How’s this for a normal working day?

Your phone doesn’t stop ringing; you’re behind on checking mails and messages and keep rescheduling meetings. Plus you have to ensure your teams are motivated and delivering on time and keep investors happy!

Welcome to the world of product management!

Building products is tough but leading or managing the process can be tougher. It’s not just day-to-day tasks but also delivery pipelines, feature tweaks, milestone gauging, customer profiling, testing, QA, etc.

So how do you do stay calm while overcoming all of this? Simple answer: it depends. Though there’s so much information and numerous courses available, product management is ultimately learnt through experience.

Frameworks, concepts and theories can only go so far. In the end it’s about doing and evolving, making mistakes and coming back with on-the-job training.

These experiences provide insights, intuition and that ‘gut feeling’ about a product. A lot of this comes from time management, prioritizing tasks and knowing what works best for you and the business. This could be Eisenhower’s Urgent/Important Principle or by adopting SMART goals and objectives. 

At the end of the day product managers and leaders need to follow a system that works best for them. To build and manage products you’ve got to be focused, have the right skills and mind set and understand your customers and the product inside out.

You also need to have thick skin, stay calm under pressure and learn to play the waiting game with a long-term vision. 

The ride may not always be smooth but it can be one heck of a journey!

So let’s take a moment to salute product managers and leaders who work tirelessly to build great products!

We appreciate your efforts.

Regards,

Kaustubh
Founder, The ProdZen