Day in the Life of a Product Manager | Stanford Online Product Management

Summary

This video script offers a glimpse into the life of a product manager, highlighting their pivotal role in driving business forward through effective communication and coordination between various internal functions. The narrative covers daily activities such as standup meetings, sprint planning, cross-functional meetings, design reviews, and one-on-one sessions, emphasizing the dynamic and often hectic nature of the job. It also touches on the importance of staying updated with industry trends and the excitement of working on products that resonate with the users, including the product manager themselves.

Takeaways

• 😀 The speaker found their role as a product manager to be a good fit and suggests it might be for others too.
• 🕰 With eight years of experience, the speaker has become more passionate about the role of a product manager over time.
• 🏢 The product manager works three days a week in the office and the rest from home, indicating a flexible work schedule.
• 🔗 A product manager is a liaison between various internal functions such as design, engineering, marketing, and sales.
• 📝 They create narratives to convince the company and the world of the product's potential to drive business forward.
• 🗓 The daily standup meeting is crucial for team updates and addressing blockers to progress.
• 🔄 Every two weeks, sprint planning meetings occur, focusing on a series of user stories to be implemented.
• 🔍 Cross-functional meetings are held for specific projects or with department leaders to ensure understanding and comfort with the team's direction.
• 🛠 The product manager facilitates communication and outreach to the right people within the company.
• 🎨 Design review meetings involve detailed feedback on design elements, ensuring user interface suitability.
• 🤝 Regular one-on-one sessions with team members help build trust and address strategic concerns and morale.
• 🍽 The speaker uses lunchtime as a social touchpoint, fostering relationships with colleagues.
• 🔎 Keeping up with industry trends and community feedback is an essential part of a product manager's role.
• 💡 Concept review meetings are forums for team members to pitch ideas, backed by data and research, and receive collective feedback.
• 🚀 The speaker enjoys working on products they are passionate about, highlighting the personal satisfaction in the role.

Q & A

What is the role of a product manager in a company?

A product manager is responsible for the success of the product. They act as a liaison between different internal functions such as product design, engineering, marketing, and sales, creating a narrative to convince the company and the world of the product's value.

How often does the product manager attend the office?

The product manager mentioned in the script goes into the office three days a week, working from home on Mondays and Fridays.

What is the purpose of a standup meeting in a product manager's day?

The standup meeting is a daily event where the engineering team, designers, and the product manager provide updates on their work and discuss any blockers. It serves as a way to connect with teammates and align on shared goals.

What is a sprint in the context of product management?

A sprint is a set period of time during which the team works on a series of user stories, which are changes defined by the product manager, designers, and engineers. The team aims to ship these stories within the sprint duration.

How does the product manager involve engineers in the sprint planning process?

During sprint planning, the product manager walks the engineering team through the user stories they want to ship and engineers provide input on the estimated time and story points required to complete each task.

What are the two types of cross-functional meetings mentioned in the script?

The two types of cross-functional meetings are those related to specific projects, involving direct collaboration with team members, and those with leaders of certain groups or departments to ensure they understand and support the team's direction.

Why is the design review meeting important for a product manager?

The design review meeting is crucial as it allows the team to discuss pixel-level feedback on the product's design before coding begins. It helps ensure the design meets user needs and fits within the product's overall strategy.

How often does the product manager engage in one-on-one sessions with team members?

The product manager tries to meet with each team member they work closely with in one-on-one sessions, typically once every two weeks, and sometimes once a week.

What does the product manager do to maintain a social touchpoint with their team?

On days when the product manager is in the office, they use lunchtime as a social touchpoint by inviting colleagues to join them for a meal, fostering team bonding and communication.

How does the product manager stay connected with industry trends and the user community?

The product manager keeps up with industry trends by looking for ways people use their product and seeking insights into user behavior. They also engage with the community and audience to stay connected and informed.

What is the purpose of a concept review meeting in the product management process?

