grade school where you are given an assignment and told to go do it. Being a product manager goes so much deeper. It's about clear communication, efficient processes, collaborative teamwork, and effective leadership, among other things.
"You don't have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great."- Les Brown
Concepts and Frameworks
How do you know if you are getting it done?
Getting shit done isn't about working nights, weekends, or long hours. It's about how you work. How do you manage your workload and prioritize your task? What are the people around you doing? How are you working with your teammates?
People who consistently GSD and achieve their goals often exhibit these characteristics:
Do'er:
No: Over analyzing and being fearful of making decisions. Also, known as 'analysis paralysis.' Waiting for people to get back to you.
Yes: Don't need to be a perfectionist. Accepting that getting it done (MVP1) is better than getting it perfect. Constantly motivating your teammates to keep going even if you don't have full requirements. Being inpatient, but enthusiastic.
Time efficient
No: Can't prioritize. Can't remove impediments for the team. A bottleneck for teammates.
Yes: Baddie at prioritizing and managing your own time. Work quickly and efficiently. Communicates and shares work early. Put's in the time to get important things done. Can effectively work with multiple teams.
Reliable
No: Constantly being reminded by teammates to do things and provide status updates.
Yes: You are a person of your word. You follow through on what you say you are going to do. High credibility and respect from your peers. You are a zero inbox type of person. Constantly staying on top of e-mails. Consistent follow-up on commitments and if there is a change and you can't keep them you re-communicate and see what can be done. You are consistent with progress updates on projects and proactively communicate status, risk, impediments and pivots.
Goal Oriented
No: Care more about writing documents and knowledge articles for specs. Checking off tasks. Do what you are told to do. Accept no as an answer.
Yes: Results driven. Won't accept work is completed until you've gotten the results you and the team were looking for. (Success metrics have been met) Finding ways around processes and impediments/roadblocks that may get in your way.
There may be times in your career that working long hours will be necessary, but this shouldn't be an everyday theme. Overall, you need to be doer, time efficient, reliable and goal oriented to get things done.
Ways to GSD or GTD (Get Things done)
Maintaining Personal Productivity
There are ways and strategies that can help you to maximize your productivity. The answer is 'how.' When you are trying to get things done it isn't just about your instincts and going ahead and doing it or automating your behavior. So how can you maximize your productivity? Here are the top 5 ways and principles to organizing your work...
Capture Everything: Write down all tasks, ideas, and commitments as they arise. The idea is to get everything out of your head. This frees the mind from the constant strain of trying to remember everything.
Clarify: Process what you've captured. Decide if an item is actionable. If it's not actionable, you can trash it, incubate it for potential future action, or file it as reference. If it is actionable and can be done in 2 minutes or less, do it immediately. If not, delegate it (if possible) or defer it to be scheduled or placed on a list to be done later.
Organize: Put everything where it belongs. This means creating lists to manage different kinds of tasks and actions. Common lists in the GTD system include a Next Actions list, Waiting For list, Someday/Maybe list, and Calendar (for time-specific tasks).
Reflect: Regularly review and update your process. On a weekly basis, review your lists to ensure you're prioritizing effectively, clearing out irrelevant tasks, and giving yourself a clear understanding of what needs to be done next. This "Weekly Review" is fundamental in GTD to keep your process functional and up-to-date.
Engage: With a clear mind and a well-maintained system, focus on executing your tasks. Choose actions based on context, time available, energy, and priority.
Remember, the goal of GTD is not just to be more productive but to achieve a "mind like water" state, where you can adapt and respond to different situations with ease and clarity.
Time Management
As a product manager, it often feels like you're always racing against the clock. Picture this: You find a big bug just two days before a launch or realize the marketing materials aren't ready. Did everyone, even legal, give the thumbs up? Everyone wishes for more hours in the day, but for a PM, juggling customers, business, and tech, it's a whole different game. Still, PMs always find ways to keep the ball rolling, whether it's tidying up current work, prepping for what's next, or trying out a new strategy.
As you advance in your career, time management becomes even more important as you will need to make time for bigger things. For example, you can't reach the higher levels unless you learn how to make time for strategy. If you are a people leader/manager, this time will become less and less as it gets absorbed by 1:1's and other meetings.
