For those of you who oversee multiple products. What is your method? When I first started at my company, I only had one product in mind. Now that I am responsible for overseeing three products with a team for each, I am finding it difficult to keep track of everything, especially the minute details. What more can I do besides ask my employer to hire additional product managers?
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Simply put, you cannot waste your time on menial tasks like writing tickets. To develop the shared vision and requirements, you must collaborate with senior engineers, tech leaders, and engineering managers. You must then rely on these leads to divide the job into manageable portions for your team.
To enable engineers to make decisions on specifics WITHOUT always consulting you, you must concentrate on clearly defining the goals and tradeoffs. You must provide them with the knowledge they need to act more autonomously.
If not, search for recent discussions on managing meeting loads. You should only go to meetings when you have something to contribute.
In order to organize your meetings, work time, and reduce context switching, I also advise dedicating specific days of the week to the various products (if at all possible). You can also keep track of which project is taking the longest thanks to this.
Finally, if the products are related, determine if they actually need to be separate products.
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The main focus is on remaining organised. How does one go about doing that? Create a planning calendar.
For instance, I categorize my to-do list by product category. And I often list my major objectives for each section. I will drown under many projects and many small action items. So I try to track the majority of my action items using a spreadsheet. I tidy up the list a few times a week (though I frequently forgot to do this). In order to keep my teams coordinated, we also conduct meetings.
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Managing multiple products and teams can be challenging, especially when it comes to staying on top of all the details. While hiring more product managers may be one solution, there are other steps you can take to improve your effectiveness and manage the workload more efficiently. Here are some suggestions:
- Prioritize tasks: Determine which tasks are critical and need immediate attention. Prioritizing tasks can help you allocate your time and effort more effectively, ensuring that important details don’t get overlooked.
- Delegate tasks: Identify tasks that can be delegated to your team members. Delegating responsibilities not only helps lighten your workload but also empowers your team members and helps them grow professionally. Ensure that you communicate expectations clearly and provide necessary support and guidance.
- Set clear goals and expectations: Establish clear goals and expectations for each product and team. Communicate these goals to your team members and provide them with the necessary context and guidance. When everyone is aligned on the objectives, it becomes easier to track progress and ensure that the important details are being addressed.
- Automate and streamline processes: Look for opportunities to automate or streamline repetitive tasks and processes. This can help save time and reduce the chance of overlooking small details. Consider using project management tools, collaboration platforms, or task management software to organize and streamline your work.
- Develop a system for tracking details: Establish a system or process for tracking and managing details across multiple products. This could involve using spreadsheets, project management tools, or dedicated documentation for each product. Regularly review and update these documents to stay organized and ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
- Improve communication and collaboration: Foster open and transparent communication within your teams. Encourage team members to share updates, challenges, and concerns, which can help identify potential issues before they become major problems. Regular team meetings, stand-ups, or check-ins can facilitate better collaboration and keep everyone informed.
- Enhance your personal organization skills: Invest in improving your personal organization skills. Use techniques like time blocking, creating to-do lists, and setting reminders to stay organized and manage your time effectively. Adopting productivity tools and methods such as the Pomodoro Technique or the Eisenhower Matrix can also help you prioritize and manage your tasks efficiently.
- Seek support from colleagues and mentors: Reach out to colleagues or mentors who have experience managing multiple products or teams. They may have valuable insights, strategies, or advice to help you navigate the challenges you’re facing. Don’t hesitate to ask for support or guidance when needed.
Remember, it’s important to communicate your challenges to your superiors or team leaders. They may be able to provide additional resources or suggest alternative solutions to help you manage your workload more effectively.
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Let me guess, working in tech but not for a tech company? I commiserate.
I managed 3 apps, each with a variety of products embedded in them. I would estimate ~10 products total. I started with 2 apps and stood up a 3rd in the year I worked there.
In addition, I was heavily involved in solution architecture for new customers (B2B), managing 4 dev teams and had but one very earnest and very green APM. This left the ratio of 1.5 product : 25 devs. This was while working in a tech org for a non-tech company.
I did the following:
- Created transparency with my boss. I had a weekly one on one and would share what I did and what slipped so that he was never surprised. I reported to a VP so I didn’t make a laundry list of items - that would be a waste of time. Instead, I would hype what I did and then slip in “by the way, X got pushed a month if so and so asks because of priority 1 and 2”.
