Some people don’t really know what Product Managers do. Because, to be honest, it can get confusing, even for the PMs themselves. This line of work is a little bit of everything mixed together. But if you want to become a PM there are some things that every PM does on a daily basis. Here’s some of them:
All Articles In This Series:
- Two Key Principles Of Product Management
- How To Make The Best Project Decisions As A Product Manager
- How To Be A Great Product Management Leader?
- Why Is UX So Important For Product Managers?
- Using UX Techniques To Make Better Product Decisions
- The Best Mental Models For Product Managers
- Testing From The Product Manager’s Perspective
- How To Use Deadlines Effectively In Product Management?
- 6 Biggest Myths About Product Development
- A Day In Life Of A Product Manager
1. Standup Meetings
Most PMs use agile methodologies in their projects, meaning they will have daily standup meetings with their team. Those are really short updates on the status of everyone’s tasks to identify potential issues and resolve them as well as prioritize work and ensure there’s no doubled tasks.
2. Project Management
The next element of each Product Manager’s daily work is managing the project. They check the status of each feature and decide on which ones are the most important for the upcoming launch. They are also the ones usually responsible for communication with the client about the deadlines, objectives, budget etc.
3. Tracking Metrics
Up next on the daily agenda is tracking metrics. Every PM usually has a set of product and team metrics they track to make sure everything is going according to plan. When the product has already been launched, a PM will need to track things like the number of active users, customer engagement score or the customer lifetime value. Alongside that, they also need to track team-related metrics to be able to quickly detect any motivation issues within their team.
4. Writing & Updating PRDs
Product Requirement Documents or PRDs are a very important piece of documentation for any team. And it’s the PM who’s responsible for writing and updating them according to what’s going on in the project, what are the priorities and what are the stakeholders’ objectives.
5. Staying Up To Date
The next thing that most Product Managers do daily is simply reading. Lots of reading, checking and analyzing. PMs need to always be up to date when it comes to new market trends, competitors, user trends etc. It all plays a huge part in product development and that’s why most PMs like to always be in the know.
6. Gathering & Analyzing Feedback
The last thing most Product Managers do daily is gathering and analyzing user feedback. It’s a great starting point for introducing new features and improvement and it also makes it easier to prioritize work.
Tools PMs Use
When it comes to working as a Product Manager there’s also a few specific tools used to make daily life easier. Here’s some of them you might want to know if you’re looking to start a career as a Product Manager. First there’s tools for meetings and internal communication like Slack, Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Of course, no company uses all of them at once (maybe sometimes) but it’s good to be familiar with them to adapt quickly. Next we have tools for roadmapping and planning like Trello, Asana, Jira. Some people also use Excel to do their planning but it’s a rather old school approach. Lastly, there’s also a bunch of tools that PMs use for wireframing and prototyping like Miro, Mockflow, InVision or Figma. This makes it easier for them to visualize their ideas and get the team on board.
To watch the Product Manager’s Handbook Series, click here to visit our YouTube channel. If you’re looking for a product development team to work with to deliver excellent products and results, contact us!