Accept the amount of work vs the time you have to do it
In time management acceptance is the first step. As a product manager, acceptance is a crucial soft skill. It involves acknowledging situations, decisions, outcomes, feedback, and constraints for what they are, even if they weren't initially part of the plan or desired outcome.
"You can do anything, but not everything.”- David Allen
Here are some examples of accepting things in a product management role:
- Feedback on your Product: Receiving critical feedback from users or stakeholders that points out flaws or areas of improvement.
- Changing Priorities: Recognizing that a feature or project you were passionate about needs to be deprioritized in favor of more pressing concerns.
- Technical Constraints: Accepting that certain features or design elements aren't feasible due to technological limitations.
- Resource Limitations: Acknowledging that you won't be able to hire additional team members or have the budget you hoped for.
- Market Changes: Recognizing that the market or industry is moving in a different direction than anticipated and adjusting your product strategy accordingly.
- Decisions from Above: Accepting decisions from senior management or executives that might alter or affect the product's direction.
- Missed Deadlines: Sometimes, despite the best planning, deadlines are missed. Accepting this, learning from it, and finding ways to prevent similar occurrences in the future is crucial.
- Unforeseen Challenges: Facing unexpected challenges, such as a global pandemic or a significant competitor's move, and needing to adjust the product strategy.
- Failed Features or Products: Sometimes a feature or even an entire product doesn't resonate with users as expected. Accepting this outcome and pivoting or iterating is essential.
- Team Dynamics: Recognizing and accepting that not every team member might see eye-to-eye and finding ways to facilitate collaboration despite differences.
In all these situations, acceptance doesn't mean resignation or complacency. Instead, it's about understanding reality as it is, not as one wishes it to be, and then taking proactive steps to navigate challenges and optimize outcomes.
💁♀️ Tip: Accept you have more that needs to get done than you have time. Remember to be intentional and thoughtful in your approach on what you choose to do.
Change of scenery
To maximize productivity, sometimes a change of environment is beneficial. Whether it's a coffee shop, beach, library, or somewhere beyond the normal office routine or home workspace. Alongside switching up your surroundings, reserve time in your calendar. This ensures you have focused periods to tackle pending tasks, follow-ups, or even brainstorming sessions.
Don't feel guilty for blocking time. Ultimately, this benefits you, your team, and any cross-functional teams you collaborate with. By shifting your environment and blocking off your calendar for a strategy day you are able to further invest in your teams future.
Overcome Procrastination
We all do it. We don't want to do something and then it slowly creeps up on us until the due date arrives and we are frantically trying to finish before the deadline. Here are a few tips to help with overcoming procrastination:
- Face it head on
- Recognize why you are putting it off
- Identify one easy next step
- Do the step/task for 3 minutes
Procrastination is a bottle neck to you and your teammates especially if they are relying on you. Most of the time procrastination will happen because requirements or goals are unclear and you don't know how to proceed with next steps. Hence, being overwhelmed. If you are honest with yourself about your feelings and address them directly, identifying a simple next step and spending just three minutes on it can gradually help you overcome the battle with procrastination.
Responsibilities
Hold an opinion
As a product manager you're responsible for being the expert, figuring out tradeoffs, and developing an opinion. Escalating every decision or pulling people into a room to make a collaborative decision will slow down progress and create inefficiency. This can ultimately affect your credibility.
Your opinion is one of the best parts and most valuable trademarks as a PM. If you don't have an opinion you are giving the responsibility of researching the market and thinking about tradeoffs to others. More often than not they have more pressing things they could be doing with their time.
Truth is, your peers will always have an opinion. This is great and you want this, but most don't want the responsibility of making the actual decision for you. They want to be a part of the decision making and have you understand their point of view, but they also trust you to make the correct decision. By clearly explaining everyone's point of view and detailing how you reached the final conclusion, you'll promote a culture of mutual trust and understanding.
Navigating Roadblocks and Obstacles
When you are in grade school and a teacher tells you no, you accept it because it's a part of the 'rules.' Well, being a product manager rules don't always apply. There will be moments when you will hit a roadblock because maybe design can't use the mock-up you wanted or engineering can't re-use the code for a feature.