- I expressed how difficult it was and asked for more staff. Not in a whiny way but in a matter-of-fact way.
- I put together an org chart proposal on how I would divide up the work and how many I could train at a given time. The idea being that it would be used to justify the additional headcount and be taken more seriously. It was a good exercise for me too.
- Delegated to the team leads and architects as much as I could.
- Try to focus on the current problem at hand. Yes, I had great roadmaps and strategy, but the details required for tactical implementation were not figured out more than a month in advance. The team leads helped with some of that too - see #5.
- Declined meetings
- I gave myself a deadline of how long I would wait for them to add headcount
I left just shy of 12 months later and my boss didn’t blame me at all. In fact, during my exit she had me pull up the org chart proposal I put together and walk her and some others through it again. Sometimes leaving is the best option but give them a shot to fix things first.
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@HerbertWarnick, Thanks. I work for a tech firm, but I’ve been advised that adding more workers won’t be possible until we have more funding.
How do you delegate to others (and by others, I mean the engineers)? I have to explain everything to everyone most of the time.
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@WhitneyChard, Scrum tasks should come first. They ought to be able to control the backlog and write storylines. I drafted epic level requirements and carefully discussed them with the teams. From then, the crew wrote almost all of the storylines. They may consult the requirements and ask me when they had queries about requirements during development. They had the authority to schedule meetings with interested parties in order to obtain the answers if the question was truly novel.
On any cross-functional product and project meetings, we divided and conquered as well. Although it wasn’t ideal, we would synchronize twice a week, and splitting the meetings actually helped everyone save a few hours each week.
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Enable and empower your designers; their work is the closest to that of a product manager. concentrate on managing at the strategic level, while others handle story maintenance, and you merely provide basic guidance. You really don’t have much else to do. Ask PMs to handle the larger projects.
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I manage 5 currently, but have had as many as 10 at one point. It’s obviously not efficient to have one PM managing that many products but if you can delegate effectively and manage your time well, then it’s possible.
I wouldn’t say I work any harder than a pm with 1 or 2 products but it’s fair to say that the more you have the less love each of them gets.
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Use BAs or Product Owners; allow them to interact with the teams and products more closely and concentrate on managing the portfolio. Maintaining everyone’s focus, guaranteeing coordination amongst the products (so they aren’t all completely divergent), and allocating epics between them were my key responsibilities. But yeah, it’s all middle management.
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Delegating tasks to engineers or technical team members can indeed require clear communication and explicit instructions. Here are some strategies to effectively delegate tasks while minimizing the need to spell everything out:
- Define the desired outcome: Clearly communicate the end goal or desired outcome of the task. Explain why it’s important and how it contributes to the overall objectives. When team members understand the purpose and context, they can better align their efforts and make informed decisions.
- Provide guidelines and constraints: Instead of providing detailed step-by-step instructions, offer guidelines and constraints within which the task should be completed. This allows team members to exercise their judgment and creativity while ensuring they stay within the necessary boundaries.
- Share relevant information: Provide the necessary background information, context, and resources related to the task. This includes any relevant documentation, specifications, design guidelines, or previous work. By equipping team members with the right information, you enable them to make informed decisions and carry out the task more effectively.
- Encourage questions and clarifications: Create an environment where team members feel comfortable asking questions and seeking clarifications. Encourage them to seek additional information if something is unclear or ambiguous. This helps avoid misunderstandings and ensures that everyone is on the same page.
- Leverage the expertise of team members: Trust in the expertise of your engineers and leverage their skills. Instead of micro-managing, empower them to make decisions and suggest solutions. Give them autonomy to explore different approaches and provide feedback or guidance when necessary. This fosters a sense of ownership and encourages creativity.
- Provide feedback and recognition: Regularly provide feedback on the work completed by your team members. Recognize their efforts and acknowledge their achievements. Constructive feedback can help improve their skills and increase their confidence, while recognition boosts morale and motivation.
- Encourage knowledge sharing: Facilitate knowledge sharing among team members. Encourage them to document their work, share best practices, and collaborate on solutions. This not only helps distribute knowledge but also builds a culture of learning and collaboration within the team.
Remember that effective delegation requires trust and a supportive work environment. By empowering your engineers and involving them in decision-making processes, you can build a strong and capable team that can handle tasks with minimal hand-holding. Over time, this can help reduce the need for you to spell out every detail and create more efficient workflows.
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