A concept review meeting is a forum for the team to pitch an idea, complete with data, user research, and possible concepts. It allows for collective feedback and helps justify the allocation of resources to specific projects.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Introduction to a Product Manager's Role

The speaker reflects on their first day as a product manager and expresses their current confidence in the role. With eight years of experience in the consumer travel sector, they've grown increasingly passionate about the job. The speaker outlines the product manager's responsibilities, including liaising with various internal teams to create narratives that drive business forward. They describe their typical workweek, attending the office three days and participating in standup meetings to update the team on progress and blockers. The importance of communication and shared goals within the team is emphasized.

05:00

📈 The Daily Life and Responsibilities of a Product Manager

This paragraph delves into the daily activities of a product manager, including sprint planning meetings every two weeks, where the team works on user stories defined by the product manager, designers, and engineers. The speaker explains the process of breaking down larger tasks into smaller, manageable user stories and the satisfaction derived from completing sprints. They also discuss cross-functional meetings, both for specific projects and with department leaders, to ensure alignment and understanding of the team's direction. The paragraph highlights the hectic nature of the role, the need for expertise, and the speaker's responsibility to facilitate communication within the company.

🛠️ Cross-Functional Collaboration and Design Reviews

The speaker discusses the importance of cross-functional meetings for specific projects, where they collaborate with various team members to ship products. They also mention meetings with department leaders to ensure they are well-informed and comfortable with the team's direction. The paragraph includes the speaker's approach to facilitating communication and addressing concerns from a business standpoint. Additionally, design review meetings are highlighted, where the team discusses pixel-level feedback and user interface considerations, emphasizing the excitement of seeing ideas come to life before coding begins.

🤝 Building Trust and Motivation Through One-On-One Sessions

The speaker emphasizes the value of one-on-one sessions with team members, which occur every one to two weeks. These sessions are used to discuss updates, concerns, and strategic directions, as well as to check in on personal well-being. The speaker finds this approach effective for building trust and leveraging morale and motivation within the team.

🍽️ Social Touchpoints and Industry Trend Analysis

The speaker shares their practice of using lunchtime as a social touchpoint when in the office, inviting colleagues to join them for meals. They also discuss their interest in keeping up with industry trends, looking for ways users enjoy the product that might not have been initially considered. The paragraph concludes with a mention of concept review meetings, where team members pitch ideas supported by data and user research, and receive feedback from the collective brain trust of the team.

🌟 The Passion and Excitement of Product Management

In the final paragraph, the speaker expresses their passion for working on products or features that they themselves would enjoy using. They highlight the excitement of being paid for something they are passionate about and invite the audience to consider a career in product management if they find the speaker's day-to-day activities appealing.

Keywords

💡Product Manager

A product manager is a professional responsible for the success of a product. They act as a liaison between different internal functions such as design, engineering, marketing, and sales. In the video, the product manager creates narratives to convince the company and the world of the product's potential to drive business forward, showcasing the role's importance in guiding product development and strategy.

💡Consumer Travel Space

The consumer travel space refers to the segment of the travel industry that caters to individual consumers rather than businesses. The video mentions that the product manager has been working in this space for eight years, indicating their expertise in managing products aimed at consumers who plan and book their own travel.

💡Standup Meeting

A standup meeting is a brief, daily gathering where team members provide updates on their work and any obstacles they are facing. In the script, the product manager and team members use this format to keep each other informed and address blockers, highlighting the importance of communication in agile work environments.

💡Sprint

A sprint is a set period of time in agile project management during which a team works on a defined set of tasks, known as user stories. The video describes how the product manager leads sprint planning meetings to prioritize and assign tasks, emphasizing the structured approach to product development.

💡User Story

A user story is a simple description of a product feature from the perspective of the end-user. It is used to guide the development process. In the script, the product manager mentions user stories as the basis for the work done during a sprint, illustrating how they capture the needs and expectations of the product's users.

