Best of 2021: Time Management: How to Break Down Your Work Hours

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.

Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.

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)