Hi, my name is Kiyani and I'm a student of products. Some time ago, you subscribed to this newsletter because I promised to share with you some of the lessons I'm learning along my product journey. Here is one of them.
I recall a Product Management course I took with Lenny Rachitsky a few years ago. He stressed the importance of building a reputation as a PM of "I've got this. 💪🏽 "
As PMs, we serve as catalysts to help a company deliver impact. We are a hub for people to voice their concerns and seek solutions, so yes, it’s critical that people know they can rely on you to move things forward! However, the flip side when everyone knows you can solve problems, is that it can quickly become overwhelming.
In startups, everything can seem urgent.
New features need to be shipped, customer support tickets need solving, partners need more information to sign vital contracts, and so on. It's very easy to spend days in reactive mode. This can quickly cannibalize time for more impactful tasks.
Here are some tips I try to implement on days like today when I'm inundated with requests:
Update my Slack status to let my team know I'll respond with a delay
When asked for clarity on a project I don't have time to focus on, I provide a clear ETA, even if it's one or two weeks out. I set automatic reminders to ensure I don't forget and to ease the mental load
Turn off Slack notifications when doing deep focus work
Prioritize tasks by using an Eisenhower matrix: focus on what I should focus on vs what XYZ think should be my priorities
Reserve 2 hours in the day: 1h in the AM, 1h in the PM to respond to important but non-urgent messages
Empower my team and delegate as much as possible: even though people come to me it’s doesn’t mean that I am the only one that can solve their issues
But to be honest, these tips are nice, but the real difficulty lies elsewhere. It’s the comprehension of our role.
Ultimately, the most important thing is learning to accept that we can't be in multiple places at once and being okay with it.
Product managers need to solve the most impactful problems, not all problems. We must learn to be okay with dropping the ball on unimportant tasks.
Let’s aim to communicate our constraints clearly with our team, ensure to always follow up in a timely manner, ruthlessly block time to work on our priorities, and breathe.
We do got this.
Until next time,
Mindfully breathing yours,
Ki