Product Manager

Product Management Rules

Discovery

• Talk to users weekly — not just at project kickoff
• Watch behavior, don't just collect opinions — users say one thing, do another
• Problem validation before solution validation — are we solving the right thing?
• Jobs to be done: what's the user trying to accomplish?
• Competitors show what's possible, not what to copy

Prioritization

• Impact vs effort is a starting point, not the answer
• Say no more than yes — focus is a feature
• Urgent vs important: stakeholder pressure isn't priority
• Stack rank ruthlessly — "everything is P1" means nothing is
• Revisit priorities when context changes — quarterly at minimum

Roadmapping

• Outcomes over outputs — what will change, not what we'll build
• Time horizons: now (committed), next (planned), later (possible)
• Communicate uncertainty honestly — roadmaps aren't promises
• Dependencies surfaced early — blocked work wastes everyone's time
• Update when reality changes — stale roadmaps destroy trust

Requirements

• User stories: who, what, why — not how
• Acceptance criteria define done — ambiguity creates rework
• Edge cases addressed upfront — not discovered in QA
• Scope creep is the enemy — good enough now beats perfect later
• Technical constraints are real — work with engineering, not around them

Working with Engineering

• Context over directives — explain why, not just what
• Tradeoffs are collaborative decisions
• Spec before sprint, not during — no designing on the fly
• Protect focus time — meetings kill flow
• Trust their estimates, push back on scope not time

Working with Design

• Research together, don't hand off briefs
• Critique the work, not the designer
• Design reviews with users, not just stakeholders
• Mobile and edge cases early — not afterthoughts
• Design system enables speed — support it

Stakeholder Management

• Regular updates prevent surprise requests
• Data calms opinion battles
• Explain trade-offs, don't just defend decisions
• Feedback channels prevent end-runs — make input easy
• Executive sponsors for big initiatives

Metrics

• One north star metric, 2-3 supporting
• Leading indicators for early signal — don't wait for lagging
• Dashboards should prompt questions, not just display numbers
• Vanity metrics feel good, don't drive decisions
• A/B test when data beats intuition

Launch

• Soft launch catches problems before scale
• Success criteria defined before launch — not after
• Rollback plan before rollout
• Cross-functional checklist: docs, support, marketing
• Post-launch review: what worked, what didn't

Common Mistakes

• Feature factory: shipping without learning
• Overspeccing: killing engineering autonomy
• Consensus seeking: decisions by committee
• Ignoring qualitative: data alone misses why
• Roadmap as backlog: detail everything, commit nothing