What are growth loops? 

Growth loops are an evolution from the idea of typical marketing funnels. It’s all built around maintaining a continuous cycle of input, action, and output.

See, imagine your typical growth funnel. For it to be effective, you need to shovel in loads of leads and users at the top. Once they reach the bottom, great – you’ve got a customer, but to keep the funnel effective you need to go out and get fresh input, otherwise, the funnel runs dry.

The idea of a growth loop is that the output is then fed back into the machine, being used to drive more acquisition or growth. Each cycle feeds into the next.

It’s like making flour. You take the wheat (input), grind it all up in a mill (action), and then get flour (output). Now, you could just stop there and shovel flour in your mouth, or you can put it into another loop where you turn that flour into the much tastier bread. The first output has become the next cycle’s input.

In its essence, the growth loop is pretty simple. Just three main sections:

• Input: This is the starting point where users entire the loop. Strategies to get them into the loop can include your marketing or product-led growth tactics. Essentially, it’s how new users discover your product or service.
• Action: Once users are in the loop, they take specific actions that allow them to engage with and extract the value proposition from your product. For example, signing up for a trial, sharing a link with their network, or trying out a new feature. This step is where the magic happens.
• Output: This is where the real power of the growth loop comes into play. Outputs often take the form of new users, additional engagement, or revenue, and they feed back into the loop to create more inputs.

Growth loops vs AAARR funnel

Growth loops have developed as a fresh alternative to pirate metrics and the funnel that they create, but what brought about this evolution? The AAARR framework has been the dominant model for analyzing user growth for years, breaking down the customer journey into five linear stages:

1. Acquisition
2. Activation 
3. Retention 
4. Referral 
5. Revenue

It’s a great way to measure and optimize the key points in a traditional funnel. But as in life, things change – users are now more complex and behave differently and require a different framework that reflects this.

Growth loops are designed to tackle several core weaknesses of the AAARR funnel while offering benefits that suit the growing shift to product-led GTM. To understand this change, let’s break down the issues with pirate metrics.

What are the problems with the AAARR funnel?

Siloed team structures

One of the biggest challenges with the AAARR framework is how it creates functional silos within an organization. Each team, be it Marketing, Product, Sales, or Customer Success, is typically responsible for a single stage of the funnel, with their performance tied to metrics within that stage.

For instance, Marketing might focus on maximizing leads at the acquisition stage, while your Product Team focuses on keeping those leads in the product during the retention stage. This structure often results in a box-ticking mindset, where everyone is focused on individual metrics for their specific team and not the overall North Star metric that should be guiding everything that they do.

In short, this funnel approach can create disjointed teams.

One-directional growth

Funnels, by design, are linear and end at the revenue stage. Once a user has completed their journey through the funnel, their value to the company essentially plateaus.

Yeah, it’s great to have a customer chilling out, enjoying your product, and renewing every year, but if everyone is doing that you’re just treading water. You’re not using these potential champions to drive further growth.

There’s no built-in mechanism to harness these users to bring in others. This makes the model highly dependent on continually adding new users at the top – a costly and resource-intensive approach.

High maintenance costs

Maintaining momentum in an AAARR funnel requires constant effort and investment. Paid ads, cold outreach, and other acquisition-heavy tactics dominate the strategy, making growth dependent on how much you’re willing to spend. 

Without fresh inputs, the funnel slows to a halt, so you’re in a constant battle of making sure you’ve got enough leads at the top of the funnel to keep everyone else well-satiated. That’s a major cause of anxiety for marketing teams!

Thankfully, a growth loop can address these problems.

What makes growth loops so good? 

Self-sustaining, compounding growth

Growth loops are inherently circular. Instead of ending at a conversion point, they reinvest user actions and outputs back into the system to attract more users. 

For example, a common growth loop tactic is to encourage a satisfied customer to refer a new user, who then repeats the cycle. Over time, this creates a compounding effect, where each loop amplifies the next. The result? Sustainable growth that doesn’t rely on an ever-expanding budget.

Cost-effective acquisition

Unlike funnels, which prioritize top-heavy acquisition strategies, growth loops make use of existing users to fuel new growth. 

There are so many tactics to achieve this, such as tapping into mechanisms like referrals, user-generated content, or network effects, lowering the cost of acquisition. 

This approach aligns with the principle that retaining and engaging current users is far cheaper than constantly acquiring new ones and it turns these engaged customers into little sales reps of their own.

Breaking down silos

Growth loops encourage cross-functional collaboration. Instead of departments focusing solely on their slice of the funnel, teams must work together to optimize the entire loop. This means Product, Marketing, and Customer Success and Support work in unison, aligning on common goals rather than being blinkered to their team metric alone.

This unified alignment makes everyone more efficient, creating a cross-functional collaboration that works for all.

What are the different types of growth loops?

Growth loops can be unique to each and every company using them. That said, many conform to a certain type, depending on the desired goal, or the driving force behind the growth loop (i.e. what’s going to encourage that growth).

Here’s a look at the main types of growth loops you can deploy, with more information on some of the tactics associated with them: 

Product-led growth loops

Product-led growth (PLG) loops use the product itself as the main engine for user acquisition, retention, and expansion. The focus is on delivering exceptional value that drives users to adopt, engage, and recommend the product organically.

The product is both the driver and beneficiary of this loop, so consistent iteration is important. Metrics to track include product usage rates, feature adoption rate, and user feedback scores. 

Here are some examples of various product-led growth loops:

Acquisition growth loops

Acquisition growth loops focus on bringing in new users by capitalizing on the actions of existing ones. At its core, this loop relies on a cycle where users experience value from a product, share it with others, and attract more users who repeat the process.

To implement an acquisition loop:

• Make it easy for users to share your product or invite others.
• Highlight the value or benefits of sharing, such as enhancing collaboration or access to exclusive features.
• Create tools or prompts that naturally encourage sharing, like referral programs or social sharing buttons.

The success of this loop hinges on seamless user experiences and a compelling reason for users to spread the word, such as rewards and incentives for doing so. 

This type of growth loop works particularly well for products like collaboration or file-sharing tools, where one user may be using the product to share something with a colleague, inadvertently inviting them to engage with the product too.

Engagement and retention loops

Engagement and retention loops aim to deepen user satisfaction and reduce customer churn by keeping users actively engaged. These loops build momentum by ensuring users consistently experience value, fostering loyalty and advocacy.

To create engagement and retention loops:

• Identify your product’s wow moment and ensure users reach it quickly.
• Continuously add value through feature updates, personalized recommendations, or engaging content.
• Build mechanisms that reward consistent usage, such as streaks, progress tracking, or in-app achievements.
• Encourage these high-usage, well-engaged users to post reviews, share their experiences or work with you on case studies and testimonials.

To achieve this sort of growth loop you need to have a laser focus on user-centric design and pay extremely close attention to your customer feedback, making sure you’re responding to it and delivering exactly what your users need. 

Then, to close this loop and keep the process cycling through, you need to encourage the highly engaged users your efforts have created to spread the word with referrals and reviews, becoming your product advocates.

Expansion growth loops

Expansion growth loops focus on increasing revenue by selling more to your existing user base. These loops often rely on upselling, cross-selling, or introducing add-ons that complement the user’s current plan or usage level.

These loops work best when you have a tiered product pricing strategy or have a modular approach where users can pick and choose what features they want.

To develop expansion loops:

• Offer tiered pricing plans or premium features that scale with user needs.
• Analyze user behavior to identify when they’re likely to upgrade or purchase additional features.
• Use in-app messaging or targeted campaigns to promote relevant add-ons or higher-tier plans.

The key to a successful expansion loop is ensuring users see clear value in upgrading. You can show this value with a reverse trial and effective user onboarding techniques in your product tour. 

Viral growth loops

Viral growth loops are built around encouraging users to share your product widely, creating a self-sustaining cycle of user acquisition. This loop relies on human connections and the natural tendency to share experiences.

To design a viral growth loop:

• Make sharing effortless by integrating social sharing features or invite systems directly into your product.
• Leverage organic sharing and network effects into your product.
• Ensure the product offers inherent value that users want to share with their networks.

These sound pretty similar to acquisition growth loops don’t they, so what’s the difference here? Well, viral growth loops are designed where the product is spread naturally: sharing the product is part of its design. 

Acquisition growth loops are more deliberate, where you’re encouraging current users to bring in new users through things like incentives. 

So a SaaS product offering rewards for a referral is an acquisition growth loop, whereas communication products or social media platforms that need you to connect with other users to experience value will use a viral growth loop. 

Acquisition growth loops focus on consistently bringing in new users through intentional actions like referrals or incentives, creating a steady and repeatable growth cycle. In contrast, viral growth loops rely on existing users to share the product organically, leveraging network effects and natural behaviors to spread quickly, often with less control. 

While acquisition loops are predictable and incentive-driven, viral loops can scale faster but are harder to engineer

For a viral loop to succeed, the product must resonate strongly with users and have built-in mechanisms that amplify its spread. Metrics like viral coefficient (the number of new users brought in by existing users) and referral activity are key to measuring its effectiveness.

Content-led growth loops

Content-led growth loops harness the power of content to attract, engage, and retain users. This loop thrives on creating valuable, shareable, and discoverable content that connects with your target audience and aligns with their needs.

To create a content-led growth loop:

• Develop high-quality, relevant content that addresses your audience’s pain points or interests.
• Leverage distribution channels like search engines, social media, and newsletters to reach more users.
• Use your content to showcase the product’s value, embedding it naturally within the user’s journey.

Sustaining this loop requires a strong content strategy and consistent output. Key metrics to focus on through this growth loop include content engagement, website traffic, and conversion rates from content to product users.

Is a growth loop different from a flywheel? 

A flywheel is a concept borrowed from mechanics – think of a heavy wheel that takes significant effort to get moving. But once it gains momentum, it spins faster and more efficiently, requiring less energy to maintain. In growth terms, a flywheel describes the compounding effects of multiple systems (or loops) working together to create sustainable, long-term growth.

Here’s where growth loops come in: they’re the individual, self-sustaining cycles that fuel the flywheel. A growth loop has a clear input, a process, and an output which feeds back into the loop. For example, a user sharing content brings in new users, who then share more content, driving further growth.

Now, a flywheel connects multiple growth loops into a bigger, integrated system. Instead of relying on linear strategies, the flywheel leverages the combined momentum of loops to generate exponential growth. For example:

1. Content drives organic traffic new users join.
2. New users generate data   better personalization.
3. Personalization improves user experience users stay longer and share.

These are linking separate growth loops into a combined system.

Initially, you need significant effort to build the loops and align them into a cohesive flywheel. But as these loops begin reinforcing one another, the flywheel builds momentum, requiring less energy to sustain growth.

The key difference? Growth loops are smaller, measurable cycles driving individual gains, while a flywheel is the holistic, compounding system that connects these loops into an unstoppable momentum. Loops are the parts, and the flywheel is the machine that turns them into lasting growth.

Examples of successful growth loops

It’s hard to talk about growth loops without exploring examples of them in practice. Each loop is unique to each company, so it’s tough to get a full understanding when generalizing the framework. 

Here’s a look at how three major companies that you’ll probably recognize used growth loops to massively influence their growth. 

Netflix 

Netflix’s retention-focused growth loop is a masterclass in using data to fuel engagement. The loop begins with a new user signing up. Once onboarded, Netflix uses its extensive recommendation engine to analyze viewing habits and suggest highly personalized recommendations based on what a user has engaged with before. 

This improves the value of the service, ensuring that users get a customized experience. This keeps them around and on the platform – boosting retention numbers – while also making them more likely to refer others.

The loop unfolds like this:

• Input: A new user joins Netflix and watches a few things.
• Action: Netflix analyzes viewing habits to suggest suitable content. 
• Output: The user enjoys recommended content and continues to use the platform.

The trick here is that each time a customer goes through this recommendation loop, the stronger it gets. The platform reinvests the data from user interactions to continuously refine its recommendation engine. 

The more users Netflix has, the better these algorithms perform, rewarding users who stick with the service by improving the experience they receive. This compounding effect not only sustains engagement but also ensures that Netflix remains top-of-mind in the competitive streaming market, feeding the growth loop. 

Slack 

Slack thrives on a viral growth loop powered by collaboration and invitation. At the heart of this loop is Slack Connect, a feature that allows users to join or invite others into shared channels. 

This approach reduces barriers for new users, as they don’t need their own team or organization to give Slack a go. By participating in other teams’ Slack channels, invited users naturally become familiar with the platform, building affinity and curiosity for using it in their own professional environments.

Here’s how the loop works:

• Input: Initial users start using Slack for better communication.
• Action: These users create channels and invite others, introducing Slack to new audiences.
• Output: Invited users try Slack, recognize its value, and later adopt it for their own teams.

From here, these new users can refer other users, and the cycle continues. With this method, every new user becomes a potential advocate, inviting even more users. 

This continuous loop of value discovery and sharing drives Slack’s viral adoption, compounding its growth in a way that wouldn’t be possible without using growth loops.

Pinterest

Pinterest makes use of search engines to create an acquisition growth loop to grow its user base and retain engagement. The process starts when a user signs up or returns to the platform and is greeted with a personalized feed of relevant content. This content inspires users to pin or save items, signaling their preferences to Pinterest’s algorithm. 

In turn, these actions enhance Pinterest’s content distribution across search engines, making the platform’s pins discoverable to a wider audience, which attracts even more users.

The loop functions as follows:

• Input: A user signs up or revisits Pinterest.
• Action: They interact with the platform by saving or repinning content, providing Pinterest with valuable quality signals.
• Output: Pinterest’s distribution algorithms surface this content to search engines, attracting more users who sign up or return.

Pinterest’s loop is a perfect example of user activity feeding into a broader ecosystem. By repurposing user interactions to optimize content visibility in search engines, Pinterest ensures that its platform and the content on it are always being discovered by new users. 

How to create your own growth loop 

The transition from AAARR funnels to growth loops is a tough one, and it can be scary to step away from something that you’ve tried and tested over the years. 

Here are some steps to help you build a powerful growth loop for your own product that has enough juice to fuel your entire growth strategy. 

Step 1: Understand your ideal users

Building an effective growth loop starts with a clear understanding of who you’re building for. After all, your loop is only going to work if the right people are in it.

Tools like user personas or customer segmentation can help clarify this. Without knowing your audience, any effort spent on growth loops will feel like trying to hit a bullseye while blindfolded.

