Working from home as a Product Manager
Actionable areas of improvement to effectively WFH as a PM
Over the last year, we have all had to adapt to working from home and depending on the type of work you do, that could have been really easy or brought up some new challenges you had to get used to. A large part of my role as a product manager revolves around communication — with my team, my stakeholders, my management. I know my job can be done remote but adapting to doing it in this manner had its challenges initially. It’s not just about doing your job remotely but being able to do so effectively without a loss in productivity. Over the last year I’ve spent some time identifying tactics/tips that helped me work from home effectively as a product manager and I’ve included them in this article.
I’m not going to go into the best practices of working from home & the best tools to use (there are a ton of articles about this out there, a few of which I’ve included at the end). This article assumes you already have your team set up to work from home with all the tools necessary and is more geared towards tweaking your remote work approach to get the job done effectively as a product manager. The most important takeaway is actually taking the time to evaluate your approach and determine what works best for you.
1 — Ask lots of questions
Why is this important? As a PM my job involves talking to many different people on different teams. When I had conversations with users or stakeholders, I relied on their facial expressions and body language heavily — after all, about 90% of communication is nonverbal! With remote work, these conversations have been reduced to audio or video calls; the same user research that would have been done in person is now done via a screen share and the same conversations with stakeholders is now an audio call with only some people choosing to share their video. Often times people’s faces are not visible clearly. This means you’re missing out on important facial cues that could help understand a person’s point of view, and we are definitely giving up any learnings that could come from body language. As a product manager, I had to find a way to operate with this forced gap in my knowledge.
How can I fix it? To bridge the gap of information from nonverbal cues, I’ve learnt to ask more questions — it’s that simple. If I can’t “see” the information in our conversation and I feel it’s an important point of learning, I just ask to bridge the gap in my knowledge. Just remember that each person’s time is valuable therefore ensure you’re making the most of it by asking:
- relevant questions
- questions that have not already been asked before
- targeted questions that address a gap in your knowledge
2 — Be adaptable (even more so than before)
Why is this important? At the office it’s quite easy to approach a team member with a question or nudge them for an update on something. Context switching probably already comes to you naturally since you’re juggling multiple stakeholders and moving pieces as a product manager. Now that you’re working from home, you’re not going to be able to “nudge” that co-worker anymore. Asynchronous conversation is the norm now, with that Slack message going un-answered for hours and your co-worker unavailable for a quick call. You’re going to miss out on the short conversation exchange that could go a long way in helping you get the answers you are looking for.
How can I fix it? If you’re a product manager, you’re likely already comfortable with context switching. Leverage this key skill and adopt a more flexible approach to your work so that you’re not creating hurdles for yourself while your coworkers may be busy with other work/calls and not responding to Slack messages. Take some time to evaluate the following:
- How urgent is it? Is there any other way you can get this info — another team member or Google perhaps? Evaluate your need and the urgency to ensure you’re reaching out about the most pressing item
- What is each team member’s communication preference and working style? Work as a team to figure this out and try and respect them as much as possible to ensure you are reaching them via the best method but also not interrupting their work
- Document notes not only from meetings but also important learnings from conversations in a centralized location where anyone can access it. This avoids duplication of questions and often means questions get answered before you even fully formulate them in your mind
- Approach any decision-point with a user-focused mindset (this should come easy as a product manager but sometimes it can escape you when things seem dire)
- Group questions for the same individual together so you’re making the most use of the limited time you may have on a call with them
3 — Prioritize your day, own it & stick to it
Why is this important? While working from home, distractions are everywhere. It can be as small as a delivery you have to tend to or something much bigger like your pet running amok and leaving a mess behind them. There’s always something to deal with in addition to work. Therefore, it’s important to apply the same ruthless prioritization you would apply to your product requirements, to your own work.
How can I fix this? I treat my day like a mini sprint that lasts one day and prioritize 2 to 3 key non-negotiable tasks I want to complete for that day. If possible I try to assign “effort estimates” to each item — the goal isn’t to time box an activity, but rather ensure I’m properly evaluating the activity I’ve set out to achieve for the day and made sure it’s a realistic piece of work I can complete. I usually set 10 mins aside to complete this right when I log on (before I get distracted by emails or messages because we all know that’s happening sooner or later).
Understand what works for you
This isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” situation. The one biggest thing that helped me was to assess my situation/needs and see where I lacked or where inefficiencies were introduced. The most important thing is to actual take time to evaluate your approach. You need to reflect on your work habits, your team preferences, the tools you have available and your goals to figure out an approach that works best for you. The more you actively evaluate this and adapt, the more you start getting creative with your approach and your work!
A huge thank you to Hicham Abou-Jaoude for inspiring this article!
Some more resources…
Here’s some more interesting reads on remote product management:
