What Does a Product Manager Do All Day? | Day in the Life of a PM
Summary
TLDRKevin Way, a product manager, offers a glimpse into the dynamic and varied life of a PM. From brainstorming and user interviews to working with designers, engineers, and data scientists, the role involves addressing urgent emails, monitoring product health, participating in daily stand-ups, conducting usability tests, and engaging in one-on-one meetings. The video script highlights the importance of communication, collaboration, and staying agile in a fast-paced tech environment.
Takeaways
- 📅 The role of a Product Manager (PM) is dynamic with no typical day, as new priorities, blockers, and opportunities frequently arise.
- 🔍 PMs' responsibilities vary depending on the stage of the product life cycle, from discovery and definition to execution.
- 🤔 In the discovery stage, PMs brainstorm and conduct user interviews to validate ideas.
- 📝 During the product definition stage, PMs plan their Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and collaborate with designers.
- 🛠️ In the execution stage, PMs work with engineers on implementation and with data scientists to conduct A/B tests.
- 📧 PMs start their day by checking emails and messages, addressing urgent communications from leadership, other teams, or external vendors.
- 📊 They monitor the product's health by checking dashboards for key metrics and communicate any significant performance trends to the team.
- 🗣️ Daily engineering stand-ups, or scrums, help align the team, clarify requirements, and overcome blockers.
- 🍽️ Lunchtime can be for socializing with colleagues, attending tech talks, or watching educational content.
- 💼 Afternoons may include one-on-one meetings with team members to share updates and gather input on ongoing work.
- 🔧 Towards the end of the day, PMs allocate time for solo work such as writing PRDs, responding to document comments, or creating team newsletters.
- 🔄 PMs are involved in numerous meetings to unblock team members, stay informed about developments, and ensure the product's success.
Q & A
What is the role of a product manager (PM) as described in the video?
-A product manager is responsible for managing the lifecycle of a product. Their role is dynamic and varies depending on the stage of the product. They may be involved in brainstorming ideas, conducting user interviews, planning the minimum viable product (MVP), working with designers and engineers, and collaborating with data scientists for A/B testing.
How does a PM's day typically start?
-A PM's day usually starts by checking emails and messages, addressing any urgent communications, and reviewing the product's health through performance dashboards to monitor key metrics.
What is the purpose of a daily engineering stand-up or scrum meeting?
-The daily engineering stand-up, also known as a scrum, is a short agile meeting aimed at syncing the team, clarifying requirements, and overcoming any blockers to ensure smooth product development.
What does a PM do during a usability meeting?
-During a usability meeting, a PM solicits feedback on new features from the engineering team and others to identify any issues or bugs that need to be addressed before the features are shipped to users.
How does a PM spend their lunch break as mentioned in the script?
-If not occupied by meetings, a PM might use their lunch break to socialize with co-workers, attend a tech talk hosted within the company, or watch educational or entertaining videos.
What is the significance of one-on-one meetings for a PM?
-One-on-one meetings allow PMs to check in with their team members, share updates, and get input on ongoing work, ensuring alignment and addressing any individual concerns or needs.
What kind of solo work does a PM engage in towards the end of the workday?
-Towards the end of the day, a PM might engage in solo work such as writing product requirements documents (PRDs), replying to comments on documents, or drafting the weekly team newsletter for leadership.
How do PMs handle ad hoc meetings or issues that arise?
-PMs are often pulled into ad hoc meetings or discussions when a team member wants to discuss an issue in detail or when there is a problem that requires their immediate attention to resolve.
What tools or platforms might a PM use to communicate updates or gather feedback?
-A PM might use various communication tools, including email, messaging platforms, and possibly a 'slap' message, which seems to be an internal term for a quick update or alert within the company.
What is the role of metrics in a PM's daily routine?
-Metrics play a crucial role as they help PMs monitor the product's health and performance. Any significant deviations, especially in the 'north star' metric, are flagged and addressed to ensure the product is on the right track.