Once you have a clear image of your ideal users, you can build your growth loop to meet their specific needs. 

For example, LinkedIn knew their ideal users – young professionals – valued expanding their networks and gaining visibility in their fields. This informed their decision to create growth loops centered around free content-sharing and networking tools. By matching the growth loop with what users already value, LinkedIn created an organic, user-driven cycle of engagement and growth.

Step 2: Map the user journey

Growth loops don’t exist in isolation, they should be in tune with your user journey. Start by identifying all the key touchpoints where users interact with your product. These touchpoints can include signing up, engaging with content, referring others, or even leaving reviews. 

The goal is to understand where users naturally spend their time and how you can optimize those interactions to trigger your growth loop.

By mapping these paths, you’ll see where the most significant opportunities lie. For example, if many users arrive via social media, you might prioritize creating a viral loop that encourages sharing on those platforms. This user story mapping ensures your growth loop ties in seamlessly into the broader user journey.

Step 3: Choose the right type of growth loop 

Choosing the right growth loop depends on your product and audience. Different loops work for different situations, so take the time to understand which type aligns with your goals. 

A viral loop, for instance, focuses on user-generated content or referrals, creating a cycle of new users bringing in more users. These loops work well for consumer products like social media platforms or content apps by encouraging easy sharing and delivering value to both the sharer and the recipient.

Engagement and retention loops, on the other hand, focus on keeping users active and loyal. Strategies like a gamified product tour, personalized recommendations, or exclusive content encourage repeated interactions. While viral loops drive growth, engagement loops ensure users stick around, so you need to choose what works for your users and what works for you.

Step 4: Define success metrics

Growth loops are about driving measurable results. Start by identifying the metrics that will indicate success. These might include referral rates, retention rates, or the number of new users generated per loop cycle. Output metrics serve as your compass, showing you whether your loop is doing what you want it to.

Establishing these product benchmarks not only helps you evaluate the loop’s success but also gives you a framework to optimize performance over time.

Step 5: Design the growth loop

Take the time to map out your chosen growth loop with your team. Collaboration tools like whiteboards or workflow software can help you model the steps and test assumptions. Be detailed: specify how each stage flows into the next, and identify any bottlenecks that could disrupt the cycle. 

A clearly defined loop ensures everyone on your team understands the mechanics behind your growth strategy, helping them to effectively contribute to its success. 

Step 6: Optimize time to value

Time to value (TTV) is the time it takes for a user to experience the core benefits of your product. A shorter TTV means a more effective growth loop. 

Identify the key moments in the user journey where value is found and focus on making those moments as seamless as possible.

For example, if your product makes use of onboarding software, streamline the process so users can achieve their first success quickly. This might mean simplifying signups, offering interactive tutorials, or providing templates that make their first use productive. 

The faster users experience value, the more likely they are to participate in actions that fuel the growth loop.

Step 7: Implement and test

Once your growth loop is designed, ship it. Start small. Choose a single segment of users to test the loop and observe its performance. 

This controlled rollout helps you gather insights without committing large resources to an untested strategy. For instance, you could target power users first, as they’re more likely to engage with new features or incentives.

Testing should include analyzing metrics and gathering qualitative feedback. Are users engaging with the loop as expected? Are there any drop-off points? Use this data to tweak the design and optimize performance. An iterative approach of continuous discovery makes sure your growth loop evolves alongside your users’ needs and behaviors.

Around and around we go

Growth loops are a great framework for building compounding growth. Unlike funnels that demand constant and fresh input, the idea of growth loops is that they’re self-sustaining. Each output isn’t the end; it’s the start of something new, feeding directly into the loop and propelling it forward.

There are many different types of growth loops, depending on your end goal. Be it acquisition, retention, or expansion, there are many tactics you can use to fuel this loop. 

For Product Managers, growth loops are a reminder to think beyond one-off wins. They challenge you to build strategies that deliver continuous value, ensuring every step of the process improves the next. 

Whether you’re refining user onboarding, designing a viral referral system, or using content to reach new audiences, growth loops create a cycle that keeps on giving. 

The loop keeps spinning, and from that, your product evolves and improves. 

Need a tool to help you build a product that keeps getting better and better? ProdPad will help you communicate your roadmaps, prioritize the best features, and keep your entire team aligned to deliver growth like never before. 

See for yourself with a personal demo.

The post Growth Loops: How to use them in Product Management appeared first on ProdPad.

Most of the time, that evidence we’re looking for is shown in a resume, detailing the roles you’ve had, the types of companies you’ve worked for, and the products and projects you’ve overseen. But that might not tell the whole story. 

Resumes are pretty black and white and can sometimes lack context. Including a Product Manager portfolio can help add color, drive home the results you’ve achieved, and help you stand out when taking the next step in the Product Manager career path. 

Hiring managers aren’t always expecting to see a Product Manager portfolio, but it’s an application tactic that’s gaining some steam and becoming more common.

As ProdPad CEO, here’s some advice straight from the horse’s mouth on what you should include in your Product Manager portfolio, how it can help, and crucially, how it may detract from your application if you get it all wrong. 

What is a Product Manager Portfolio? 

A Product Manager portfolio is your professional story told visually and contextually. While your resume outlines your work history and roles, your portfolio serves as a narrative-driven showcase of the products you’ve managed, the results you’ve driven and the Product Management skills and approaches that led to those accomplishments. It dives deeper into the how behind your achievements: how you solved problems, managed teams, developed strategies, and delivered results.

Portfolios have been standard practice in creative fields for as long as any of us can remember. Remember those huge portfolio binder things with the handles? 

Portfolios broadly act as a visual ‘book’ of artifacts – a showcase of the things you have made. However, I believe a good Product Manager portfolio should go further. I want to see PMs clearly showing me what products they’ve managed and what results they’ve driven – but I also want to see some narrative around that. Show me what you’ve done, but give me the extra context surrounding your approach and decision-making. I want to understand HOW your Product Management expertise drove these results.

Think of it as your behind-the-scenes documentary, offering hiring managers or stakeholders a clearer picture of your Product Management style and expertise. A solid Product Manager portfolio should highlight things like:

• Specific examples and case studies of products you’ve launched or initiatives you’ve led – including the all-important results of that work.
• The KPIs and success measures that matter most to you.
• The Product Management tools, methodologies, and skills you’ve mastered along the way.
• The Product Management frameworks you favor.

A Product Manager portfolio is not just a ‘prettier’ version of your resume. We don’t really want to be reading your work history twice, we’ve got it the first time. Instead, your portfolio needs to supplement your resume, adding more context to your achievements, explaining things like your process, the frameworks you follow, the metrics that are important to you, and how you fit the job description of the role you’re applying for. 

Your portfolio is where you get to prove your work in action. If you say you’ve achieved something in your resume, your portfolio can break down the steps you took to do that. Ultimately, your Product Manager portfolio is a companion piece. 

The potential benefits of a Product Manager Portfolio

Having a Product Manager portfolio can help you excel and stand out from the crowd when applying for new roles – but only if you make a good one. Although not common in the industry by any stretch of the imagination, they can be useful documents to strengthen an application. 

Here are some of the benefits and how they help: 

• Provide context to achievements: A portfolio goes beyond listing accomplishments by explaining the steps you took to achieve results.
• Differentiate from other candidates:  Having a good portfolio can set you apart in a competitive hiring market where resumes often blur together.
• Demonstrate problem-solving skills: A portfolio allows you to offer concrete examples of how you’ve tackled challenges, prioritized tasks, and delivered impactful solutions.
• Visualize results:  A portfolio is a place where you can use charts, graphs, or dashboards to make metrics and outcomes more engaging and easier to understand.
• Facilitate better conversations:  A portfolio serves as a discussion point during interviews, helping you explain your work in depth and connect with the hiring team.

And remember, while a resume ties you to a chronological structure, with a portfolio you can break out to whatever flow makes the most sense. Lead with the greatest achievements, foreground the case study that relates most to the particular company you’re applying to – you have the flexibility to rejig the structure in whichever way puts you and your work in the best light. 

Do you need a Product Manager portfolio? 

Unlike a resume and cover letter, having a Product Manager portfolio is not a requirement (for us at least at ProdPad). Instead, treat it more as something that’s nice to have to enhance your overall application.

See, we’re still going to put more weight and emphasis on your resume and definitely your interview performance, so don’t think that a Product Manager portfolio is going to magically make you a top candidate if the other aspects of the application are lacking. 

It’s not going to make a poor applicant look good, but it can make a good applicant look great. 

Have you heard of creatine? It’s a supplement gym goers can get to help make their workouts more effective by aiding recovery and muscle growth. But creatine won’t do anything if you’re not hitting the gym regularly. On its own it’s worthless. If you haven’t nailed your gym routine and your diet, then creatine is simply a waste of time. 

This same principle applies to the Product Manager portfolio. It’s only really worthwhile if you have a quality resume, cover letter, and interview.

What we’re saying here is that you need to nail the more traditional aspects of your application first. Build a resume that clearly shows you have the chops for the role you’re applying to, and master the common Product Manager interview questions to demonstrate you know what you’re talking about. We’re always going to be looking at these things first and then we might focus on the portfolio to see if it pushes you over the edge. 

Let’s put it this way. I recently oversaw a campaign to hire a new Product Manager for ProdPad to join our awesome team. We had hundreds of credible applications, yet among them, there were only a handful of candidates that had a portfolio. 

And yes, these Product Manager portfolios did help these candidates stand out, but ultimately we went with someone who was able to demonstrate how they could help ProdPad, and speak about their experience and suitability for the company in their interviews. 

I’m a lot more interested in seeing how an applicant solved problems – ideally, problems related to the role they’re applying to – and the impact they’ve had on previous companies. Somebody might have an amazing portfolio but if they’re not interviewing well, then they’re not getting the job. That’s because a portfolio isn’t indicative of the day-to-day role.

That’s not to say that the people working on portfolios wasted their time, it’s instead a notion that you need to show how you can help a company in your applications. If your portfolio does that, instead of just acting as a showreel of all the products you’ve worked on, then you’re onto a winner. Then you’ve created something that’s pretty worthwhile and exciting.

Let’s talk a bit more about that. 

What should be included in a Product Manager portfolio? 

A strong Product Manager portfolio should showcase your experience, skills, and how you approach challenges. Here’s a breakdown of what to include and why each element matters:

Case studies 

Case studies are the centerpiece of your portfolio, giving hiring managers a chance to take a deeper look at the particular products and projects you’ve worked on. Your case studies need to be more than simply a list of the products you’ve had a hand in. 

Instead, use your case studies to outline the problems you needed to solve or the goals you needed to achieve and the steps you took to do that. 

Be specific in what you’ve achieved, and bonus points if the achievements you’re highlighting in your case studies relate to the needs of the role you’re applying for. These detailed narratives are a chance to demonstrate your strategic thinking and problem-solving skills.

Evidence of your impact 

This is really important – you should show What can be really neat to see is examples of how past products that you’ve worked on have changed while you had influence over them. A history of the successful features you’ve added and tweaks you’ve made can be really illuminating in a portfolio, especially if you serve it up with some data that tells you why. 

While showing off polished final products is tempting, what really stands out is evidence of the journey. It’s far better than just being like “Ta-da: here’s the product.” 

This really amounts to proving the ROI you have delivered in past roles. That’s not easy to do. Luckily we’ve got you covered. Download a copy of our ebook How to Prove the ROI of Product Management and check out the list of different calculations you can run to help you beef out this section of your Product Manager portfolio. 

You’ll find ways to calculate and prove the ROI you’ve delivered through:

• Your product discovery work
• The prioritization decisions you’ve made
• The strategic alignment you’ve ensured
• The cost protection you’ve brought about
• Your customer feedback analysis

You can run the numbers and include improvements in strategic yield, risk reduction, cost of delay, overrun, and product velocity – all of which are directly attributable to your own work and processes. 

So make sure you’re being hyper-specific here and including hard numbers by way of evidence. 

Testimonials

A good word from someone that you’ve helped can go a long way in proving your character and that your work has achieved results.

Endorsements from colleagues, stakeholders, or clients can add a layer of credibility to your portfolio. Testimonials provide an external perspective on your skills, leadership, and collaborative abilities, which can be especially persuasive to hiring managers. It’s not you blowing your own trumpet, it’s someone else. 

A few well-placed quotes from trusted voices can give your portfolio a human touch, showcasing how you work with and inspire others.

Your process

This is kind of related to the previous point. It’s far better to see the process to your end result instead of just the end result. It’s like a math test, you get points for showing your working out. Use your portfolio as a way to show that. 

Detail the hypotheses you set, how you tested it, the process you followed, and how you handled feedback and analysis. Give us an idea of how you’re going to operate if you get the job.

This all boils down to showing the story. Tell what the company you were at was trying to do and detail all you did to help them do it. 

Again, we have a free ebook that should help you understand how to visualize and articulate this. In The Product Management Process Handbook, we outline a best practice workflow from start to finish. Seeing this mapped out should kick-start your thinking about how to illustrate your approach and what to include. 

An appendix: 

Including an appendix is a great way to add in extra information and examples of your work and the way you do things. Think of it as a storage unit of all the additional proof that show that you’re good at your job. 

An appendix can include anything that you think is relevant, but two useful items to include here are: 

Strategy Documents 

Including details and examples of how you handle strategy documents like product roadmaps, market analyses, or competitive reviews can demonstrate your ability to think at a high level. A product strategy document showcases how you approach long-term planning, set priorities, and align teams to achieve business goals.

Giving access to these emphasizes your capability to walk the line between vision and execution.

PRDs

Product Requirement Documents are a staple in Product Management, and your portfolio is the perfect place to highlight them. A well-written PRD illustrates how you translate vision into actionable plans, ensuring that technical teams and stakeholders are aligned. Showcasing examples of PRDs can underscore your communication skills and your ability to manage the details that drive a project forward.

What to avoid in a Product Manager portfolio

If you put the wrong things in a Product Manager portfolio, the whole document can do you more harm than good. If you include the wrong stuff, a Product Manager portfolio can quickly become a missed opportunity, failing to highlight your suitability for the role and instead act as a superfluous extra that wasn’t really asked for. 

So, to make sure your portfolio isn’t a dud that causes hiring managers to roll their eyes, here’s what you should avoid:

Style over substance

Have you got a flashy and beautiful portfolio? Cool. Is it just a pretty design with little substance and value? Uh-oh.

