Tips and Insights on Execution for Product Managers!

Insights & Tips from my experience on Execution for Product Managers:

  1. In most early-stage startups, there will be no separate Project Managers. PMs have to act as Project Managers, which may involve running sprint planning meetings, daily scrums, managing Jira, managing QA, and ensuring timely releases. If there are multiple PMs on your team, you can split responsibilities. It's okay to seek help and find other solutions (Getting a consultant, etc.) if it’s getting difficult to manage everything on your own.

  2. Alignment is very critical while executing. If the four wheels of a car are in different directions, it’ll go nowhere. Figure out who the key stakeholders are and ensure everyone is aligned on the objectives and goals.

  3. Always err on the side of overcommunicating rather than undercommunicating. Keep all stakeholders updated on the progress of the project regularly on multiple channels, especially when issues come up and their effect on the product releases.

  4. Daily stand-ups are crucial in ensuring smooth execution and catching any potential problems and mitigating them. Pay close attention to the progress of tasks and look for any signs of risks or issues proactively, and collaborate with engineers to find solutions.

  5. Retrospectives are an important tool to get better both personally and as a team. Don’t skip retrospectives and participate actively as a PM in retrospectives. These are not for pointing fingers but for figuring out how you can do better as a team next time.

  6. Pre-mortems are a great tool to get a sense of what can go wrong and to keep an eye on high-risk items.

  7. It’s very easy to get yourself very involved in execution and spend a lot of time on it. Remember, it doesn’t matter if you’re working 24x7 without having any tangible impact on the business goals. Always try to keep track of where you’re spending your time and the ROI.

  8. Sometimes, it’s easy to think of getting new tools to fix problems. It’s the classic solution looking for a problem. Always try to root cause the problem and understand it clearly before thinking of a new tool. For example, getting Jira won’t solve a PM writing unclear PRDs.

  9. It’s okay to have healthy disagreements and debates over scope, timelines, and delivery of projects. Try to push your team to do better than last time but don’t burn the midnight oil every time unless absolutely necessary.

  10. When something goes wrong, it is usually put on one or a few people in the team. But, it’s more often than not a system problem than a people problem. So, always try to look at what in the process led to the mistake and try to address that rather than just putting it on someone.

Thanks for reading, and

do add your thoughts/insights/suggestions on the same!