What resources does the video recommend for those interested in product management?
-The video recommends Exponent, which offers resources to help individuals prepare for product management interviews, and encourages viewers to subscribe for interview preparation videos and visit tryxponent.com.
Outlines
🚀 Introduction to a Product Manager's Day
Kevin, a product manager, introduces the dynamic nature of his role and the variability of tasks depending on the product's life cycle stage. He outlines the different responsibilities PMs have, such as brainstorming, user interviews, MVP planning, working with designers and engineers, and conducting A/B tests. The video aims to provide an informative look into a PM's workday, starting with morning routines like checking emails and monitoring product health.
📊 Morning Routines and Product Health Checks
The summary highlights the PM's morning routine, which includes addressing urgent emails, possibly from leadership or other teams, and monitoring the product's health through dashboard metrics. It emphasizes the importance of communicating performance updates to the team and flagging any concerning trends to take corrective actions.
🔄 Daily Engineering Stand-up and Product Updates
This section describes the daily engineering stand-up, an agile meeting known as a scrum, where the team syncs up and clarifies requirements or blockers. The PM might share product updates, such as completing a PRD, and ensure that information is communicated to the engineering team through both verbal updates and follow-up messages.
🍽 Lunch and Casual Team Interactions
During lunch, if not fully booked, the PM enjoys informal interactions with co-workers, discussing non-work topics or tuning into virtual tech talks. The summary captures the balance between work and personal life, showing how PMs use lunchtime for both relaxation and professional development.
🤝 One-on-One Meetings and Team Collaboration
After lunch, the PM engages in one-on-one meetings with team members, including marketing, machine learning, and data science counterparts, to check in, share updates, and gather input. The summary underscores the importance of these meetings for effective team collaboration and issue resolution.
🔧 End-of-Day Solo Work and Wrap-Up
As the workday concludes, the PM allocates time for solo work, which includes writing PRDs, replying to document comments, and crafting the weekly team newsletter. The summary illustrates the PM's role in wrapping up the day's tasks and preparing for the next, ensuring continuous product development and team communication.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Product Manager (PM)
💡Product Life Cycle
💡Daily Stand-up
💡North Star Metric
💡MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
💡User Interviews
💡AB Tests
💡Usability Meeting
💡One-on-One Meetings
💡PRD (Product Requirements Document)
💡Solo Work
Highlights
Kevin Way introduces himself as a product manager and shares insights into the daily life of a PM.
Product management is described as a dynamic role with no typical day due to varying priorities and opportunities.
Responsibilities of PMs differ based on the product life cycle stage, from discovery to execution.
In the discovery stage, PMs brainstorm ideas and conduct user interviews for validation.
During the product definition stage, PMs plan the MVP and collaborate with designers.
In the execution stage, PMs work with engineers on implementation and with data scientists for A/B testing.
The video includes insights from multiple PMs to provide a comprehensive view of a PM's workday.
Most PMs start their day by checking emails and messages, addressing urgent communications.
Product health monitoring is a morning routine, checking dashboards for key metrics performance.
Daily engineering stand-ups, or scrums, are crucial for syncing and clarifying requirements.
Usability meetings are held to gather feedback and identify bugs in features being shipped.
Lunchtime can be for socializing with co-workers or attending virtual tech talks.
Afternoons may include one-on-one meetings with team members for updates and input.
Ad hoc meetings might be scheduled to discuss issues in-depth or to address urgent problems.
End-of-day solo work involves writing PRDs, replying to document comments, and creating team newsletters.
The video emphasizes the importance of meetings in unblocking team members and staying informed.
Exponent is recommended for resources to help with breaking into product management and acing interviews.