The most disheartening thing to see is a stunning portfolio that doesn’t really get into the meat of what you offer as a Product Manager. Something that doesn’t scratch the surface suggests that you’re trying to hide something and win us over with pretty colors and shapes.

The truth is I’d much rather have a boring portfolio that looks into things like process, impact, case studies, and more.

Irrelevant or excessive details

It might be tempting to cram every project you’ve ever worked on into your portfolio. But remember: more isn’t always better. A long, unfocused portfolio risks diluting your achievements and overwhelming the hiring manager.

Instead, choose only the projects that best showcase your relevant Product Management skills and demonstrate your ability to solve the problems you’ll be tackling in the role, make an impact, and drive results. Quality trumps quantity every time.

Lack of metrics

Accomplishments without numbers can feel empty. If you talk about a successful launch but don’t mention how much revenue it generated, how user engagement changed, or how customer satisfaction improved, you’re missing an opportunity to show real impact. 

Metrics make your contributions tangible and prove that you’re not just talking the talk. You can walk the walk. 

Generic descriptions

Vague phrases like “worked on a product” or “led a team” aren’t going to cut it. Hiring managers want to know what you specifically did and how it made a difference. 

Did you transition your team from a timeline to an agile roadmap to improve delivery times? Did you lead cross-functional workshops to align stakeholders? Make your role, actions, and outcomes clear so your portfolio feels personal and powerful.

Inappropriate design choices

Your portfolio’s design should enhance – not overshadow – its content. Fonts that are hard to read, layouts that are overly complicated, or visuals that feel more like a distraction than an enhancement will hurt your chances. Especially if you’re looking for a more design-focused role.

Keep it clean, professional, and aligned with your personal brand. Remember, the design is just the wrapper – the content is the star of the show.

Ignoring accessibility

Your portfolio isn’t doing its job if it’s inaccessible. 

Whether it’s not optimized for mobile devices, has broken links, or requires downloading obscure files, anything that creates friction can frustrate hiring managers and take you out of the running. 

I mean, you’re a Product Manager, right? You should instinctively be bashing through barriers and eliminating friction! If your Product Manager portfolio feels like a clunky UX nightmare, you’ll be putting real doubts in the minds of any hiring managers looking for someone to spearhead the effectiveness of their product. 

Make it as easy as possible to view, share, and understand your portfolio. A good rule of thumb: if it takes more than one click to access, you’re overcomplicating it.

Overuse of buzzwords

Buzzwords might sound impressive, but without substance, they’ll work against you. Overloading your portfolio with terms like “growth hacking” or “synergy” without showing how you applied these concepts in meaningful ways can feel hollow. Speak plainly and back up your work with examples. 

Just talk like a human.

How do you build a Product Manager portfolio? 

So you’ve gathered what you’d like to show in your portfolio, but how’d you put it together to make a great one?  Crafting a stellar Product Manager portfolio isn’t just about assembling a collection of your past projects; it’s about creating a tool that communicates your value in a way that’s compelling, clear, and tailored to the role you’re targeting. 

Here’s a guide to help you build one that stands out:

Choose the right medium

In this day and age, pretty much every portfolio needs to be digital. When looking at the best Product Manager portfolio examples, the vast majority of them are interactive websites, so that’s something you should follow. 

Creating a digital portfolio gives you a chance to demonstrate your UI chops. That’s a blessing and a curse. Yes, a website offers the flexibility to showcase not only your work but also your design sensibilities and user-first thinking, but you need to make sure that the whole experience is intuitive and easy to follow. 

As I suggested earlier, it can ring alarm bells if you’re applying to a more design-focused role if your Portfolio doesn’t really work well and flows between the sections.

Tell a story

Your portfolio should do more than list achievements – it should narrate your journey and tell a story. 

That story is up to you and should be based on the role you’re applying to. Applying for a Growth Product Manager role? Showcase in your portfolio how you’ve driven growth in the past and your methods for achieving that. Looking to join a team that’s about to scale from start-up to SMB? Showcase how you’ve managed that transition before in your portfolio. 

Remember, your portfolio is the chance to really add color to your resume and show that you’re the right person for the job. 

Keep it clear

I want to be able to understand you, and I want to be able to understand your portfolio. Keep the content brief, and make sure to explain anything that needs context. I don’t want to be looking at product adoption metrics scratching my head trying to understand what they mean and what they prove because I’ve not got any prior context.

Be clear about what it is we’re actually looking at and what your contributions were.

Don’t assume knowledge

You shouldn’t assume that the hiring manager has prior knowledge about the market or industry you’re coming from. Make sure your portfolio is written so that anyone can understand it regardless of their background. 

Set the scene so that we can fully grasp the impact you’ve made. Otherwise, things can go over our heads. It might be everyday jargon for you, but a CEO might not know what a 40% reduction in customer churn means and why it’s a good thing.

Customize it for each role you apply for 

Yup. I know it’s a lot easier to make one generic portfolio, but you’re going to have a much greater impact by offering a Product Management portfolio that’s customized to each role. 

By tweaking what you talk about, you’ll be able to offer up something that’s more relevant and informative which is going to excite hiring managers more. Adjust your portfolio to align with the specific requirements of the position you’re applying for to speak directly to the needs of different employers. 

Say you’re a handyman looking to get a plumbing role. Sure a general look at your DIY skills is okay, but it’ll be loads better to focus on all the piping installation and bathroom plumbing projects you’ve done.  

Adding color to your resume

In today’s competitive job market, a Product Manager portfolio has the potential to help you stand out. Providing that what you cook up is more than just a visually appealing showcase of your experience; it can be a strategic tool that demonstrates your ability to solve real-world problems, make data-driven Product Management decisions, and deliver impactful results.

While it’s not a requirement for every application, a well-crafted portfolio can elevate your candidacy, especially when paired with a strong resume and interview performance.

However, it’s important to remember that your portfolio should complement – not replace – your traditional application materials. Focus on substance over style, providing clear examples of your process, results, and impact. Avoid clutter, irrelevant details, and buzzwords that don’t add value.

When done right, a Product Manager portfolio can offer hiring managers a deeper understanding of your capabilities and why you are the best person for the job.

So, whether you’re actively job hunting or just looking to refine your professional narrative, your portfolio is an opportunity to tell your unique story. Showcase your achievements, but more importantly, show how you can bring value to the role you’re applying for. After all, in Product Management, it’s not just about what you’ve done, but how you did it. Make sure you do things the right way with the best tools, like ProdPad. 

Take a peak at how ProdPad can improve your processes in our pre-loaded and free-to-explore live sandbox environment. 

The post Product Manager Portfolio: A Secret Weapon To Progress Your Career appeared first on ProdPad.

As humans, we always want more. The newest clothes, the shiniest gadget, to visit new places. We’re conditioned to want the next big thing. That’s okay in regular life (providing you can afford it ), but it can be a massive problem in Product Management. 

Why? Let’s have a deeper look at shiny object syndrome, and uncover why it’s an issue that you really don’t want to face. 

What is shiny object syndrome? 

Shiny object syndrome (SOS) describes a compulsion to fixate on what’s new and drop everything you’ve worked hard on, to instead pivot a trendy idea or feature that’s going to “take the world by storm”. 

It’s where you, or those who are making the decisions above you, are drawn to new technologies that promise excitement, but that may not be the best option for you right now.

It’s like a cat following a beam of light on the wall fixated on this shiny dot wiggling around, pulling the poor animal in multiple directions as if in a trance. Like the cat, falling foul of shiny object syndrome can lead your product team astray. Away from the predefined product vision and into untested waters. 

In practice, shiny object syndrome leads teams to prioritize new features simply because they’re based on novel and innovative ideas and ignore the previously validated solutions that are more likely to meet the user’s needs. It’s the temptation to be on the cutting edge instead of double-downing on what really matters. 

It’s easy to fall into the trap of shiny object syndrome. Product teams and CEOs want the product to stand out and not fall behind. So, when a buzz is generated over a new idea in your industry, it can be easy to race in and integrate it to stay current. 

But that’s super dangerous. Not every great new innovation amounts to anything, and suddenly, thanks to shiny object syndrome, you’ve backed the wrong horse. 

To put it another way, shiny object syndrome is when your product strategy loses focus and starts drifting to whatever seems most existing in the moment, pulling you away from delivering what’s actually valuable and more likely to work.

Why is shiny object syndrome a bad thing?

What’s so bad with wanting to make sure your product includes the newest trends? Who doesn’t want to explore new and exciting opportunities that could lead to bigger and better things?

Well, it’s because of that ‘could’. These new ideas haven’t been validated, they haven’t been tested, yet shiny object syndrome makes you want to dive in head first. It makes you prioritize the new idea simply because it is the newest. 

Suddenly shifting to a new idea, never seen before on your roadmap, can wreak havoc on your team, and overall strategy, especially if it’s done for the wrong reasons. This tendency to get distracted undermines the core principles of focus and customer value, often turning promising plans into chaos.

Of course, a key principle of agile working is that you’re able to be adaptable and explore and try new things. You need to be open to experimentation and iterating on what you already have. You don’t want to be completely rigid and welded to your roadmap.

But dropping everything to chase an unvalidated shiny object is not the best way to go about things. You’ve put time and effort into your original plan – it’s not worth the waste of resources to jump on something new without first checking if that new thing is worth your time. 

Because for all you know, you could be jumping from a lifeboat onto the Titanic. Blindly following the whims of someone with shiny object syndrome may lead you onto a sinking ship – and we’ll get to an example where that happened in the past. 

That’s just one of the main dangers of SOS, but there’s so many more, like:

• Delayed product launches: If you’re trying to get a new product to market, SOS pushes delivery further out as teams constantly pivot to incorporate the shiny new ideas. Every detour delays your time to market, potentially leaving you behind competitors.
• Derailed product development: Prioritizing shiny objects over existing work can force teams to have to scrap or reevaluate what’s in-flight and rework entire roadmaps, leading to chaotic development cycles and, in extreme cases, a full pivot strategy.
• Wasted resources: The time, money, and effort spent researching, assessing, and possibly implementing ideas brought about through shiny new objective syndrome often yield little ROI. This misallocation of resources detracts from core initiatives.
• Sowing doubts: Frequent changes in direction, without solid reasoning, create uncertainty among team members. When they suspect that plans might change on a whim, motivation and commitment to current goals can drop.
• Feature creep: SOS frequently results in piling on features for novelty’s sake, diluting the product’s unique selling proposition (USP) and making it harder for users to navigate or find value.
• Poor user value: Shiny objects often fail to address real customer needs. Customers might find the new features flashy but ultimately irrelevant, eroding trust in your product. If the shiny object is so new and fresh, customers might not even have a need for it yet. Don’t build personalized rockets before people have a need to fly to the moon. 

Who’s most vulnerable to shiny object syndrome? 

Shiny object syndrome is a quote-on-quote ‘disease’ that anyone in the Product Team can get, but just like how pirates were most vulnerable to scurvy, one group is far more vulnerable to the siren-like pull of the potential next big thing. Those are your C-suite and executive-level folk. 

But why? Well, the more senior you get, the less involved in your own product you become. Instead, you’re looking outwards at what others are doing, seeking opportunities for growth, and keeping tabs on new trends.

They’re less entrenched in the day-to-day realities of the product and its customers, which makes them more likely to be captivated by the latest tech buzzwords or the flashy ideas circulating in journals and at conferences. So it makes sense that when a new, exciting thing is introduced, your C-suites are going to be salivating at the opportunity to jump on that to stay ahead. 

Now, annoyingly, the last person you want to get shiny object syndrome is your C-suite stakeholders. If you as a PM become enamored with a shiny new idea, you have a whole team around you who will want to validate it and get evidence for it. This isn’t always the case if it’s your C-suite, thanks to the reality of HiPPO. 

HiPPO stands for the highest-paid person’s opinion. In many organizations, the idea of HiPPO reigns. Seniority and authority often mean that when executives express enthusiasm for an idea, teams feel compelled to act, whether it aligns with the strategy or not. 

HiPPOs with shiny object syndrome can spark off fire drills, derailed priorities, and a scramble for resources all in pursuit of something that might not even serve the product or its customers.

If the C-suite exec really wants to explore a new technology and shiny object, it’s hard to tell them no. 

Thankfully there are tactics you can deploy as a Product Manager to diplomatically dim the brightness of the shiny object without putting yourself in the line of fire – we’ll cover that in just a second.

Signs you’re dealing with shiny object syndrome

We’ll be honest, if your team is already infested with shiny object syndrome, you’ll know about it. Your attention is going to be pulled from your original, optimized plan to something that’s new and in its formative stages. That’s going to be a bumpy transition. 

Here are some major warning signs that a decision-maker (or team) is grappling with shiny object syndrome:

1. Undelivered projects: Plans are constantly being made but rarely completed. Your backlog of ‘great ideas’ keeps growing while deliverables stall.
2. Slow progress: Shiny distractions divert attention from roadmap work, leading to blown timeframes and super slow delivery of those carefully validated initiatives.
3. Constantly changing goals: Roadmaps, OKRs, and strategic objectives are in a perpetual state of flux as the team chases after the newest idea.
4. Excitement over execution: There’s far more enthusiasm for brainstorming the next big thing than for executing or iterating on existing plans.
5. Conflicting directives: One day it’s “build this new feature,” the next it’s “optimize for SEO.” Priorities seem to flip with the wind, creating confusion.
6. Lower feature adoption metrics: Existing features get launched but lack traction because they were hastily developed or poorly aligned with customer needs.
7. Lack of long-term strategy: Instead of working toward a cohesive vision, the team finds itself bouncing between short-term initiatives that never truly gel.
8. Customer disconnect: New features or ideas don’t resonate with customers, leaving them underwhelmed or confused about the product’s direction.

Spotting these early signs can save your team from the worst effects of shiny object syndrome. Once you’ve identified the problem, you can begin implementing strategies to steer focus back where it belongs: on delivering value to your customers.

How to protect yourself from shiny object syndrome

Preventing shiny object syndrome is like keeping a magpie away from glittering treasures and takes discipline and a solid plan. Here’s how you can stop it in its tracks, for both yourself and your executives:

1. Create a validation process

Make it hard for the C-suite to shift the focus. Establish a formal system for vetting new ideas. Not every new technology or market trend deserves your immediate attention. Build a checklist or framework to evaluate whether the shiny object aligns with your company’s strategy, goals, and roadmap. Tools like opportunity solution trees or the RICE scoring method can help prioritize without derailing your focus.

