How to be a great PM?
I took up a PM role in March 2021. This has been my first managerial and PM role. I'm working at Sundial, where we've 3 major teams - Data Science, Design & Engineers. Below are my learnings from my work with the team and will continue to update this with new learnings, new reference links and lot more. Hope this helps you!
Processes
- Keep a 50-50 deadline for the team - push them
- Keep a 80-20 deadline in your mind - fulfil it
- Review ALL to-dos once in 2 weeks - remove tasks which are not needed now
Skills
- Keep minimum 1 slot per week to read - read about industry, about your business, about PMing, about technology, anything
- Keep minimum 2 slots per week to do individual contribution work, else you'll get so involved in organising and coordinating that you'll miss out!
- Keep 1 slot for scheduling meetings or following up - else it will continue all day!
- Document - in detail - ensure all relevant links are at one place
People Relations
Fellow PMs
- When working on collaborative work - have more 1-1s - understand the process, define work responsibility boundaries
- For smaller projects, just designate 1 PM and others should step away
Designers
- Give them feedback on what the problem is - not the solution (why does this not work, not - change the color)
- Links
- https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/product-managers-visual-designers/
- Great article - gives to the point advice
- https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/product-managers-visual-designers/
Data scientist
- Ensure your DS feel they can brainstorm with you
- Have enough context to give good feedback & get your hands dirty when needed
Engineers
- They need blocks of time to work - ensure you're not breaking a big continuous time block (have scheduled meetings at start / end of day)
Great links
- Documentation & why it's important for a PM
- When & how to have meetings