As a product manager, it's essential to find creative solutions when challenges arise. Consider all possible avenues to move projects forward. There's always an alternative approach; it's your role to identify and implement those strategies.
Ways to get around roadblocks
- Persuasion: Can you get them to switch from 'no' to 'yes'? How about meeting them face-to-face? Sometimes just talking it out helps. You could also offer some help in sorting out their priorities. If they're still not on board, maybe ask your boss if getting someone higher-up involved would help push things along.
- Do you need them: Can you do it yourself or get another team to help?
- Other ways to reach the goal: While the current tech or design idea might not fit, perhaps the engineers or design crew could come up with an alternative that does
- Personal Relationships: Maybe you know someone on the team who can help sway opinions or gain support.
- Alternative solution: Is there another option to make it just as good or come close?
- Tag your boss: Your boss can add credibility and help move things along if all else fails. Obviously, you want to try and fix the problem yourself, but having them step in is better than being stuck.
Keep or Revisit commitments
Being a credible product manager involves committing and following through on your deliverables. It's important when you say you are going to do something to actually do it.
Peers constantly reminding you to finish a task or following-up with you for status updates affects your credibility. By keeping your commitments people will see you as reliable and want to come to you to GSD. Furthermore, when honoring commitments, if deadlines shift make sure to let the team know right away so you can figure out a new plan together.
💁♀️ Tip: Add dates in your calendar and put them as reminders. Try creating reminders at certain intervals. Consider setting a reminder for yourself a week or two before a major rollout. Use a launch checklist at various intervals to ensure crucial tasks are completed before launch.
Be a helpful leader
Whether you're leading a group of product managers or you are an individual contributor it's important to clear obstacles rather than become one. Think about those times when a leader or colleague had you scrambling without clear direction. Or perhaps you had to pour more hours into a finished project because someone couldn't let go of making it 'perfect'. Reflecting on these moments can guide you away from being a hurdle for others.
As a leader your goal is to facilitate the movement of your team in an efficient way. Teams will need to move quickly. Be mindful of how your feedback and requests might hinder the team's progress. Maintain clear communication and urge your teams and peers to inform you when they hit obstacles. Make it a priority to help them overcome these challenges.
Time to Grow
Forget what you learned in school
We are taught from a young age that if we follow the rules and guidelines of an assignment we pass. However, being a product manager is very different it's not about being given a task, completing it, and your job is done. You have to figure out what needs to be done and how to do it. Equally crucial is providing context so others grasp the reasoning behind your decisions.
Prioritize achieving results rather than completing tasks
Being a results driven PM is very important. If you draft a ticket that lacks clarity for others—you might have checked off a task, but you didn't hit the mark on desired outcomes. It's similar to meeting a deadline, but failing to meet the success metrics— the results are missing. Achieving the right outcomes is more than just checking off tasks consistently. It’s not just about doing what is asked, it’s about ensuring you attain the right results and make a real impact.
Trust, but validate Cross-functional collaboration
When interacting with cross-functional teams it can be tricky because you are relying on another team to get the job done. Striking a balance between trusting your cross-functional partners, verifying details, and avoiding micromanagement can be challenging. It's crucial not to wait until launch day to discover issues. There are numerous potential pitfalls, whether it's shifting objectives, delays in tasks, or overlooked communications.
🚨 Important: Don't treat the other teams like they are incompetent by micromanaging them because otherwise they will not want to work with you in the future. Instead, start from a place of mutual trust and respect. Collaborate as much as possible by setting-up checkpoints to validate expectations.
Master the art of effective delegation
If done well, effective delegation can benefit all teams. When in a leadership position, this becomes even more crucial. As responsibilities increase, delegating certain tasks can serve as growth opportunities for others.
Transfer full ownership and responsibility
Instead of giving a bunch of small tasks, try to hand over full ownership of a project. When doing this it's important to let the other person take full charge. Try to 'guide' the individual by explaining the goals and expectations of the assignment. Don't tell them what to do or how to do it. Share your vision and thoughts on the task or project, then allow them to formulate the solution and plan next steps.