Transcripts
hey everyone my name is kevin way i'm a
product manager and i'm here to share
what a day in the life of a pm is like
be sure to like subscribe and hit the
notification bell for new tech interview
prep videos every
[Music]
week product management is a very
dynamic role there really is no typical
day
new priorities blockers and
opportunities pop up all the time the
responsibilities of pms can vary
depending on where their product is in
their product life cycle for example in
the initial discovery stage pms can be
found brainstorming ideas with peers and
conducting user interviews to validate
those ideas in the product definition
stage pms can be found planning their
mvp and working with designers and in
the execution stage pms can be found
working with engineers on the
implementation
they can also be found working with data
scientists to conduct a b tests to test
any hypotheses so for this video i spoke
with a few other pms and pieced together
various events from our product workday
to display an informative look at what
pm looks like
let's start in the morning so most pms
start their day by checking emails and
messages there might be a few urgent
messages that need to be addressed asap
so i make sure that i take care of those
pretty quickly
emails can be from leadership
communicating a deadline for quarterly
planning or they might be from another
team asking you to review a dock for you
to get your sign off on or it could be
from an external vendor that you're
working with to test their product or
service
next i monitor product health so in the
mornings pms also check the product's
health there is usually some dashboard
that they can check to see how their
north star and any supporting metrics
are performing if anything is going
exceptionally well i'll communicate that
to my team if anything especially the
north star metric looks like it's
trending in the wrong direction this
would also be good for me to flag to the
right people so that we can try to do
something the course correct
next we have our daily engineering
stand-up this short agile meeting also
known as scrum helps to get everyone in
sync and work together to clarify any
vague requirements or overcome any
blockers here i might also share product
updates with the engineering team if
time permits for example maybe i
finished writing a prd or product
requirements doc and i want some
engineering input
standard would be a good place for me to
communicate this and after i share that
update i'll follow up by sending a slap
message to the engineering channel in
case anyone didn't hear the update or if
i want to get feedback async usability
meeting after stand up i might have a
usability meeting to host the
engineering team often ships features
and while it's good for them to
self-test them it's even better to get a
fresh set of eyes on them so as needed
i'll run usability meetings to solicit
feedback and try to find bugs in the
features we're shipping next is lunch
during lunch if my calendar isn't
absolutely slammed i like to grab food
with my co-workers and talk about
non-work stuff conversations range from
what their kids are up to in school to
travel hacks and credit card points
nowadays though with everyone working
from home i might use this time to
virtually tune into a tech talk hosted
by someone else in the company or i'll
watch a fun youtube video or two
after lunch i might have one-on-one
meetings with folks on my team
this includes my marketing machine
learning and data science counterparts
we use this time to check in share
updates and get input on our work
besides recurring meetings i also have
ad hoc meetings scheduled if a team
member wants to discuss some issue at
length on occasion something might also
be going wrong and i might be pulled in
to help fight a fire as the workday
winds down i set aside some time to do
solo work this includes writing prds
replying to comments on documents that
other teams want input on or writing the
weekly team newsletter that gets sent to
leadership and there you have it this is
a day as a product manager and as you
can see there is a ton of meetings with
people both on my team and outside of my
team these meetings help pms unblock
those around them and stay up to date on
any developments that might affect their
product
i hope this snippet helped paint a
picture of what pms do and if you're
interested in breaking into product
management exponent has the best
resources to help you ace your product
interview hit that subscribe button for
pm interview prep videos and visit
tryxponent.com good luck with your
upcoming interviews
[Music]
you
Voir Plus de Vidéos Connexes
Day in the Life of a Product Manager | Stanford Online Product Management
How Do Product Managers and UX Designers Work Together?
What do I do as a Mechanical Engineer?
(vlog) 직장인 특: 하루종일 회의함 | 출판사 마케터의 하루종일 회의하는 브이로그 | 2022 민음북클럽, 세계문학전집 400권, 한국문학팀 신간 [갓생살기 EP15]
How to answer Product Design / Product Sense Questions - BEST Framework to follow!
Business Development - Day In the Life in Business Development
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)