Doing this keeps you open to new ideas without forcing your team to jump on them straight away without checking if they’re viable first. 

2. Set expectations early

Define the rules of engagement around your product roadmap. Regularly communicate its purpose to stakeholders: it’s a living document that transforms strategy into actionable goals. Reinforce that every idea must go through the same prioritization process to ensure fairness and alignment.

Share your roadmap regularly with your stakeholders so that they understand what you’re working on, what’s got your attention, and where your resources are being spent. 

When sharing your roadmap, add some evidence as to why you’re doing it, and the expected benefits. Tie these to overall business goals to ensure you have continuous buy-in and reduce the chance of a new idea coming in to derail everything.

Using ProdPad to communicate your product roadmap will make this infinitely easier. All Roadmap Initiatives in ProdPad are linked to your Objectives and Key Results, are structured around problems to solve, clearly display their prioritization scoring and have related customer Feedback linked to them. 

Take a look in our live sandbox environment to see what that looks like. 

3. Build a feedback channel

Create structured ways for stakeholders to submit ideas without hijacking current plans. A standardized submission process ensures all inputs are considered while keeping chaos at bay. A central hub for suggestions fosters transparency and accountability, giving shiny objects their moment without jumping the queue.

We’ve done some of the hard work for you here. Download our Ideas and feedback submission guidelines to create the perfect process for your team. 

How to undo the damage of shiny object syndrome 

Prevention is better than a cure, but sometimes, you can be in the middle of dealing with the repercussions of shiny object syndrome, be it via your misjudgment or from those higher up. So what do you do now? 

Thankfully, there is an antidote that you can swallow to help get through this and get you back on track with your original plan and roadmap. Some tactics include: 

1. Spotlight the issues with the shiny object

Often, shiny objects are enticing because their flaws aren’t immediately visible. Take the time to highlight potential risks, costs, or feasibility issues. This can help deflate unwarranted enthusiasm and refocus attention on the bigger picture.

2. Revisit your goals

Bring the conversation back to your organizational objectives. If the shiny object doesn’t accelerate or simplify progress toward these goals, it’s easier to deprioritize. 

Show how your current roadmap already delivers on these targets and promise to revisit the idea after current milestones are achieved.

3. Emphasize the cost of delay

Every minute spent chasing a shiny object is time taken from delivering value through your existing priorities. 

Communicate the trade-offs clearly: what gets bumped, what’s delayed, and the downstream impacts on team morale and revenue.

4. Highlight the finish line

If your current roadmap is already in progress, emphasize how close you are to delivering value. This not only boosts morale but also makes shiny distractions less tempting. Promise to give the new idea its fair share of attention once the current plan is completed.

5. Take pride in your plan

Remind stakeholders of the effort, strategy, and collaboration that went into crafting the current roadmap. It’s a plan designed to deliver results and it deserves the chance to prove its worth. 

How to tell the difference between a shiny object and a genuine market shift? 

Listen, one thing I don’t want to do here is make you think that you should dismiss every new change and idea as a shiny object that should be ignored. Because if every new idea is written off, then there’ll be no progress. Sometimes a new idea represents a genuine paradigm shift, the kind of changes that reshape entire industries. 

Ignoring those can leave you stuck in the past while your competitors race ahead. This is the tightrope that many founders and CEOs need to walk: 

Don’t get too excited by something new, yet don’t ignore it and get left in the dust as others hop on. 

In the past, there have been loads of examples of businesses dismissing a genuine trend as a shiny object and thus paying the price. Remember Blockbuster? Back in 2010, no one could have imagined a world where the iconic Friday-night DVD rental ritual didn’t exist. But alas streaming came along, they didn’t act on it, and now there’s only one novelty Blockbuster store left in Oregon, serving more as a relic than a genuine store.

And then there’s AI. At first dismissed as a gimmick but now poised to be one of the biggest industry sectors in the world, ready to redefine everything from healthcare to software development. 

So, to protect yourself from shiny object syndrome, how on earth can you tell if a new trend is going to stick around or not? How do you separate the fleeting sparkles from the game-changing glow? 

Well, you want to make sure that these new ideas have: 

• Widespread adoption: Trends that gain traction across multiple industries often signal something bigger. Think cloud computing or mobile-first design, innovations that found applications everywhere.
• Customer demand: Genuine shifts solve real problems or open up new possibilities for your users. Pay attention to whether your customers are asking for something or if you’re simply chasing buzz.
• Clear business cases: Can this trend clearly improve your product or service? If it doesn’t address a pain point or elevate your offering, it might just be a distraction.
• Industry endorsement: When respected voices in your field start aligning around a trend, it’s worth digging deeper. Look for signs like venture capital funding, major partnerships, or wide-scale implementation.
• Durability: Does the trend have staying power? If it’s tied to broader shifts in consumer behavior or technology, it’s more likely to last.

But here’s the most important thing. Even if you recognize a genuine shift, it doesn’t mean you should dive in headfirst. 

Market shifts might change the landscape, but not every shift is right for your product or your customers. Protecting yourself from shiny object syndrome isn’t about knowing what’s going to be a hit. It’s about not letting that potential hit derail you from what you already have planned. 

Take AI, as undeniably transformative as it is, it might not be the best idea if it doesn’t add value to your customers. No one will care if you have an AI toaster if it burns your toast. 

That’s the trick with shiny object syndrome. Even if it’s the shiniest, brightest thing in the world, if it doesn’t work with what you’re trying to do and improve the experience of the customers you’re trying to serve, it may as well be a broken lightbulb. 

Jumping in without doing this groundwork can leave you with a shiny feature no one wants—or worse, one that actively detracts from your product’s usability.

Ultimately, staying ahead isn’t about hopping on every bandwagon. It’s about building something meaningful, even when the next shiny object comes along.

Avoid distractions 

Shiny object syndrome is a real threat to Product Managers trying to stay focused on delivering long-term value. While it’s tempting to chase the latest shiny trends, doing so can easily derail your roadmap, waste resources, and leave your product lacking in the areas that truly matter. 

The key to defending against this distraction is a clear, disciplined approach to validation, stakeholder alignment, and maintaining focus on your core strategy. By setting expectations early, creating a transparent feedback channel, and consistently reminding everyone of the bigger picture, you can avoid being pulled off course by the next big thing.

One of the most effective ways to stay grounded and keep all stakeholders aligned is by using tools like ProdPad. ProdPad ensures that your product roadmap is a living document that everyone can access and understand. 

With all stakeholders able to view and contribute to the roadmap, you can showcase the validation and reasoning behind every decision. This visibility helps prevent distractions and gives everyone clarity on what’s being worked on, why it matters, and what comes next.

Want to ensure your team stays focused on what really matters? Start a free trial with ProdPad and see how clear, accessible roadmaps can help you maintain focus while keeping your stakeholders informed and engaged.

The post Shiny Object Syndrome: Defending Against it as a Product Manager appeared first on ProdPad.

What is founder mode?

Founder mode describes a shifting mindset where company founders and leaders step back into the thick of day-to-day operations, often in ways that can feel more like micromanaging than empowering. Founder mode is part passion, part panic, where the Founder takes a more hands-on approach to reclaim control over their teams or projects.

With founder mode style management practices, you’ll often see a founder scrutinizing details they once delegated, revisiting decisions already made, or swooping into meetings uninvited to “course correct” the team’s trajectory. It’s a sharp pivot from trust to oversight, and while it can be fueled by good intentions (like protecting the business or driving success), it’s not without its drawbacks.

This isn’t to say founder involvement is inherently bad: it’s their company, after all. Sometimes it’s nice to see a leader roll their sleeves up and muck in. But founder mode tends to crop up at pivotal moments: during uncertainty, when scaling pains kick in, or when other approaches simply aren’t working for whatever reason.

It’s less about leadership and more about control, which, spoiler alert, isn’t the recipe for long-term success.

Now, we’re not going to dogpile on founder mode. Yes, I don’t think it’s the best idea in the world, you can see that in my LinkedIn post on the subject, but there’s no point writing a 3000-word article bashing it into a pulp. Instead, I think founder mode is indicative of another problem, and something that Product Managers should pay attention to in order to improve the product.

Let’s figure out why founder mode happens and how to strike a better balance.

Founder mode vs Management mode

Founder mode goes against conventional wisdom and is the complete opposite of the traditional management mode, where the actions of the founder boil down to control instead of the more practical delegation.

Manager mode is all about empowering teams and trusting them to own their domains. It’s the phase where leaders embrace structure, rely on the experts they’ve hired, and step back to let managers live up to the title and manage.

Founder mode, on the other hand, is a hard pivot in the opposite direction. It’s a rejection of managerial detachment in favor of deep involvement. Instead of empowering others, founder mode is about getting in there and taking on all the decisions.

While manager mode is like charting a ship’s course and trusting the crew to sail it, founder mode is the captain grabbing the wheel mid-voyage to steer things their way – storm or no storm. The shift can be jarring for teams used to autonomy, as it can feel like their decisions are being overridden or scrutinized unnecessarily.

But why does this happen? Why are leaders like Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky and others feeling the need to revert to this tactic?

Well, often, founder mode re-emerges during times of uncertainty or frustration. As for Brian Chesky, he tried loads of different leadership styles and team structures at Airbnb that failed, didn’t work, and then landed in a founder-mode mentality. He talks about that struggle in this Interview with The Verge.  For now, it’s working for them, but maybe because things weren’t so hot beforehand.

Here’s my worry: while founder mode might provide short-term reassurance, it can erode trust and stifle the very innovation that comes from giving teams the space to thrive.

Finding the balance between these two modes is vital – because a founder can’t take the helm and be in the crow’s nest guiding the ship at the same time.

Why is everyone talking about founder mode?

It feels like one day we all woke up and founder mode was suddenly engrained in everyone’s mind. Kind of like how Apple added an unwanted U2 album to everyone’s iTunes library back in 2014.

In truth, the buzz around founder mode stems from a term coined by Paul Graham in his now much-discussed article. He drew inspiration from Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky’s headline-making move to reimagine the Product Manager role at the company and ‘follow the footsteps’ of Steve Jobs and get more involved in product decisions.

Now, despite the clickbait, Chesky didn’t eliminate Product Managers entirely, but he did refocus their roles, transforming them into more growth-oriented Product Marketing Managers. This speaks of what founder mode is and why it’s cropped up now. At its core, founder mode has become a rallying cry for businesses in recovery mode.

After years of economic headwinds in the tech industry, many companies are desperate to reignite growth, and for some, that means tearing up the playbook.

Growth-focused Product Management has taken center stage, whether that’s through hiring Growth Product Managers, adopting product-led GTM, or, in the case of founder mode, founders stepping back in to reclaim the reins.

But let’s pause here. Just because a handful of big players claim success with founder mode doesn’t mean it’s a universal solution. Sure, some companies have seen improvements, but those wins are often tied to pre-existing problems. They might have had ineffective managers, the wrong hires, or a misaligned product strategy in which founder mode addressed those issues temporarily, but it’s not a sustainable or scalable fix.

If things aren’t currently wrong in your business, I don’t see founder mode being the ticket to improvement. For me, it’s an Elastoplast on a gaping wound.

Plus, if you just shifted your gaze a few inches away from those finding success with founder mode, you’ll find brands that are KILLING it with a traditional manager mode approach. Take Nike – a larger company that’s thriving by empowering its Product teams and investing in great talent rather than top-down micromanagement.

I also want to speak on the myth of founder-led success stories, too. Apple is often touted as a founder mode triumph, a reason for leaders to give founder mode a go, but Steve Jobs didn’t handcraft every good decision there. The man has been mythicized so much that Steve Jobs isn’t even Steve Jobs anymore. Like in every great company, he had to delegate to other decision-makers.

In fact, the iPhone – the product that is so synonymous with Apple – almost didn’t happen because Jobs needed convincing from his team. Steve Jobs almost prevented the Apple iPhone from being invented, and if he truly followed a founder mode mindset, it wouldn’t have been.

The takeaway? Founder mode isn’t a magic bullet.

While it might work for some high-profile companies, it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach, and it often comes at the cost of innovation and trust. If all your ideas are coming from the founder, you’ve got bigger problems than growth.

So, is founder mode bad? 

Do you even need to ask at this point? Categorically, yes: founder mode isn’t the hot new management framework it’s being hyped as. It’s just micromanagement repackaged with a shiny name and a splash of glamour. But once you peel back the layers, the cracks are clear, and they’re anything but trendy.

Wasting talent

The first issue? Founder mode undermines the team. As a Product Manager, you’re there for a reason. You’ve got the expertise, the insights, and the experience. But when the founder swoops in, it sidelines that expertise.

Instead of leveraging the collective strength of your Product Team structure, the founder becomes the bottleneck, making all the decisions and stifling creativity. It’s a waste of talent, turning capable professionals into glorified yes-people who nod along instead of thinking critically or driving the product forward.

Demoralizing the team

This leads to a deeper problem: founder mode is demoralizing. You’ve spent weeks doing product discovery, building a roadmap, and fostering a strong team. Then, the founder swoops in, upends the plan, and dictates their vision without fully understanding the context. It’s frustrating, disheartening, and a surefire way to breed disengagement.

And let’s not overlook the risks. Founders often juggle a million priorities, making it hard for them to stay close enough to the ground to make data-driven Product Management decisions and answer the tough questions. The idea that the founder is always the smartest person in the room is misguided at best, and dangerous at worst.

If your founder is the smartest person in your company, that’s not a flex, it’s a red flag that the wrong people have been hired.

A red flag

See, founder mode often signals deeper issues. If a founder is pulling rank and taking hands-on control, it’s a sign that something isn’t working. Maybe the product team isn’t hitting the mark, or maybe trust in leadership has eroded. Either way, founder mode is rarely a proactive choice, it’s a reactive measure, a desperate attempt to course-correct when things feel off.

In the end, founder mode isn’t a path to make your company successful. It’s a quick fix at best and a glaring symptom of underlying dysfunction at worst. As a Product Manager, you’re in the perfect position to push for the real recipe for growth: hiring the right people, empowering your team, and fostering a culture of trust and collaboration.

Why would a leader go founder mode? 

