How To Product Manage (Startup Edition) 😈 7 Steps To Sanity

TL;DR

This isn’t another blog full of pie-in-the-sky theories or frameworks that make you feel like you’re getting a crash course in advanced calculus from Jackson Pollock.

No, this is real talk from someone who’s been in the trenches—often clueless, occasionally brilliant.

So, strap in.

As of writing this, I’ve only been a “real” product manager for about a year and three months, and somehow, at 31, I’m Head of Product at a gamification platform serving Fortune 500 retail customers.

And while I swear I have no idea what I’m doing most of the time, I’m also somehow looked up to as the most experienced member of the product team.

Welcome to the startup life.

Here’s how I survive (and sometimes even thrive) in this sadistic world of startup product management.

The Myth of the Average Day

Let’s start with a reality check:

If you’re still searching for what an “average day” looks like in product management, just… stop.

PMs tell a lot of stories—almost half of which are true—so believe me when I say, no two days are alike.

I’m either deep into financial forecasting (seriously, why am I the one doing this?) or whiteboarding design ideas that probably won’t make it past launch lunch.

It’s chaos, but hey, it keeps me on my toes.

Action Item:

Embrace the madness. If you’re waiting for a routine, you’re going to be waiting for your way into getting RIF’d. Learn to jump from task to task like you’re on an obstacle course and get comfy with being uncomfy.

Communication: It’s Not Mind-Reading

When I first started,

I thought I was so good at communicating.

Turns out,

You can’t be good at communicating on day one, month one, or even year one.

Every company has its own culture and nuances.

It’s like assuming that just because you’re an English-speaking American from Idaho that you’re basically also a Londoner (The answer is a big fat “no” by the way, speaking from experience).

Making sure all parts of the org—devs, designers, QA, and external business units—are on the same page is basically your full-time job as a PM.

You have to know how your teams best absorb information and influence that into your company’s culture.

Since we’re a gamification company, we communicate visually so I explain and facilitate communications visually and interactively.

I practically live on Miro, where my team’s litter flows and wireframes with sticky notes and comments in real-time like a caffeinated ant colony.

Action Item:

Talk. Like, actually talk to your team. Use tools like Miro, but remember, you’re the one responsible for making sure everyone gets heard. Think of yourself as the ambassador to each department, minus the diplomatic immunity (brace yourself).

Design, Iterate, Break It, Fix It, Repeat

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” — Not Albert Einstein

Design something, test it, break it, fix it, and do it all again next week.

I’m constantly tinkering with designs and ideas, but here’s the thing: As a PM, it’s my job to pump the brakes when people start getting too excited.

Not every idea deserves a sprint, even if it sounds like the next big thing.

Action Item:

Keep iterating, but don’t let your team jump off the deep end without checking if there’s water in the pool first. You’ve got to validate, or you’ll end up building a beautiful feature nobody wants.

RICE: How to Cook It and Then Break It Down

Look,

I like the RICE priority matrix framework as much as the next PM, but let’s be real—it’s too vague sometimes.

Quick Tip: When you see the word “framework,” think of it as a mound of clay in pottery class. It’s there for you to shape into something useful to your specific case.

Please, please—for the love of Marty Cagan—do NOT use a vanilla PM framework without tailoring it to your product team’s nuanced needs.

For example:

What exactly is Impact?

For my company, it makes sense to break it down into four things: strategic, objective, financial, and market demand.

And when it comes to Effort?

Oh, you bet I’ve got that sliced up into four things as well: dev, QA, UX, and business.

Tailor RICE (or any framework) to your company.

Action Item:

Don’t worship at the PM framework altar. Make them work for you by getting specific. Break things down into chunks that actually reflect your team’s reality. You’re the one who has to explain this to your Founder/CEO, after all.

Stakeholder Alignment: Like Herding Minotaurs in a Labyrinth

Aligning stakeholders is like trying to get eight territorial bull-human hybrids to play nice in the yard without destroying the hedges—good luck.

The business team wants everything done yesterday, while devs are (rightly) freaking out about timelines and burnout.

I try to make the roadmap and all documents as visible as possible and involve stakeholders in Slack huddles, but everyone is busy, and not everyone will see the product as the number one priority.

You just have to smile, nod, and then do whatever actually needs to be done.

Action Item:

Involve stakeholders early and often, but don’t let them run wild. You’re the ringmaster of this circus, so keep the roadmap from turning into a chaotic free-for-all. You might feel like you’ll get fired for saying “no” to senior stakeholders, but the alternative is getting fired for building a bloated, buggy, unusable heap of garbage (always keep your PM resume up-to-date 😉).

AI: The Admin Hack You Didn’t Know You Needed

Confession time: AI has saved my life.

Well, okay, maybe not literally, but it’s definitely saved my sanity.

I’m not building AI into my product (yet), but I am using it to make my work life a whole lot easier.

From automating Jira tickets to handling bug reports, AI has freed me from hours of admin work.

Quick Tip: Whatever it is you’re trying to automate, someone has already done it.

Find a YouTube video, follow along, and then use ChatGPT to refine and fill in the gaps.

Now, I actually have time to do product-y things, like thinking about big-picture strategy.

Weird, right?

Action Item:

Let AI handle the boring stuff. Automate the grunt work so you can put on the black turtleneck and sound smart and inspiring in meetings (or at least pretend to).

Relationships Matter More Than Any Framework

Sure, frameworks are great, but guess what?

People are more important.

Some devs just want to code in peace, while others want to be part of the product discussion.

My job is to make sure the ones who want to hide in their cave are left alone, while the ones who want to collaborate have a seat at the table.

Action Item:

Get to know your team. Understand their quirks, and manage them accordingly. Build trust, or be prepared to have your grand plans completely ignored.

Bottom Line

Product management isn’t about memorizing frameworks or pretending you’ve got it all figured out—don’t be that person.

Play dumb.

Play curious.

Play caring.

But don’t play smart(er) than anyone else.

Embrace the mess, keep your team on track, and figure it out as you go.

Make peace with the fact that you’ll always be a noob—I have.

So, if you’ve learned anything from this, take this advice as a high-level guide, twist it, tweak it, and tailor it to your specific product situation.

Because product “management” isn’t about theory—it’s about strategy and execution.

And if all else fails, just let AI handle your Jira tickets and Confluence PRDs.

K Bye!

© James Effarah

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