💡Cross-functional Meetings

Cross-functional meetings involve participants from various departments or teams within an organization. The video script describes two types: those focused on specific projects and those with department leaders to ensure alignment and understanding of project direction, showing the collaborative nature of product management.

💡Design Review

A design review is a meeting where the design of a product or feature is discussed and critiqued in detail. The script mentions pixel-level feedback and considerations for user interface elements, demonstrating the attention to detail required in the product development process.

💡One-on-One Session

A one-on-one session refers to a private meeting between two individuals, often used for discussing updates, concerns, and personal matters. The product manager in the video uses these sessions to build trust and address team morale, indicating the human aspect of leadership in product management.

💡Industry Trends

Industry trends refer to emerging patterns or developments within a particular field. The product manager stays informed about trends to understand how people use their product and to identify opportunities for improvement, reflecting the need for continuous learning and adaptation in product management.

💡Concept Review

A concept review is a meeting where new ideas for products or features are presented, complete with supporting data and research. The video describes how this meeting serves as a platform for team members to pitch and validate their ideas, highlighting the importance of innovation and collective feedback in product development.

💡Agile

Agile is a project management and product development approach that emphasizes flexibility, collaboration, and customer feedback. The video's mention of standup meetings, sprints, and user stories are all practices associated with agile methodologies, illustrating the application of agile principles in the daily work of a product manager.

Highlights

The narrator started as a nervous first-day product manager but found it to be the right role for them.

With eight years of experience, the narrator has grown more passionate about being a product manager in the consumer travel space.

A product manager's role is to be the liaison between different internal functions like design, engineering, marketing, and sales.

The product manager creates narratives to convince the company and the world of the team's work driving business forward.

Daily standup meetings help the team provide updates and address blockers to progress.

Bi-weekly sprint planning meetings focus on defining and prioritizing user stories for the next sprint.

Sprints give a sense of accomplishment by shipping features that benefit end users.

Cross-functional meetings ensure alignment and understanding with leaders of different groups or departments.

The work-life of a product manager can be hectic, requiring expertise and facilitating communication within the company.

Design review meetings occur weekly, discussing pixel-level feedback and user interface considerations.

One-on-one sessions help build trust, address concerns, and discuss strategic directions with team members.

Lunchtime serves as a social touchpoint to connect with colleagues.

Keeping up with industry trends is important for a product manager to stay connected with the community and audience.

Concept review meetings allow the team to pitch ideas supported by data and user research for collective feedback.

The narrator enjoys working on products or features they are passionate about and would like to use themselves.

The day of a product manager provides insight into the role and may inspire others to consider it for their career.

Transcripts

[ALARM CLOCK BEEPING]

The first day I was a product manager,

I was a little nervous about what

my life and career would be.

But now, I know that it was the right role for me,

and it totally might be the right role for you as well.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I've been a product manager for about eight years

in the consumer travel space.

I'd say, the life of a product manager, over time,

it's something that I've grown even more passionate about.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I go into the office three days a week.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

On Mondays and Fridays, I'm at home.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

A product manager is ultimately responsible for the success

of the product.

They're the person who is the liaison between a bunch

of different internal functions, let's say, product design,

engineering, marketing, sales, and ultimately what they do

is they create a story or a narrative

to convince the company and the greater world

that the thing that the team is working on

will drive the business forward.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The first meeting of the day is standup.

The engineers on the team, the designers, and myself

will provide a brief update on what we've been working on,

as well as things that are blocking our progress.

OK, great, yeah, I'm glad we figured out that blocker.

I feel like you would have been stuck on that for like two

weeks at this point.

So it's a really good way to, first thing in the morning,

connect with your teammates because at the end of the day

we're all working together towards a shared goal.

Hey, everyone.

OK, so here's what I'm thinking that we should prioritize today.

Every two weeks we have a meeting called sprint planning.

A sprint is a set period of time where the team will work

on a series of user stories.