I’d like to think that one of the last things founders want to do is get all involved in the product. They’ve got a million and one other responsibilities. So what drives founders to get all up in your face? I’m sure it’s not because they want to be an annoying jerk.

Understanding why a founder might shift gears into founder mode can help you navigate the situation more effectively. While it might feel like they’re undermining your work, most founders aren’t trying to sabotage the team. It’s a response to a set of very real pressures.

Sometimes, founders step in because they see problems that others might not. If the team isn’t delivering results, hiring decisions haven’t panned out, or strategies aren’t aligning with the company’s vision, founder mode can feel like the quickest way to steady the ship. From their perspective, letting the team “figure it out” could cost valuable time and resources, which are often in short supply.

To help a founder, show them that the ship is not as off-course as they fear. Use data, experiments, and outcomes to demonstrate progress and align your work with their vision. If there are genuine gaps, acknowledge them and collaborate on solutions.

See, for a founder, the company isn’t just a job – it’s a reflection of their vision, values, and years of effort. If they feel like the business is at risk, their instinct is to take control and protect what they’ve built.

It’s not about undermining the team; it’s about safeguarding the mission. Recognize their investment and show that you’re equally committed to the company’s success. When they see that you care as much as they do, they’re more likely to trust your judgment.

Most founders stepping into founder mode are genuinely trying to make things better. Founder mode isn’t inherently malicious I don’t think. It’s a symptom of something deeper, whether that’s a lack of trust, misalignment, or a need for clearer communication. It’s the last resort to fix something. As a Product Manager, you’re in a unique position to address these issues.

What to do when a leader has gone founder mode 

Dealing with a founder in founder mode can feel like a whirlwind: sudden pivot strategies, surprise interventions, and a sense that your work is being sidelined. But don’t panic!

When a leader goes all-in on founder mode, it’s less about them trying to micromanage and more about trying to solve a problem. Your role as a Product Manager is to bridge the gap, bring clarity to their concerns, and refocus their energy into productive collaboration.

You can navigate this situation with strategy, empathy, and a touch of diplomacy. Here’s how:

Think of your founder as a stakeholder

At their core, founders are stakeholders with unique incentives, pressures, and goals. The key is to treat them as you would any other stakeholder: understand their motivations, align on priorities, and address their concerns.

So when founders get more involved, conduct discovery. Ask what they’re trying to solve, what they’re worried about, and what success looks like to them. You can even map out their goals to the team’s objectives so they can see how the work aligns with their vision.

By knowing what they need from you, you can produce work that reassures them and gets them off your back.

Get to the root of the problem

Founder mode often happens when trust has wavered or when the founder feels the team isn’t meeting expectations. This realization can suck at first. Instead of getting defensive and pushing back against their involvement, dig deeper to understand why they’re stepping in and what’s gone astray.

As a Product Manager, you probably already know when something isn’t meeting the mark, so collaborate on this to see if you can leverage their insight to find a solution together.

Show that you’re part of the team. One reason founders might adopt founder mode is because they feel they lack a team they can trust. Reassure them by being their ally. Share progress transparently, invite their feedback (without handing over the reins), and highlight how their expertise can complement the team’s efforts, rather than overriding them.

Speak their language: use evidence and outcomes

Founders are wired to respond to proof. If they’re questioning your decisions, come prepared with evidence that backs your approach. Whether it’s user research, metrics, or validated experiments, show them the thought process behind the team’s direction. This lets them know that you’re not floating aimlessly in the current.

Use validation and prioritization frameworks to demonstrate that your decisions are grounded in data, not guesswork, and show how the team’s progress supports the company’s overarching goals.

Need some frameworks to help guide your proof? We’ve got a whole list of them in this ebook:

Master the art of saying no

When a founder brings unqualified ideas to the table, shutting them down outright can create friction and put your head on the line. Instead, steer the conversation toward alignment.

Frame your responses around shared goals, something like “That’s an interesting idea – how do you see it contributing to [X objective]?” Deploy validation techniques to assess their suggestions constructively. If an idea doesn’t hold up, the data will speak for itself.

There are loads of techniques on how to say no as a Product Manager, so choose the one that works for you. 

Frame founder mode as a collaboration opportunity

While founder mode can feel disruptive, it also opens the door to closer collaboration. Use the opportunity to align on strategy, learn from their experience, and strengthen the team’s relationship with leadership. A founder may not be the guru of everything, but they’re going to have insight you don’t have.

If you have a founder who wants to be more involved without being overbearing, invite them to join strategy sessions or roadmap discussions in a structured way. Use their insights to refine the team’s work, but ensure that their involvement remains constructive.

Should Product Managers adopt founder mode themselves? 

There’s been some chatter suggesting that Product Managers should embrace founder mode principles. Let’s be clear: that’s not the move.

Micromanaging or trying to run every aspect of your product single-handedly undermines your team’s expertise and autonomy. Your role isn’t to know everything; it’s to enable your team to shine.

But what’s worth adopting is the founder mindset.

Founders think about their products with unparalleled care and commitment. It’s their legacy, their life’s work, their reputation on the line. They take calculated risks, stay hyper-focused on the company’s success, and consider the broader implications of every decision. This level of dedication can be transformative for a PM aiming to create better products.

While you might not have the same stakes as a founder, you can bring that level of investment and thoughtfulness to your role. Care deeply about your product. Stay strategic and make decisions with long-term growth in mind. This doesn’t mean sidelining your team, it means inspiring them by modeling the passion and commitment that makes founders effective.

Adopting this mindset helps you approach your product with purpose while still leveraging the strengths of your team. In other words, think like a founder but lead like a PM.

What to do instead of founder mode 

Right, I’m speaking directly to founders now. This one’s for you. I get it, sometimes I struggle with the pull to dive into the weeds and take charge again. You care about your product, your team, and your company’s success, but now you also know the pitfalls of founder mode. So, what should you do instead when you get that urge?

First, take a step back and reflect. Ask yourself: Why am I stepping in here? Is it because you feel your team isn’t capable? Or maybe it’s because you have knowledge or intuition that the team doesn’t? Perhaps it’s due to external pressures you’re facing that the team isn’t aware of.

Whatever the reason, recognize it. Then, instead of jumping in, share your insights. Bring your intuition, business context, or industry knowledge to the table in a way that empowers your team. Your job is to make sure they have the information they need to align with your vision – not to execute it for them.

Lastly, trust the team you’ve built. If you’re struggling to delegate, ask yourself if the issue lies in the team’s skills, alignment, or your own ability to let go. If there’s a gap, work together to address it. There are better options than taking on the success of your product yourself.

Founder mode isn’t all that: protect yourself from it

Let’s call it like it is, founder mode isn’t a cool badge of honor. For most, if founder mode is working, I think that it’s a warning sign.

While it’s tempting to see it as a noble return to the trenches, the reality is that this hands-on, hyper-controlling approach creates more problems than it solves. It sidelines talented teams, erodes trust, and stifles innovation: all while placing an unsustainable amount of pressure on the founder.

The truth is that great companies aren’t built by a single pair of hands but by empowering many. The real magic happens when founders follow conventional management wisdom, step back, trust their teams, and focus on long-term strategy rather than short-term fixes. Founder mode might feel like a necessary move during turbulent times, but it’s rarely the right one.

So, protect yourself – and your teams – from this micromanagement masquerade. A great way to do that is with ProdPad. Here, you give everyone eyes on your roadmap and ensure that your Ideas are tied to business outcomes – two things your founder and C-level execs are going to love. The visibility and best practices built into ProdPad help maintain alignment and keep your teams working smoothly and in harmony, building trust in you.

Learn more about how ProdPad can support Product Managers with a personal demo.

The post Founder Mode: Protecting Yourself From this New Form of Micromanagement appeared first on ProdPad.

Our Complete list of Product Management frameworks

Let’s do it. 16 worthwhile Product Management frameworks. Explained and listed out for you so that you know what models are worth turning to. This list is not exhaustive. If it was, we’d be here all day. And because of that, if you know of a Product Management framework that’s really helping you out that we don’t cover here, tell us. Please. We’d love to know.

To make things easier, we’ve even gone and organized it based on what you’re using the frameworks for. Click from this list below to skip down to the types of frameworks you’re looking for. 

Product Management Frameworks for Prioritization

In the grand scheme of things, you’ll find that most Product Management frameworks are going to be focused on prioritization in one way or another. That makes sense, figuring out what’s most important to work on is a major part of Product Management.

Here’s a quick overview of some of the most important, but there are sooooo many more you can use. Get a better sense of the power of Prioritization Frameworks by downloading our ebook below. There you’ll be able to learn multiple nifty ways to prioritize. Check it out below:

RICE scoring

Potential features or ideas aren’t just categorically ‘good’ or ‘bad’. There are multiple factors that all come together to dictate if it’s something you should pursue. RICE scoring helps you collate all these factors and pump out an actionable score to help you see what’s the best stuff to work on.

To do RICE scoring, you need to first give a score, typically out of 10, on these four areas:

• Reach: How many users will this feature or update affect?
• Impact: How significantly will it improve their experience?
• Confidence: How sure are we about the above estimates?
• Effort: How much work is required to implement it?

Oh, would you look at that, the first letters of each word spell R.I.C.E, who would have thought? From here, you can then work out your RICE score by plugging it into the pretty straightforward formula: 

With RICE scores generated for each of your new ideas, you can then compare them against each other to see which ones have the most potential to move the needle with the least amount of effort.

Of course, there’s WAY more to RICE scoring. Good job we’ve put together this glossary article so you can learn more: 

Weighted impact scoring

Weighted impact scoring is another Product Management framework that helps you work out the best things to focus on based on different factors. What makes this different from RICE scoring is that these different factors are weighted depending on what’s most important to you. Because certain factors are simply more important than others.

For example, say your team really values something that has high customer demand and doesn’t care as much about its technical feasibility. You can illustrate that with weighted scoring, meaning that the value you give to customer demand has a higher impact on the final score.

To do weighted scoring, you’ll follow a process like this: 

1. Identify criteria: Define the key factors influencing success, such as market demand, customer impact, cost, or technical feasibility.
2. Assign weights: Allocate importance to each item, making sure that the total equals 100%. For instance, market demand might carry 40% weight, while cost might have 20%.
3. Score ideas: Rate each idea against the criteria on a consistent scale, such as 1 to 10. A higher score indicates a better alignment with the criteria you’ve created.
4. Calculate weighted scores: Multiply each idea’s score by its corresponding weight, then add the results to generate a total weighted score.
5. Rank ideas: Use the total scores to rank options. The highest-scoring ideas are prioritized for implementation while low-scoring ones can be deprioritized or excluded.

By following these steps, you’ll get something like this: 

In this example, it’s clear that Product Idea 2 is the best to work on first and will provide the biggest impact. Learn more about Weighted Scoring in our full glossary article: 

Kano Model

The Kano Model is a survey that allows PMs to work out what features are most important to their customers, allowing them to prioritize feature development and improvements. In this survey, you’ll ask two sets of questions about your feature ideas: 

• How would you feel if we added this feature?
• How would you feel if this feature was missing?

Users can respond by ticking one of five options that range from “I like it” to “I dislike it”. From these answers, you can then categorize your ideas or existing features based on what users like and dislike, helping you know what to drop and what to focus your efforts on in the future. Through this survey, you’ll be able to categorize your features or ideas into 5 sections: 

1. Basic: Must-haves that users expect.
2. Performance: Features that increase satisfaction the more they’re improved.
3. Delighters: Unexpected features that delight users.
4. Indifferent: Features users don’t care about.
5. Dissatisfiers: Features that frustrate users if present or missing.

The Kano model is useful but involves a fair bit of work to get it done properly. If you’re keen to follow the model, check out our step-by-step instructions: 

MoSCoW Prioritization Model

If you’re struggling to work out which features you should have in your product or need to know which ideas on your roadmap or backlog are worth sticking with, the MoSCoW Prioritization framework can help you.

The Product Management Framework allows you to assess ideas based on their importance and urgency, making sure that you allocate resources properly.

When using this framework, you rank your ideas based on them being a… 

• M – Must Have: Non-negotiable essentials for project success.
• S – Should Have: Important but not critical; can be postponed if necessary.
• C – Could Have: Nice-to-have features that add value but are not priorities.
• W – Won’t Have: Explicitly excluded from the current scope but may be revisited later.

This is what the framework stands for. By organizing requirements into these categories, the MoSCoW model ensures that teams work smarter, delivering what matters most while setting realistic expectations for all stakeholders.

You’ve probably guessed it by now, but we also have a glossary article covering this Product Management framework – perfect if you want to learn more. Check it out: 

Product Management Frameworks for Product Discovery 

Product Discovery is very important, so much so that it’s a core part of the Product Management Lifecycle. PMs constantly need to be learning about their audience and product to make sure they’re building the best thing possible. Here are some of the best frameworks for that. 

Double Diamond

The Double Diamond Product Management framework is a design and problem-solving approach that helps teams go from an initial kernel of an idea to a well-defined solution. It visually represents the process with two diamonds: the first focuses on defining the problem, while the second centers on designing the solution.

The framework has four key stages: Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver.

The Discover phase involves exploring the problem space through research and gathering insights. Teams cast a wide net to uncover user needs and pain points.

In the Define stage, the insights are analyzed to pinpoint the core problem, narrowing the focus to define a clear, actionable problem statement.

The second diamond begins with the Develop phase, where teams ideate and prototype potential solutions. This is a collaborative process, encouraging creativity and exploration of multiple ideas.

Finally, in the Deliver stage, the team tests and improves solutions, ensuring they meet user needs before scaling and shipping it to market.

In the context of product discovery, the Double Diamond Product Management framework ensures that Product Managers and teams deliver solutions that are both user-centric and aligned with business goals. It encourages collaboration across disciplines and fosters a mindset of continuous improvement.

ICE Scoring 

ICE scoring is a very simple framework, and allows Product Teams to evaluate potential solutions based on three key factors: 

• It’s Impact 
• How Confident you are in the idea
• How Easy the idea is to implement

By looking at these factors alone, it creates a simple way to decide on which initiatives you should focus on and if your potential ideas are going to work out.

To work out your ICE score, you first score each factor between 1-10, and you then multiply them together to get your final ICE score. The higher, the better.

