Best of 2021: Time Management: How to Break Down Your Work Hours
Mar 1, 2023
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Learn from time management experts, Alex Selby (Amazon) and Swati Goel (Facebook), as they discuss the importance of structured and creative meetings, gathering data from customers, and strategic time allocation. They also touch on the Inclusive Product Management Accelerator program and the balance between outcome-driven meetings and allowing for creativity.
Effective time management enables product managers to prioritize tasks, understand customers, and develop product strategies.
The distribution of time between strategy and execution depends on the product's stage, organizational priorities, and the product manager's role.
Balancing structured and unstructured time allows product managers to foster creativity, spark innovative ideas, and drive collaborative conversations.
Deep dives
The importance of time management
Time management plays a crucial role in the productivity and success of product managers. It allows them to prioritize tasks and ensure efficient use of time. By managing their time effectively, product managers can focus on the most important aspects, such as understanding customers, developing product strategies, and staying up to date with market trends and technologies. Time management also enables product managers to balance between strategic thinking and execution, allocate sufficient time for creativity and innovation, and maintain a strong team collaboration. The ability to manage time well is considered a competitive advantage for product managers and contributes to their overall effectiveness in the role.
Balancing strategy and execution
Product managers need to strike a balance between strategy and execution in their time allocation. The distribution of time between these two areas depends on the stage of product development, organizational priorities, and the product manager's role. During strategic planning phases, product managers dedicate a significant portion of their time to understanding customers, evaluating market trends, and setting product roadmaps. This allows them to align the product vision with business goals. As projects move into execution, the focus shifts towards coordinating cross-functional teams, monitoring project progress, and aligning with stakeholders. Product managers may allocate time for regular check-ins, addressing critical issues, and ensuring smooth project execution. Adaptability is key, as the equilibrium between strategy and execution may vary based on the maturity of the product and business context.
Creativity and structured time
Creativity plays a vital role in product management, and creating structured time for it is crucial. While structured meetings with clear objectives and timeframes are essential for efficiency, fostering creative thinking requires intentional space. Product managers can allocate specific time for creative sessions, where team members bring their individual ideas, explore them together, and shape them collaboratively. Facilitation skills are important for driving productive conversations and ensuring equal participation. Moreover, allowing for unstructured and unstructured time for ideation, reflection, and exploration can spark innovative ideas. A balanced approach that combines both structured and unstructured time enables product managers to harness the benefits of structured productivity while fostering a creative and collaborative environment.
Importance of Time Management in Product Management
Effective time management is crucial for product managers to succeed. As a product manager, one must prioritize and make strategic trade-offs since saying yes to one thing often means saying no to others. Setting aside time for ideation and long-term vision is essential for building world-class products. Product managers should aim to stay close to customers on a frequent basis, listening to their feedback, understanding their needs, and incorporating their insights into product development. Continuous learning, both about the business and users, is vital for refining product strategies and delivering value quickly. Ultimately, time management is about making deliberate choices and maximizing productivity while staying focused on the product's vision and goals.
Unlocking Career Growth as a Product Manager
For those interested in a career shift from a machine learning engineer to a product manager, it is important to recognize the necessary skills and consider the opportunities available. While career transitions depend on various factors, such as industry and individual circumstances, it is feasible to make this shift with a generalized sense of opportunity. To facilitate this transition, individuals can work closely with product managers in their current organization, taking ownership of parts of the product and collaborating on strategy and data evaluation. Engaging in product-adjacent roles or tasks can provide a valuable introduction to product management and help determine interest and aptitude. Embracing challenges and taking the hard path can also be conducive to learning and growth. Proper time management and a continuous focus on learning and development can facilitate a successful transition and accelerate career growth as a product manager.
In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board member Soumeya Benghanem welcome Alex Selby (Amazon) and Swati Goel (Facebook) to talk about time management. Today’s focus is on how much time PMs need to allocate for structured and creative meetings, checking with customers to gather data on existing products, and breaking down your day strategically so you’ll have time to refresh your thoughts and replenish your creativity.
What to Listen For:
00:00 Intro
02:17 Why is time management and productivity important?
07:02 Breaking down your day with time bucketing
09:45 For PMs, unstructured, unfocused time is critical
11:47 Block out an hour for yourself everyday
14:29 Deciding how much time to put into strategy versus execution
18:45 Business priorities and where you’re product is at
20:41 From 90/10 to 60/40 time allocation with customers
28:33 Look for product adjacent roles or tasks that you can take on
33:20 Pick up patterns from the first customers and bring back to the team for planning
36:03 Learn more about the Inclusive Product Management Accelerator program
38:01 The writing culture in meetings is an artifact while building a product
42:07 Balance between outcome driven structured meetings and allowing creativity
44:23 Allow for creative sessions but facilitation is still needed
48:25 Start conversations with a wide approach first
49:20 Choose which meetings are mandatory for you
51:31 Time management takes a little bit of practice
53:02 How often should PMs check on customers
56:55 “Be specific and strategy in spending your time.” - Alex Selby
57:51 Listen to How to Be More Productive (Ep. 243)
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