Often this approach, can yield positive results because it provides them the freedom to innovate. More importantly, they'll feel valued and essential, which can boost their growth and overall team morale.
Recognize your hesitation to delegate
The most significant obstacle a Product Manager faces to delegation is not persuading others to accept the task, but convincing oneself that delegating is necessary. If you find yourself reluctant to delegate tasks, reflect on the underlying reasons. Some common reasons can be:
- Would anyone want this? Take a step back and reflect on the importance of the work and the skills required. Align this with team members who are passionate about the work. If they have the skills great! If not they could have an opportunity to grow.
- Would anyone be able to do it the way I would want and do it well? Everyone has their own way of doing things. This is where true innovation happens. If you really want it done well and have doubts then consider people who have the skills you need.
- You don't want to give up
You won't always enjoy everything you do. So, if you are passionate about a project, repriortize your work and stick with it.
Define success and delegate the solution to engineers and designers
As a PM, define success and let your team create the solution. For instance, any pop-up modal needing error messaging should adhere to a particular design theme, utilize a designated component from the UI library, and maintain consistency in the error message text.
Taking responsibility for defining what success looks like for the engineering and design team not only helps with a more efficient ecosystem, but you gain the respect of your teammates. They'll recognize your confidence and expertise with the product and feel more secure in undertaking tasks because they trust the direction you're leading them in. This allows for the teams to be more motivated and invested into the work.
Most importantly, getting bogged down with detailed requests, like wording for pop-up modals or error messages, can slow everyone down, including you. Many PMs get caught up in these minor tasks. While they're part of the job and crucial, there are strategies to guide your teammates so both of you can progress smoothly without constant stops.
Try guiding and teaching your teammates to think and answer any questions on their own, like looking up style guidelines for components or design themes. This can help empower them and remove the potential for you to be a bottleneck.
A good way to keep track of progress is to have the teams present in weekly demos. This will help validate if the teams are working towards or meeting your definition of success. If the work doesn't meet your definition of success, take a step back and re-evaluate what success really means and if you need a clearer definition.
Rules are meant to broken (sometimes)
I am of the opinion that nothing is set in stone. As a PM you should be agile and be able to pivot. I've seen a lot of PM's be rigid when it comes to rules and people telling them no and they back down. It's important to look at the landscape and context of the situation before digressing. I'm not saying to be a bull in a china shop (if you must then go right ahead), but really think about what is being told or asked of you before you throw your hands up and walk away.
Personally, I'm not a big believer in process. Any organization that runs strictly on process concerns me because an organization that rigidly adheres to processes can face challenges, particularly in a DevOps environment where adaptability is crucial. In such settings, rules and procedures are frequently evolving. A strict process-driven approach may hinder the organization's ability to pivot quickly in response to changes, potentially affecting efficiency and innovation.
Get your team excited about the future
Keeping your team motivated on their current tasks is crucial, but without communicating the broader vision, it can lead to sluggish progress and dwindling morale. While it's essential for teams to excel in each iteration, they also need insight into the bigger picture. Without understanding the long-term goals, you risk loosing the enthusiasm, which can stifle momentum and pace.
To prevent this from happening, spend time with your teammates to discuss the short, medium, and long-term vision and goals for the product. A lot of the times discussing the long-term vision and goals can create urgency and motivation. Given our natural inclination towards instant gratification, it's crucial to maintain team momentum by balancing short-term objectives with long-term aspirations.
Final Words 📖
Being able to execute and being able to execute well are two totally different things. A huge part of being successful as a product manager is being able to finesse this.
Simply pushing forward without regard for others or prioritizing action over quality isn't true execution. For instance, launching a new product or feature without ensuring its quality isn't genuinely completing the task. True execution involves collaborating effectively with others and delivering a result that truly meets the customer's needs.
Mastering the art of execution is not just about ticking off tasks on a checklist. It's about the synergy of strategy, collaboration, and quality assurance. A product manager's true value shines through when they can harmonize team dynamics, maintain the standard of output, and ensure that the end product resonates with the customer's expectations. Therefore, to stand out and make a genuine impact, one must go beyond mere task completion to achieving excellence in execution.