The simplicity of ICE Scoring makes it an ideal framework for quickly comparing a wide range of ideas. It encourages objective decision-making by breaking down initiatives into measurable components, reducing biases that may crop up from gut feelings or organizational politics. If you need to make fast decisions, then this Product Management Framework is definitely a good option to have in your back pocket.

Learn more about ICE scoring: 

Opportunity Solution Tree 

The Opportunity Solution Tree is a framework developed by Product Leader and ProdPad friend, Teresa Torres. It’s a great framework for mapping out desired outcomes and working up ideas for actionable solutions. It gives structure to your discovery work and makes sure that teams are working on the right problems before they jump ahead.

When building an Opportunity Solution Tree, you’ll plot on three levels: 

1. Outcome: The overarching goal or desired result. For example, “Increase user retention by 20%.”
2. Opportunities: User needs, pain points, or problems that could help achieve the outcome. These are identified through user research.
3. Solutions: Potential ways to address the opportunities. Teams brainstorm and validate ideas here.

With these plotted out, you’ll then build a tree that may look something like this: 

Using an Opportunity Solution Tree encourages a systematic approach to product discovery. Instead of jumping straight to solutions, teams spend time actually exploring the problem space, ensuring they address real user needs. Breaking the process into steps reduces wasted effort on misaligned initiatives. Everything is focused on outcomes, not outputs, and every solution is tied to a validated opportunity.

Of course, this is just the ‘root’ of the Opportunity Solution Tree (see what we did there). Fully get your head around it by checking out our detailed glossary article: 

Product Management Frameworks for Product Development

Sometimes, doing can be the hardest thing in Product Management. Building and then implementing a plan can be tricky – especially if you’re cautious about doing things the right way. Thankfully, there are frameworks you can follow that make sure you’re always on the right track when developing and building your product.

Here are some of the best Product Development frameworks.

Kanban Framework

The Kanban Framework is a visual workflow management method that helps teams manage the work they have in progress. It’s a visual planner that’s shared with your entire team to improve visibility and reduce bottlenecks.

At its core, Kanban revolves around tracking tasks on a Kanban Board, which consists of columns representing stages in the workflow:

To Do
In Progress
Done

Tasks, represented as cards, move across the board as they progress through these stages. By representing tasks as cards on the board, teams gain clarity on what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and where potential delays exist.

When using Kanban, you have a limit on what tasks can sit in each column, preventing teams from overloading themselves and encouraging a focus on completing tasks before adding another one. This creates a steady workflow while team members consistently review the board and make tweaks to their processes to improve the development process.

This framework is particularly beneficial for teams seeking to improve delivery times and reduce waste without overhauling their existing processes. Its focus on continuous delivery and responsiveness to change makes it a cornerstone of Agile practices.

GIST Planning

The GIST Planning framework, created by Itamar Gilad, is a lightweight, Agile-friendly framework designed to simplify strategic planning and execution for product teams. GIST stands for: 

1. Goals: High-level objectives that the team aims to achieve, such as improving user retention or increasing revenue.
2. Ideas: Potential solutions or initiatives to reach the goals. These ideas are collected, evaluated, and prioritized.
3. Step-Projects: Small, actionable projects derived from prioritized ideas. These projects are designed to deliver measurable results quickly.
4. Tasks: Specific actions required to complete the step-projects.

Here, the goal is to take high-level, ambitious goals and break them into tiny pieces that are more manageable and easier to focus on. It’s like eating a great big chocolate bar, you nibble on each block instead of shoving the whole thing in your mouth at once.

GIST Planning is important because it bridges long-term strategy and short-term execution. It helps teams avoid overcommitting to rigid plans and instead fosters a culture of adaptability. By breaking large goals into manageable pieces, teams can focus on incremental progress and ensure alignment with user needs and business objectives.

This framework is ideal for fast-moving teams that need a clear structure without the constraints of traditional planning methods.

And that’s the gist of GIST. If you want to learn more, we’ve actually spoken to Itamar about the benefits of GIST over Product roadmaps. Get your hands on the on-demand video. 

V2MOM

The V2MOM Framework is a strategic planning tool to align teams and ensure everyone is clear on how you achieve your organization-spanning goals. It provides a structured approach to defining priorities, aligning efforts, and tracking progress.

V2MOM stands for:

1. Vision: The ultimate goal or outcome the team wants to achieve. It sets the direction and purpose.
2. Values (the second ‘V’ hence the 2): The principles and priorities that guide decision-making and define success.
3. Methods: The specific actions or strategies required to achieve the vision.
4. Obstacles: Potential challenges or risks that might hinder progress.
5. Measures: The metrics used to evaluate success and track progress.

Getting different teams and the members within them on the same page can be pretty tough. The simplicity of V2MOM makes it a powerful tool for aligning teams, especially in large organizations. Each component ensures that everyone understands not just what they’re working on, but why it matters and how success will be measured.

In product development, V2MOM is particularly useful for maintaining focus and cohesion in cross-functional teams. By clearly outlining objectives and strategies, it prevents misalignment and ensures that efforts are directed toward shared goals – not just the core metrics for each specific team.

This framework is valuable for Product Managers seeking to straddle strategy and execution, learn about it:

Product Management Frameworks for Team Management

Product Managers don’t act alone. You’re surrounded by a team made up of multiple cross-functional roles, not to mention other stakeholders who all have a shared interest in the product and its direction. Because of this, you’re going to have to learn how to properly manage these teams and create a structure to avoid everything spiraling into chaos, blockers, and silos.

Here are some great Product Management frameworks to help you manage your teams.

DACI Framework

The DACI Framework is a decision-making and accountability tool designed to clarify roles and responsibilities within teams. It clearly states who owns and is responsible for driving decisions, making sure that no one goes off and starts a task without consulting the rest of their squad.

DACI is particularly useful for cross-functional teams working on strategic initiatives, product development, and organizational change.

DACI defines the four different types of people in a team and their association to decision making: Driver, Approver, Contributor, and Informed:

1. Driver: The person or role responsible for driving the decision-making process. This individual coordinates the discussions, gathers input, and ensures that decisions are made within the set timeframe.
2. Approver: The person who has the final authority to approve or veto the decision. The approver is accountable for ensuring the decision aligns with business objectives and long-term strategy.
3. Contributors: These are team members who provide valuable input, expertise, and recommendations to help inform the decision. While contributors do not make the final decision, their insights are critical in shaping the options available.
4. Informed: Individuals who need to be kept in the loop regarding the decision and its outcome. They are not directly involved in the decision-making process but need to stay informed for context, communication, or implementation purposes.

Assigning these specific roles to team members prevents confusion and overlapping responsibilities, which can lead to inefficiencies and missed deadlines. It also fosters accountability, as everyone knows exactly what is expected of them and who has the final say. It helps streamline decision-making processes, making sure that key stakeholders are involved at the right stages and that the right people are making the final call.

We’ve got loads more on DACI right here: 

RACI Matrix

Another framework used for clarifying roles in a team is the RACI Matrix. It helps ensure that tasks are completed efficiently by defining who is responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed for each part of a project. The RACI Matrix reduces ambiguity, improves communication, and prevents tasks from falling through the cracks. Here’s each role in action:

1. Responsible: The individual or team responsible for completing the task or action. They perform the work or take direct responsibility for getting it done.
2. Accountable: The person who is ultimately accountable for the completion and success of the task. They own the outcome and are the final decision-maker. There should only be one accountable person per task to avoid confusion.
3. Consulted: These are subject-matter experts or team members who provide input, advice, or feedback during the task’s execution. Their consultation helps guide the responsible individual, but they do not directly perform the task.
4. Informed: Individuals or groups who need to be kept updated on the progress or completion of a task. They are not involved in the decision-making or execution but need to stay informed to maintain alignment.

Hang on, this sounds pretty similar to DACI, doesn’t it? Well, despite the rhyming name, don’t get these two confused. DACI is all about decision-making, whereas RACI is more focused on execution.

The RACI Matrix is essential in ensuring clear communication within teams. It provides a simple, straightforward way to ensure that every team member knows what is expected of them and who to turn to for advice or approval. 

Product Trios

There’s a lot to know about Product Trios, but here’s the general gist:

The Product Trio is a framework designed to foster close collaboration among three key roles in product discovery and development: the Product Manager, the Engineer, and the Product Designer. These cross-functional roles come together from the very beginning of a project, working in unison to inform decisions, bounce ideas off each other, and create products that are viable, desirable, and feasible. 

By creating a Product Trio, teams break away from the silos that traditionally isolate these roles, ensuring that everyone involved has visibility into the product development process at all stages. This integrated approach leads to better alignment, faster decision-making, and a more efficient product development cycle.

Of course, there are multiple other frameworks you can choose to follow to nail your Product Team Structure, including the use of squads and cross-functional teams. Yet, trios are the easiest to implement and help give your Product Team a solid structure to build off as you scale.

Product Management Frameworks for Customer Experience

Every change, tweak, and update made to a product is designed to improve the customer experience so that users become lifelong advocates and champions of your product. There are many different things you can do to ensure you’re working on improving the customer experience.

Here are some Product Management frameworks that are focused on improving the customer experience and showing them the value proposition of the product. 

Value Proposition Canvas

The Value Proposition Canvas is a powerful framework designed to help businesses create products and services that truly resonate with their customers. The canvas is really important when creating your value proposition, and is used within a value proposition workshop to visualize the key components of the product and align it with customer needs.

It consists of two main sections: Customer Profile and Value Map.

1. Customer Profile: This section is divided into three sub-sections: Jobs, Pains, and Gains. Jobs refer to what the customer is trying to achieve, whether functional, social, or emotional. Pains are the challenges or obstacles customers face in achieving these jobs, such as frustrations or risks. Gains represent the benefits or positive outcomes customers hope to achieve, such as improvements in productivity or happiness.
2. Value Map: The Value Map outlines how your product or service addresses these customer needs. It identifies the products and services that help customers complete their jobs, the pain relievers that mitigate their frustrations, and the gain creators that provide additional benefits or pleasures.

The framework helps to clarify why a product matters to the customer, which is essential in developing successful marketing strategies and sales messages. By mapping out how a product fits into the customer’s life, businesses can create offerings that stand out in the market and build stronger customer loyalty.

AARRR (Pirate Metrics)

AARRR, also known as Pirate Metrics, is a Product Management framework developed to help growth teams track and optimize the customer lifecycle. Here you’re mapping out and measuring how the customer behaves from first contact to when they choose your product over others. These five key stages help businesses understand the path a user takes and assess how you’re performing at each stage. The stages of AARRR are: 

1. Acquisition: This refers to how users find and discover your product. Acquisition metrics measure how effectively your marketing and outreach efforts bring new users to your product.
2. Activation: This stage tracks the user’s first experience with the product. It answers the question: When do users reach their wow moment with the product that indicates they see value in it?
3. Retention: Retention measures how many users come back after their initial experience. This is a critical metric for gauging user satisfaction and product stickiness.
4. Referral: At this stage, the focus is on how likely users are to refer others to your product. Referral metrics help assess the virality of your product – how well users are advocating for it to their networks.
5. Revenue: This stage measures how the product generates income, either through direct sales, subscriptions, or other revenue models. It helps track the financial viability of your products

AARRR metrics are vital for startups and growth-stage companies because they offer a clear, actionable framework for tracking and optimizing the customer journey. Each stage helps businesses pinpoint where they are excelling and where they need improvement. For example, if you have low retention but decent acquisition, the team knows that focusing on user experience will be the most impactful.

Be like a pirate and learn more about AARR: 

User Story Mapping

User Story Mapping is a visual framework used to organize and prioritize user stories, providing a structured way to align product features with user needs. This framework helps product teams understand the user journey by mapping out the steps users take to achieve their goals, allowing teams to identify the most critical features to build and prioritize based on real user value.

User Story Mapping is typically done on a wall or digital board, with user stories represented as cards that can be moved around. The process begins by identifying the user activities or high-level tasks that users need to complete within the product. These activities are placed on the horizontal axis.

Next, the team breaks down these activities into user stories, which are smaller, manageable tasks that contribute to achieving each activity. These stories are placed vertically under each activity, helping to map out the full flow of tasks. The map is then prioritized based on the user’s needs, with essential features placed at the top and lower-priority features at the bottom.

With this visual framework, teams can see what users need to do to reach one of their goals, which can then influence decisions on how they do things in the future. 

Setting the foundations

And there you have it. 16 of our most beloved and trusted Product Management frameworks, all organized nicely and neatly by the tasks you need the frameworks for. These 16 models alone should set up strong foundations to operate with best practices and really hit your product goals.

Of course, once you start to know these Product Management frameworks like the back of your hand, there’s nothing stopping you from learning more. One of the greatest skills a Product Manager can have is curiosity. Seek out new frameworks, check if they work for you, and equip yourself with more tools to handle anything the role may throw at you.

Product Management frameworks are like the formulas sheet for a Math test. They don’t give you the answers, but they tell you how to get there as long as you use the right one.

Looking for other ways to ensure best practices are at the heart of your processes? Use a tool that helps you stay on track. With ProdPad, our features are thoughtfully designed to support your growth and make you an even better Product Manager, empowering you to build products your users will love. Book a demo to see ProdPad in action. 

The post 16 Product Management Frameworks You Should Be Using appeared first on ProdPad.

What is the product operating model?

The product operating model is a framework that aligns people, processes, culture, and technology around a product-centric approach. Unlike traditional models, it unifies cross-functional teams, fosters collaboration, and ensures everyone is actively involved in delivering continuous value through the product lifecycle.

As you’ve probably guessed, the product operating model is crucial for product-led growth. By aligning all teams and processes around the product itself, it ensures that every aspect of the organization is working toward creating and delivering on the product value proposition, driving growth through innovation and a customer-centric approach.

But let’s take a step back for a second. To understand the product operating model, we first need to ask, ‘What is an operating model’? 

What is an operating model?

At its core, an operating model is a framework that dictates how an organization operates and functions to deliver on its strategy. Think of it as how all the pieces of a business come together to make the business work.

Take two cars. You have one with an oil engine and manual transmission and another with an automatic electric engine. Both are cars, but the way they work – their operating model – is different. You could argue that one is more efficient than the other because of that operating model.

