9 Daily Product Management Tasks
+ 5 things you shouldn't do!
Every product manager’s day is different and is totally dependent on the maturity of the company, the size of the company, the scope the product manager owns, and the overall approach the company takes to product management.
Below are some daily product management tasks that I’ve put together that I’ve found useful to remind myself or my team on what are the things we should remember to do daily.
Check metrics, feedback, and other data for recent releases: Reviewing metrics such as user engagement, conversion rates, and customer feedback on recent product releases helps to gauge the impact of changes and identify areas for improvement. For instance, tracking user retention rates after launching a new feature can indicate its effectiveness and inform future iterations.
Brainstorm new ideas and improvements: Setting aside time each day to brainstorm new ideas and improvements fosters innovation and keeps the product evolving. For example, hosting brainstorming sessions with the product team or conducting user research can spark fresh insights and innovative solutions to address user needs.
Play with your product: Actively engaging with the product from the user's perspective allows product managers to identify usability issues, discover hidden features, and gain empathy for the user experience. This could involve exploring different features, testing new functionalities, or even going through the onboarding process as a new user.
Daily stand-up meetings with the team: Regular stand-up meetings provide an opportunity to assess the progress of development, identify any blockers hindering progress, and plan tasks for the day. These brief meetings keep the team aligned, motivated, and focused on achieving daily goals, fostering collaboration and accountability.
Communicate with cross-functional teams: Effective communication with cross-functional teams, such as engineering, design, marketing, and sales, ensures that everyone is aligned on priorities, timelines, and objectives. Whether it's clarifying requirements, providing updates on product roadmap changes, or addressing dependencies, clear communication promotes collaboration and reduces misunderstandings.
Continuously assess feedback from stakeholders and users: Actively gathering and analyzing feedback from stakeholders and users enables product managers to understand their needs, preferences, and pain points. This ongoing assessment informs product decisions, prioritization, and improvements, ultimately leading to a more user-centric and successful product.
Nurture relationships with stakeholders: Building and maintaining relationships with stakeholders, including executives, customers, and internal teams, is crucial for garnering support and alignment for the product vision and roadmap. Whether it's scheduling regular check-ins, sharing product updates, or seeking input on strategic decisions, nurturing these relationships fosters collaboration and buy-in.
Spend time with one of your co-creators: Taking time to shadow a member of the product team, such as a designer, engineer, or QA tester, provides valuable insights into their workflow, challenges, and contributions to the product. This not only strengthens collaboration and mutual understanding but also creates opportunities for mentorship, skill-sharing, and appreciation of each other's roles and expertise.
Progress on iterations being planned: Remind yourself where in the process a planned iteration is on the E3 framework and work on the necessary steps to push it forward, which may be connecting with customers, working on prioritization for the roadmap, writing epics or user stories, or planning for a refinement. This could also be post launch so focused on value updates for the organization or optimization opportunities based on learnings from a recently launched feature.
While you won’t do every one of these every single day, your goal is to make sure you are progressing your product, your career, and the business/customer value every day. These tactical tasks can be small wins to the larger goal of practicing your craft to become a product practitioner in the space.
What other ways do you spend your day to day? Would love to hear in the comments!
PS, here are 5 things you shouldn’t do…
Micromanage: Product managers should avoid micromanaging their team members, as it can stifle creativity, diminish morale, and hinder productivity. Instead, they should empower their team by providing guidance, support, and autonomy to execute tasks effectively.
Make decisions in isolation: Product managers should refrain from making decisions in isolation without consulting stakeholders, customers, or other relevant teams. Collaborative decision-making ensures buy-in, promotes alignment, and leads to better outcomes for the product.
Ignore user feedback: Product managers should not disregard user feedback or rely solely on their intuition when making product decisions. Ignoring user feedback can result in products that fail to meet user needs or address critical pain points, leading to low adoption rates and customer dissatisfaction.
Lose sight of the product vision: Product managers should avoid losing sight of the product vision amidst day-to-day tasks, challenges, or feature requests. Staying focused on the long-term vision ensures that product decisions are aligned with overarching goals and strategies, guiding the product in the right direction.
Overpromise and underdeliver: Product managers should refrain from overpromising features, timelines, or capabilities to stakeholders or customers without a realistic assessment of feasibility and resources. Overpromising and underdelivering can erode trust, damage relationships, and harm the product's reputation. Instead, product managers should set clear expectations, communicate transparently, and prioritize delivering value incrementally.
Until next week!
Jason @ Product Protégé
