By Stacey Weber
1) Every hour you spend in the field will save you many hours later. When you go to your market and really listen to them, you learn information that will help you make better decisions about all the other activities you have to pay attention to. You’ll learn what they care about and how they talk about it. You’ll learn how they determine the value of products. You will learn the best ways to reach them, and understand what their definition of success is. Additionally, time in the field will help you avoid costly mistakes that slip the schedule.
2) Prepare intentionally for your team meetings! This is particularly important in regard to the cross-functional team. They are your extensions into the departments around you – so when you have productive meetings, the benefits reach across the entire company.
Spend some time preparing and sending an agenda, use the time effectively, and send clear notes afterward. The cross-functional team is worth your time, because your efforts will be extended exponentially through them.
3) Resist the urge to say Yes before you understand. People come to you with ideas and problems every single day. Slow down, listen to the story you’re being told, and take time to consider the situation before you say yes (or no) to anything. You need to be the voice of reason in the sea of emotion you’re surrounded with.
4) Stop organizing your email! If you’re still conscientiously organizing your inbox, stop doing that! How often do you need to go find an old email? Could a simple search take care of that for you? If you don’t have an explicit reason for organizing your email, I suggest dropping it all in a folder marked with the current year. Search later if you need to find something.
5) If you have an office, avoid it once in awhile! Sometimes, you need a block of time to do some deep thinking, and chances are that you won’t get that in your normal location. Take a day. Block your calendar, if you can get away with it. Go somewhere quiet – your home office, a coffee shop, the park…..go somewhere you won’t be interrupted. Take the time to focus on analyzing market data, consuming new market research, or writing that article you’re on the hook for. It’s faster to accomplish these things when you have the time and space to do some deep thinking.
6) Don’t be afraid to ask if it’s REALLY your job. If someone doesn’t understand your job description – and most people do NOT really understand product management – they will ask you to do anything. In some companies, the product team is treated like the grout between tiles….there to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. When you get a request, consider whether this is something in your job description, or someone else’s. Otherwise, you risk filling your days with things that don’t define your personal success. It’s nice to be helpful; but be sure to apply your own oxygen mask before assisting others!
7) Even Executives want a reality check. When an executive brings a request, remember that they don’t know everything about your product and market. They’re smart, but their focus is at a higher level than yours. Listen to the request and validate that you truly understand what is being asked. If it doesn’t make sense, use your market and product knowledge to calmly and objectively ask, “what about…?” Or, “I’m not sure I completely understand. How does this fit into project OakTree?” Your Executives will appreciate you pushing back, politely, when it makes sense.
8) Stop assuming that meeting needs you. Is your calendar full of meetings? Instead of automatically accepting a meeting request, ask yourself if you really need to be there. Try explaining to one of your peers why you need to accept that invite. Can you do it without laughing? Maybe you can decline the meeting altogether. In my opinion, this is low-hanging fruit where time management is concerned.
9) Isolate communication channels. You’re surrounded with interruptions and input. You’ve got your favorite DM tool, email, texting….you’ve got people stopping in to chat, voicemail to retrieve, and phone calls to make. There is a switching cost when you jump into any of these channels, and you can save time by batching each of them. Take an hour before lunch, and go through any emails that came in that morning…..rather than checking it every time you get a notification. Maybe you could monitor the communication channel where high priority items are likely to show up, but save the rest of it for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon? Efficiency creates time.
10) Discussion early prevents rework later! When your team is wrapping their brains around new requirements, slow down. Don’t skip the meeting. Don’t rush the conversation! Take time to listen to their understanding of the user stories, then discuss any nuances and answer questions. Always schedule more time than you think you need when the team is in ideation, because misunderstandings at this stage will cause exponentially more mistakes and rework later on.