Now an operating model is more than just an explanation of how a company does things; it’s a dynamic playbook that evolves alongside the mission and product strategy. When putting together an operating model, it needs to cover and define these areas: 

1. People and organizations – The roles, responsibilities, and organizational structures.
2. Processes – The workflows and the information needed to deliver outcomes.
3. Governance – Decision-making mechanisms and accountability structures.
4. Culture – The shared values, beliefs, and behaviors that influence how work gets done.
5. Measures and incentives – The metrics you use to define success and reward performance.
6. Tools and technology – The systems that enable efficient value delivery.

So how does the product operating model differ? Well, the product operating model takes these principles and makes them more aligned to organizations that are driven by product-led go-to-market strategies. Its focus shifts to products as the unifying force through which work is structured and delivered.

Let’s take a closer look at how:

The core concepts of a product operating model

The product operating model takes from a preexisting operating model and transforms it into something that is customer and product-driven. Here are the main aspects it focuses on:

• Product culture: Encourages a product-first mindset where customer-centricity and continuous improvement drive every department.
• Product strategy: Aligns product initiatives with company goals, prioritizing investments and measuring their impact.
• Product teams: Builds cross-functional product teams that collaborate seamlessly and own the entire product delivery process.
• Product discovery: Shapes how user needs are identified, solutions explored, and ideas validated before development.
• Product delivery: Defines efficient processes for building and releasing products, often using Agile or Lean principles.

Why use the product operating model? 

We promise you, the product operating model isn’t just a trendy buzzword. It’s a beneficial framework that helps businesses drive exceptional product value. By embracing the model, product-led companies position themselves to work faster, smarter, and more efficiently. Here’s a look at some of the major benefits of using this type of operating model. 

Break down silos

Traditional operating models have been guilty of isolating departments, leading to misaligned priorities, inefficiencies, and communication gaps. The product operating model breaks up these silos by introducing cross-functional teams around shared product goals.

Instead of focusing on departmental KPIs that can drastically differ from team to team, everyone collaborates on unified outcomes that directly contribute to customer satisfaction and business growth.

Focus on outcomes, not outputs

Measuring success by tasks completed or features shipped turns teams into feature factories, churning out updates without considering their real value. A product operating model shifts the focus to outcomes. Things like product impact, customer satisfaction, and business value. This mindset ensures every effort delivers meaningful, measurable results, creating products that truly resonate with users.

Prioritize the right products

In the era of data-driven Product Management, acting on instinct alone won’t cut it. The product operating model encourages organizations to use data to prioritize the products and features that offer the most value.

By analyzing customer behavior, market trends, and performance metrics, companies can make smarter, more informed choices about where to invest their time and resources.

Enable agility and adaptability

In today’s fast-paced market, agility is essential. A product operating model enables this by emphasizing continuous feedback loops, helping teams stay closely attuned to shifting customer needs, market changes, and new technologies. This customer-focused approach ensures organizations can pivot quickly and stay ahead.

Speed up time to value

The quicker you can show the value of your product, the quicker the product grows. Ideas don’t change the world unless they reach customers. The product operating model helps optimize the processes for product discovery and delivery, helping you get great ideas to market faster. A shorter  time to value means customers benefit sooner, and the business sees faster adoption, growth, and retention. 

Transform organizational thinking

Deploying a product operating model may be a structural shift, but it also nurtures a cultural one too. It redefines how you and the team think about value, work, and growth. For companies willing to embrace this paradigm, it becomes a powerful lever for sustained competitive advantage in the digital age.

What companies use a product operating model?

Product operating models (POMs) are becoming essential for product-led companies looking to drive agile, customer-focused strategies. Yes, we’ve said this already, but it’s important to reiterate: it’s nearly impossible to be product-led without using a product operating model.

In terms of the types of companies that have used a product operating model, the usual suspects appear. Tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Spotify have led the way by using POMs to align teams around specific products, foster innovation, and scale globally. 

This model helps product-led companies stay nimble, enabling them to experiment quickly and meet customer demands in dynamic markets.

With teams centered on products, not departments, these companies can bring together diverse experts to work toward a common goal. When executed well, a POM not only streamlines operations but also drives long-term growth by ensuring the company is always adapting to market needs and customer expectations.

Who’s in charge of the product operating model?

The product operating model is a shared responsibility. No one single person claims full ownership of the product operating model. That makes sense. As a framework to spark collaboration around the product, it would be weird for it to be the responsibility of just one person.

That said, leadership roles, Product Teams, and key stakeholders all have a hand in building in the product operating model. Executives like the CEO or Chief Product Officer champion the product operating model by aligning it with the company’s vision and securing the necessary resources. Product leaders, such as Heads of Product, are responsible for shaping and maintaining the model, ensuring it supports the organization’s strategy.

Cross-functional leaders from teams like Engineering, Design, and Marketing help bring the product operating model to life, adapting it to fit their teams’ workflows.

Ultimately, success depends on collective accountability, with everyone in the product development process contributing to a culture of collaboration and growth.

What needs to be included in a product operating model? 

Your product operating model needs to be properly documented. It’s not a lucid concept that can exist in the back of your mind – it needs to be written down. Your product operating model defines how things get done in your company, so you don’t want that left to interpretation. The whole point of an operating model is to bring consistency and collaboration between your teams – to do that you need a resource that everyone can use.

Creating a product operating model document leaves no room for ambiguity. It makes sure that everyone follows the same model. Now here’s the exciting part. What do you need to include in your product operating model document for it to be a good one?

Well, one thing to remember is that a product operating model is not a rehash of your existing documentation. You already have your product strategy, vision, product roadmap, OKRs, and more guiding the way your teams work – this artifact shouldn’t be a retelling of all of that. Instead, it’s a supplementary piece that provides high-level instruction on how all these different things come together.

Your product operating model should avoid duplicating content found in other documents.  Instead, it needs to provide a distinct operational framework tailored to your organization’s specific context. This makes your POM serve as a central reference for setting expectations, driving alignment, and enabling consistent execution.

Think of it as the operating manual for how your teams collaborate to achieve product excellence. Your company is a machine, this is the framework for how to operate it properly.

To be effective, a POM should outline guidelines that set expectations and establish operational processes for the following core areas:

1. How your products are built

Your product operating model should clearly define how products and features are built, from the first spark of an idea all the way through to their launch. This includes specifying the tools and technologies teams will rely on, such as collaboration platforms, design software, or development frameworks.

By breaking down the stages of product development, you create a clear flow that helps teams work efficiently and avoid unnecessary delays. Using a framework like the Product Management lifecycle can keep everything structured and focused.

Equally important is outlining roles and responsibilities at every stage of the process. Who’s taking the lead at each step? Defining this ensures that teams operate cohesively, with everyone contributing toward a shared vision. A clear structure not only keeps the product development process consistent but also ensures it aligns with the company’s broader goals.

2. How problems are identified and solved

Every successful product begins with a clear problem to solve, and your product operating model should define how your teams approach this. This includes outlining the frameworks and methodologies for identifying user and business pain points through customer feedback, market research, and data analysis. By setting clear steps for uncovering problems, your teams can consistently focus on what truly matters to your users.

The POM should also detail how cross-functional collaboration takes place, ensuring diverse expertise and perspectives shape the problem-solving process. Equally important is specifying how solutions are tested, validated, and iterated upon. Standardizing these practices keeps teams aligned and focused on solving the right problems.

3. How you decide which problems to solve

Not all problems are created equal. You’ve got your mountains, and then you’ve got your molehills. Prioritization is key to figuring out what issues you want to tackle, and your product operating model provides a framework for identifying, validating, and prioritizing problems. It should clarify how teams assess which problems will have the most significant impact on customer satisfaction, business goals, and long-term strategy.

The POM should also include criteria for evaluating problems based on factors such as customer pain points, market opportunities, and alignment with overall business objectives. Data and customer insights should naturally play a central role in this decision-making process, ensuring that prioritization is rooted in real, actionable information. This helps avoid distractions and ensures that your teams remain focused on solving high-value problems that drive product success.

4. How people should behave

A product operating model does more than specify the processes and tools you use – it also helps create the right culture. It should set expectations for how teams collaborate, communicate, and interact. The POM should define behaviors that foster a positive, productive working environment, such as transparency, accountability, and respect.

These behavioral guidelines ensure that all team members are aligned with the organization’s values and customer-centric mindset. By formalizing these guidelines, the product operating model helps create a culture of trust, innovation, and shared responsibility, ensuring that teams are not only productive but also engaged and motivated to deliver great products.

5. How work is planned, executed, monitored, and governed

Efficiency and accountability are at the heart of a solid product operating model. It should clearly define how teams plan, execute, and monitor their work, from setting goals and scheduling agile sprints to establishing workflows that keep everyone on track. By providing a structured approach, the POM ensures that teams operate smoothly and maintain focus on their objectives.

The product operating model should also outline governance structures, such as regular check-ins, review cycles, and clear escalation processes to address roadblocks swiftly.

The POM  should also identify key performance indicators (KPIs) or metrics to monitor progress and success.

6. How people are organized

A well-organized Product Team is essential for success, and your product operating model (POM) should clearly define team structures to support it. Whether you adopt cross-functional product trios, product squads, or specialized units, the POM ensures that teams are designed to align with the product’s needs and organizational goals. By outlining these structures, it sets the foundation for effective collaboration and accountability.

Your product operating model should also address resource allocation across products or initiatives, making sure teams have the right support to deliver results. It should also clarify decision-making authority – who is responsible for what and how decisions are communicated. This prevents bottlenecks and ensures smooth information flow.

What are the challenges of implementing a product operating model? 

Implementing a product operating model can be a game-changer, but it doesn’t mean it’s easy. If you are to do it, you’ll need to overcome some pretty gnarly challenges. Here are four key hurdles to watch out for:

1. Cultural resistance

Shifting to a product-first mindset can sometimes be met with resistance from teams used to traditional ways of working. You might encounter some skepticism about cross-functional collaboration, and some team mates may struggle with the changes in their roles and responsibilities.

You can overcome this by fostering buy-in through educating and communicating the benefits of the new model. Lead by example and support teams during the transition.

2. Lack of clear ownership

Without clear ownership, roles can become blurry, leading to confusion, miscommunication, and inefficiency. This is particularly true when decision-making is decentralized, and multiple teams are involved in product development, like they are with a product operating model.

Of course, this only happens if you fail to clearly define roles. Just make sure you explicitly define roles and responsibilities from the start so everyone knows who’s accountable for what.

3. Siloed technology and data

If you’re coming from a position where teams used to operate in silos, you’ll likely find that the technology used was also fragmented. This can make collaboration difficult. Teams may struggle to share insights, track progress, or prioritize effectively if they lack the right tools and data access.

Not everyone is going to be using the same tools, but you’ll need to go to the effort of getting everyone to adopt tools that sync up. And this effort will be worth it in the long term. Invest in integrated tools and establish a unified data strategy to enable smooth cross-team collaboration.

4. Scaling challenges

Scaling the product operating model across multiple teams and departments can be complex. Inconsistencies and lack of alignment often emerge as the model expands, creating friction and inefficiencies.

To create a smooth transition, start with a pilot program, refine processes, and gradually scale to ensure alignment and consistency across the organization.

Remodeling your operating process 

Adopting a product operating model is more than just an operational shift, it should spark a cultural transformation that redefines how your organization approaches product development. By unifying teams and aligning efforts toward a single product vision, you can achieve greater collaboration, faster decision-making, and improved customer outcomes.

The POM is designed to help organizations become more agile and responsive, making it easier to adjust to market changes and customer needs. As businesses continue to focus on creating customer-centric products, the product operating model offers a scalable framework that supports both short-term goals and long-term growth.

To successfully implement a product operating model, you must understand your current maturity and goals and choose a framework that complements your specific needs. Whether through Agile, Lean, or Project-Based methodologies, the product operating model offers flexibility to suit various operational styles.

By embracing a product operating model, you would not only be improving your internal processes but also positioning your organization to deliver exceptionally successful products. In a world where product excellence is key to differentiation, the product operating model makes sure that organizations remain competitive and continue to innovate in ways that matter most.

To take your product excellence to the next level, consider trying ProdPad. We’re more than a Product Management tool; we’re a system that can guide you to a more efficient way of working. ProdPad is built to drive best practices and implement a standardized process across all your teams. With our powerful integrations, we provide a centralized home for your product operating model, making it super easy to collaborate and contribute with anyone from across the organization.

Want to see for yourself? Give us a try today!

The post Adopting the Product Operating Model: Making Your Operations Product-Led appeared first on ProdPad.

How do you get onto the Product Manager career path?

Looking longingly at a career in Product Management? Are you in a role where it feels like Product Management is the next logical step? Well, how are you going to get there?

That is honestly, still up to you. Product Management isn’t this closed-off industry where you need a certain qualification and particular experience to get into it. If you want to be a lawyer, you kind of need to go to law school. A doctor – you better be studying at a Medical school for 4 years. As for Product Management: the doors are kind of left open for you.

To understand how to get onto the Product Management career path, let’s look at how it was done in the past and compare that to how the way in looks now. 

Back in the day

If you want to become a Product Manager, my advice is don’t copy the great Product Leaders that came before. I say that because there’s not really a set route that you can copy. You see, Product Management is a relatively new role. Only in recent years have there been dedicated Product Management courses and education that can give you a qualification and help you enter this role.

Before this, people came into Product Management from loads of different backgrounds, both in terms of their education and previous career paths. The variety is staggering!

I asked my social network – which you should join by the way – about their pathway into Product Management and got so many varied replies. Although this isn’t a scientific study and is biased towards my connections, the results were still illuminating, so much so that I decided to put all the previous roles mentioned into a table:

As you can see, there are definitely some roles that appear to be more common stepping stones into Product Management than others, with Marketing roles, Software Engineering, Business Analysis, and Project Management being some of the most common.

But still, there’s an even spread between these roles, which says to me that there’s really no defined way into Product Management. Multiple roles can give you some crucial, transferable skills that can make Product Management a perfect career.

This graph doesn’t even include some of the more ‘out there’ roles that people had on their way to Product Management. Among the replies, we’ve had a Computer Scientist, a Theatre Production Manager, and even a Lifeguard.

All this is to say that if you don’t think you’re on the right path, don’t worry, because it turns out, neither were any of us. 

What to do today to get onto the Product Manager career path

As alluded to, things are a little different today than they were 10 or 20 years ago. You’ve got excellent Product Management qualifications to give you a kickstart – like the King’s College Product Management Career Accelerator course that I had a hand in creating – and loads more information to learn from.

