Slides Andy Wadhwa recently used in his discussion w/ mentees of The Product Mentor. Synopsis: Getting things done and accomplishing more in less time is an especially important skill for product managers. During this talk, Andy will go over a list of recommendations he has found to be helpful in boosting his level of productivity. The Product Mentor is a program designed to pair Product Mentors and Mentees from around the World, across all industries, from start-up to enterprise, guided by the fundamental goals…Better Decisions. Better Products. Better Product People. Throughout the program, each mentor leads a conversation in an area of their expertise that is live streamed and available to both mentee and the broader product community. http://TheProductMentor.com

1. PRODUCTIVITY HACKS FOR PRODUCT
MANAGERS
GETTING MORE DONE IN LESS TIME
APRIL 16TH, 2017
Presented By: Andy Wadhwa

2. About Me
2
• Product Leader w/ 10+ years experience
• Mix of consumer & enterprise software at startups and mid-size companies
• BA in Computer Science & MBA

3. Do these challenges sound familiar?
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• Fighting daily fires rather making headway on product work
• Day filled with meetings
• Inundated with email
• Slack, HipChat, Skype messages that need attention
• Too many priorities
• Never ending to do list of tasks
• Juggling work and personal life

4. The myth of multi-tasking
4

5. Good PM = Everything to everybody
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• “Go-to” person within the organization
• Fix problems, answer questions, serve as a
resource
• Less and less time to get actual work done

6. Staying afloat
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• Requires discipline & focus
• Being deliberate instead of reactive
• Spending time on high impact projects
• Deliver projects on time
• Staying balanced & fresh

7. My Top 9 Productivity Hacks
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8. Hack #1 – Say ”No”
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• Politely decline meetings that:
• Don’t have a clear agenda or goal/decision to
be made
• Have a large group of people where it’s likely
nothing gets accomplished
• Don’t have a clear way for you to contribute
• Avoid becoming the information filter/bottleneck on
your team
• Scale your thinking and empower others
• Set boundaries on what you are going to commit to
• Understand your limits
• Ask for additional resources or help early

9. Hack #2 – Prioritize
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• Place each to do item into one of the
quadrants
• Keep company priorities in mind
• Focus on the important
• Delegate, outsource, automate, delete
appropriate tasks
• Reprioritize regularly
• When everything is a high priority, there
is no priority
Source – The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

10. Hack #3 – Plan your goals
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• Identify 2-4 things to accomplish each week
• Think about your larger goals
• Break them down into smaller tasks you think
can be accomplished in a week
• Write them out
• Hold yourself accountable
• Send goals to your manager
• Retrospect at end of week
• Record what you did and didn’t accomplish
• Apply learnings

11. Hack #4 – Time box tasks &
meetings11
• Focus on one thing at a time
• Try Pomodoro technique
• Block off time on your calendar to get work done
• Tactics for efficient meetings
• Provide a clear agenda
• Start and end on time
• Keep meeting on topic
• Put unresolved matters into a parking lot
• Capture decisions & action items (with
assignments and due dates)

12. Hack #5 – Manage your online presence
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• Master email & IM
• Check at 2-3 intervals during the day
• Turn off notifications
• Avoid long threads
• Process rapidly
• Delete
• Turn into task
• Read Later
• Short response

13. Hack #6 – Don’t be a Product Janitor
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• Take control of defining your role and day to day responsibilities

14. Hack #7 – 10% Feedback
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• When working on a task with ambiguity:
• Gather feedback/demo early
• Don’t aim for perfection initially
• How can I get feedback today?
• Set expectations beforehand with
person who is reviewing your work
• Adjust your work based on feedback
and repeat

15. Hack #8 – Pareto principle
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• Leverage the 80/20 rule:
• what 20% of tasks to focus on?
• what 20% of meetings to attend?
• what 20% of features to build?
• what 20% of defects to fix?
• Shift towards a 80/20 lifestyle

16. Hack #9 – Downtime
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• Health matters in the long run
• Plan and take 2-3 breaks during the work
day
• Eat meals on time
• Consistent sleep schedule
• Exercise
• Unplug from all your devices

17. Bene
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Parting Thoughts
• Start small
• Stay disciplined
• It will feel unnatural
• Transformation takes patience
• Have someone hold you accountable
• Your mileage may vary