A user story is basically one change,

and it's oftentimes defined by both me, the designers,

and the engineers.

And I'll walk the engineering team through all of the things

that we want to ship.

Try to move around that other story and focus on this one

instead because I think it's going to impact our power users.

Each of the engineers will then provide some input.

They'll say something like, I think this will take one week.

I think this will take two months.

So how many story points do you think that is?

Based off of that, we'll break each of those things

down into smaller and smaller user stories

until each engineer has a full-enough plate

to keep them busy for the next two weeks.

And what's exciting about sprints

is you get this sense of accomplishment after two weeks

that you've shipped something that your end users will

benefit.

So when we launch this, what kind of QA

are you thinking we should do?

I also have a lot of cross-functional meetings,

and they come in two flavors.

The first flavor is cross-functional meetings when

it comes to a specific project.

Here are the folks that I'm working with in order

to ship something soon.

Let me get analytics opinion on this.

And then the second flavor is cross-functional meetings

with leaders of certain groups or departments.

In that case, it's a little bit more

about making sure that those leaders fully

understand everything from timelines

to the reasoning behind certain decisions.

And that they're comfortable with the direction

that the team is going in.

OK, so here's where I think we need to focus today.

The work life of a product manager

can sometimes be a little hectic.

Every day, someone is relying on you

to know the answer to something and you have

to be an expert in your field.

We need to break it down even further.

Like how does this part of the product work?

I just want to make sure that we're

thinking about this from a business standpoint too as well.

Let me set up some time this afternoon

for us to walk through it.

It's my responsibility to be able to facilitate

a communication or just an outreach to the right people

within the company.

Let's get started.

Design review is a meeting that happens weekly.

In this meeting, everyone will talk about pixel-level feedback.

Let's double check to make sure that the character count

will fit the screen properly.

Where should this button be?

Should it be different on our website

versus on our native apps?

And it's super fun because you get

to see this idea now presented in a way

that actual users will see before you start writing code.

I have a couple follow-up questions,

can we talk about it over coffee maybe?

[MUSIC PLAYING]

So how is this going so far?

I'll really try to meet everyone that I work closely

with in some form of one-on-one session,

probably once every two weeks and a lot of times

once every week.

OK, I definitely hear you.

Talking to them about updates on what the team has been working

on, concerns I might have around certain strategic directions.

I'll also just be like, hey, how are you doing?

We can just talk through it?

Cool.

I think this is where you gain a lot of trust,

and I really like to leverage this also

in the space of just morale and motivation.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Works up an appetite, I guess.

Right?

On the days that I'm in the office,

I use this as a bit of a social touchpoint.

So I'll ask someone that I work with, hey, you

want to go and grab lunch?

[MUSIC PLAYING]

In between meetings, one of the things I really enjoy doing

is keeping up with industry trends.

And I'm mainly looking for things like,

are people using our product in ways

that they enjoy that I'm not thinking about?

As a product manager, it's your role

to stay connected with your community and your audience.

It seems like a pretty interesting idea.

Concept review is one of the most exciting meetings

of the week because it's a forum for a team

to basically pitch an idea.

And that idea will come equipped with data, user research,

and possible concepts.

Between concepts A and B, which one

do you think is the one that will be the least interruptive

to the user experience?

The collective brain trust of the product managers,

the designers, and the engineering leaders

will then offer feedback.

It serves two purposes.

You can communicate to everyone else what you're working on,

and also you can justify the fact

that you're spending the next month on this one project.

Love it.

This one's great.

I say that we run this test and see which one of the variants

ends up winning.

I especially love working on products or features

that I would like to use myself.

Of course, not trying to be biased

because I'm not all of our users,

but it's just really exciting to be able to get

paid honestly for something that you're so passionate about.

Have a good rest of the evening.

Hopefully, this gave you a good sense

of what my day is like as a product manager.

Maybe it's even something that you're

interested in pursuing at some point in your career.

[MUSIC PLAYING]