We’ve asked some leading product pros what they recommend to someone who’s keen to get into Product Management today. Here’s their advice: 

Jason’s advice is spot on: if you’re eyeing a Product Manager role, jumping into an Individual Contributor (IC) position on a solid product team can be a great place to start. Whether you’re an Engineer, Designer, Analyst, or Copywriter, these roles give you hands-on experience with the nuts and bolts of product development, building, testing, prioritizing, and rethinking. It’s the perfect way to develop transferable skills while learning how to collaborate and tackle the messy, real-world challenges of creating great products.

He also singles out UX research as a standout prep role, and for good reason. Understanding the user or customer is central to effective Product Management, and a background in UX and UI equips you with the tools to gather, analyze, and apply insights that directly shape product decisions.

But what to do once you’ve gained this experience? Jump into a fresh PM role at a new company, or change position in your current organization? Well, most believe that the latter approach is the easiest:

It’s tough to get noticed without direct experience. By transitioning internally, you leverage existing relationships and company knowledge to make your case. Sometimes, building genuine connections with people in the industry can open doors that resumes alone can’t.

All in all, the best route into Product Management today depends entirely on where you are in your career. A person fresh out of school has different opportunities available to them than someone who’s been around the block in different roles. But whatever you do, gaining experience is crucial, no matter who you ask.

One interesting avenue of discussion is that many current PMs think a background in Business Analysis is going to support them. Heck, many don’t even think there’s much that distinguishes between the two roles, with Product Management simply being an evolution of Business Analysis.

I’m not going to go into whether I fully agree with that assessment or not, you can draw your own conclusions, but it’s clear that there is a strong connection between the role and Product Management. In fact, for many aiming to be a Product Manager, it was suggested to them that they seek out experience in Business Analysis first.

So why am I bringing this up? Well, because it highlights an important truth about Product Management: the skills you bring into the role matter just as much as the title you’ve held.

A background in Business Analysis equips you with some of the foundational tools you’ll need to succeed as a Product Manager – digging into data, understanding user needs, mapping processes, and collaborating with product teams. These are all core parts of the PM toolkit. For many, it’s a natural stepping stone.

But here’s the kicker: while Business Analysis is one path in, it’s far from the only one. The key is to focus on the transferable skills that align with Product Management.

So, whether you’re coming from a Business Analyst role or some other field entirely, don’t get hung up on the “right” path. The industry is wide open to those who can roll up their sleeves, ask the right questions, and create value for customers. 

What skills do you need to progress along the Product Manager career path?

So you don’t need a specific degree or background to break into Product Management, but you can’t waltz into the role without the right skills.

If you want to land a spot on the Product Manager career path, it’s crucial to develop attributes that align with the role’s demands. Many roles and courses can help you build these skills, but to give you a sense of where to focus, here’s a quick rundown of the core skills every aspiring Product Manager needs:

• Customer empathy: Understanding the needs, pain points, and motivations of your customers is essential. A strong sense of empathy allows you to prioritize features and solutions that truly matter, creating products people love.

• Strategic thinking: Product Managers must see the bigger picture. This means setting long-term goals, aligning your product vision with business objectives, and ensuring your team stays focused on outcomes over outputs.

• Communication skills: From pitching ideas to stakeholders to guiding cross-functional teams, clear and persuasive communication is non-negotiable. The better you are at explaining the why behind decisions, the smoother your development cycles will run.

• Data analysis: Numbers tell a story. Whether you’re evaluating user metrics, testing hypotheses, or measuring success, being able to analyze and act on data ensures your product decisions are grounded in reality.

• Prioritization: With countless ideas and finite resources, prioritization is a survival skill. Knowing how to balance user needs, business goals, and technical constraints is critical to shipping the right things at the right time.

• Collaboration: Product Managers work at the intersection of engineering, design, marketing, and sales. Being a team player who can bring diverse groups together to solve problems is key to driving success.

• Adaptability: Things rarely go as planned in Product Management. Whether it’s shifting priorities, unexpected user feedback, or changing market trends, the ability to pivot gracefully is a game-changer.

Breaking down a ‘typical’ Product Manager career path

So you’ve broken into Product Management. The Product Manager career path doesn’t just end there. There’s so much more room for you to grow.

There’s a notion that once you’re in Product Management, you have a straight, defined route to the top. Clear stepping stones you need to tread to reach the dizzying heights of Chief Product Officer. I don’t think it’s that simple.

Many people have come into Product sideways, through the back door. Who’s to say there are no more sideways and diagonal movements product professionals can make?

When looking into the Product Manager career path, you may be confronted with a simplistic structure that looks something like this:

You get your start as a Product Owner
You graduate into a Product Manager  
You then step into a Senior Product Manager role   
Soon enough you become a Director of Product
You then make the leap to Vice President of Product  
Finally, you’re the top dog as a Chief Product Officer

There’s soooooo much more nuance to this. There are loads more exciting and interesting roles that you can grow into. If you’re a new Product Manager, this route can make it feel like your future is already carved out for you. But what if you don’t want to step into a senior role that trades managing products for managing people? What if you want to specialize in a certain area of Product Management? Well, the good news is, you can.

Susana Lopes discussed the dual-track career path in one of her past talks at Mind The Product 2023 and it really left a mark on me. This is a great explanation in that there is a separate pathway for those wanting to stick around the product and stay in the weeds of product development, getting their hands dirty in improving the product. You don’t have to sacrifice your growth by pursuing this path.

It’s a fascinating discussion of how the Product Manager career path can branch off into different directions. But I think it can go even deeper.

See, I’d propose that the Product Manager career path isn’t a path at all, but a tree sprouting different branches. You’ve got your core Product Management role at the base, the truck, with everything else growing out from it.

Landing a role in Product Management doesn’t have to be the apex of your career. It can be the start. Imagine yourself a seedling – you can bloom into anything you want. 

And what about the roles that came before you? The roles that led to you getting your first Product Management position? Well, those are the roots that have given you a strong foundation and the skills needed to excel in Product Management.

Here’s a visual of what this Product Manager career tree may look like. Of course, we couldn’t fit EVERY product adjacent role into this, and it doesn’t include every possible route through Product Management, but based on our previous research, it appears to be some of the typical ways people move through the PM career journey.

I know not everyone will match this, but it should help paint the picture that the route up is not linear, it’s not a straight line – it’s a mess of different disciplines and skills and viewpoints and that’s what makes the industry so interesting. 

How is the Product Manager career path set to change?

Things don’t tend to sit still for long in tech and SaaS, so don’t expect the Product Manager career path to settle into a fixed rhythm anytime soon. There are so many new roles being introduced and different ways of doing Product Management –  I think this is going to change how the Product Manager career path looks going forward. Here are some key areas where the Product Manager career path may change.

A slowdown on specialized roles

See, not even a decade ago, Product Managers were seen as a jack-of-all-trades, dipping into different specializations and offering insight where they can. But recently, we’ve seen a major shift in this. Today, companies are focused on getting specialized PMs to perform specific tasks and focus on a certain area surrounding the product.

One of the biggest growing specializations is, somewhat fittingly, Growth PM roles. This position has risen 117% since 2022, demonstrating the appetite businesses have to scale. Here, core PMs are being usurped by ones specifically focused on driving business growth.

But here’s the thing, I think after an initial boom, these specialized roles are going to die off and become absorbed into the Product Management role, becoming core responsibilities instead of specified job role focuses.

If you’re in a position where you need to show you’re influencing growth as a PM, check out our webinar on how to ‘do’ Growth Product Management : 

Once again, I believe that these will become just another hat that a Product Manager needs to wear, meaning that those looking to enter Product Management will need to be pretty multifaceted. 

I’m not alone in this mindset. Other top Product leaders believe this is the next trend in the industry. 

IC track roles are going to catch up 

The IC track is still a new route to senior positions in Product Management, and because of that, there’s still a discrepancy between say a Distinguished Product Manager and a VP of Product.

This is changing, slowly and surely, with this route becoming a more viable pathway to follow, allowing more technically minded folks to continue to influence the success of their product without having to face managerial and leadership responsibilities that could leave them burned out.

Watch this space on the dual-track career path, as it’s seriously something that can take off and reshape the Product Manager career path. 

There’ll be even more PMs outside the US (and Silicon Valley)

Product Management can sometimes feel like a solely American role. That makes sense, FAANG companies were among the first to make the role trendy and pay big bucks for Product Managers. They made the role popular and most just so happened to all be headquartered in Silicon Valley, hence the still existing focus on the San Francisco Bay Area.

But things have been changing now – Product Management is undeniably global.

Yes, some companies may still require applicants for top Product Management positions to relocate to the US, but there are so many new Product Management hubs that are making the industry more diverse and more accessible than ever before, and they’re growing.

The rise of remote working – which is not going away – and the effectiveness of digital collaboration tools means we’re going to see even more international teams and more PMs from locations beyond the US. 

Product Managers can start to aim bigger

Don’t let our Product Manager career tree fool you. There are plenty of more senior positions that you can aim for beyond being a Chief Product Officer. There’s a growing trend of Product Managers spreading their influence in wider, more adjacent fields, which is going to have a big influence on where businesses in tech go.

More Product Managers are starting to land Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Operating Officer roles. Plenty have also climbed the ranks to become CEOs at some major companies.

Heck, loads of Product Managers are now becoming Founders of their own companies, using their expertise to build start-ups. The success that many have had should be a good indication that those on the Product Manager career path can begin to dream a bit bigger. The skills you hone and develop as a product person are now getting valued at the highest levels of business leadership. 

You set your own path 

The Product Manager career path is as unique and varied as the people who walk it. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach, no golden staircase leading to the C-suite. You can forge your own path. Whether you’ve stumbled into the field from an unexpected career or carefully planned your every move, the beauty of Product Management lies in its flexibility.

Unlike more rigid industries, the pathway to the top is less of a ladder and more of a tree – rooted in diverse skills, branching into endless opportunities, and growing in directions that suit your ambitions.

If there’s one thing a new PM should take away, it’s this: whether you’re charting your first steps on the Product Manager career path or considering your next move, remember: there’s no “right” path, only the one that aligns with your goals and interests.

So embrace the unexpected, lean into your transferable skills, and trust that the winding road ahead is exactly where you’re meant to be. In Product Management, every twist, turn, and pivot is an opportunity to grow.

And if you want to supercharge your growth and become a better Product Manager, consider using the best tools for the job. Every Product Manager needs a roadmapping tool, and the best choice is ProdPad. With ProdPad you’ll have best practices built-in, with templates and prompts to help you better define your ideas, optimize your backlog, and build products that drive business growth.

ProdPad can make you go from good to great. See what we can do yourself with a free trial – no strings attached.

The post The Product Manager Career Path is Not a Straight Line appeared first on ProdPad.

What is product benchmarking?

Product benchmarking is the practice of comparing your various product metrics against a set of standards to judge how well your product is performing. These standards are goals that you’ll want to at least match, and ideally exceed. Product benchmarking allows you to assess your product’s performance relative to industry norms.

A lot of the time, product benchmarking involves analyzing your product against your competitors, seeing how you shape up against others in your industry. You can also benchmark against industry norms, which are the average performance metrics that you can expect an everyday company in your industry to achieve.

Benchmarking helps you assess your product’s strengths and weaknesses and lets you see how you’re getting on compared to the rest of the field. It’s like comparing your grades to everyone else in your class. If the class average is a C+ and you’re getting an A, that means you’re one of the star pupils. Great.

The goal of product benchmarking is to find gaps and uncover opportunities to make sure your product stays competitive. Benchmarking is not a one-and-done task, it’s an ongoing process that allows you to make data-driven decisions about every aspect of your product, like product pricing strategies, the features you offer, and more. 

The two types of product benchmarking

There are two main types of product benchmarking, internal and external. 

• Internal benchmarking: Focuses on comparing your performance and outcomes against yourself, seeing how things have changed over a period of time. By comparing performance against yourself, you’ll be able to see what initiatives have worked and what needs to change to improve performance. 
  
• External benchmarking: This involves analyzing your product against competitors or a set of industry standards. This is where you find out how you stack up against the real world. This is useful when you want to assess your product positioning and find areas where competitors have the edge. 

Ideally, you’ll be using both types of product benchmarking to get a better sense of how you’re doing relative to your industry and to yourself. Focusing on your own product performance helps keep you grounded too. You always want to be a little bit better than yesterday. 

What are the benefits of product benchmarking? 

Product benchmarking is something you definitely should be doing as a Product Manager. There’s a whole range of benefits waiting for you each time you analyze your performance against industry or internal benchmarks. When you benchmark properly, here are some of the things you’ll be able to do: 

Prioritize with precision 

Benchmarking helps you focus on what truly matters by revealing where your product excels and where it stinks. It can confirm areas where you’re already leading the pack or highlight hidden opportunities for improvement. For instance, if your conversion rates are already stellar, you can shift attention to other areas like retention or scalability.

Uncover market trends and stay relevant

Regular benchmarking keeps you informed about market shifts and emerging trends. This helps you adapt your product to meet changing customer expectations, adopt new ideas that are gaining traction, and avoid clinging to outdated features that no longer serve your audience.

Foster continuous improvement

Benchmarking provides actionable insights to improve not only your product but also your processes. Whether it’s optimizing workflows or refining features, this data-driven approach supports ongoing innovation.

Enable data-backed decision-making

With insights from benchmarking, you can confidently prioritize updates, allocate resources, and plan roadmaps based on facts, not hunches. This facilitates data-driven Product Management which allows you to reduce the risk of investing in features or strategies that don’t deliver ROI. 

Set realistic goals

Aiming for the sky is admirable, but set your target too high and you’re just going to end up disappointed. Benchmarking gives you a sense of what’s achievable by showing you where top performers are in your market. This helps set practical yet ambitious goals for your product and team.

What metrics should you measure when product benchmarking? 

When benchmarking your product, the metrics you focus on will typically differ depending on your industry and the type of product you have. For example, a B2B SaaS tool will want to focus on different metrics than an entertainment platform.

That said, some metrics are just more important than others and will be ones that you’ll want to measure and compare against regardless of the industry you’re in. We’ve broken down the most common metrics to benchmark and explain why they matter and why everyone looks at them. 

1. Activation rate

Activation rate measures the percentage of users who complete a key action that signifies they’ve experienced your product’s core value proposition. Known as user activation, this is often the first major hurdle in the user journey. A strong activation rate indicates that your onboarding process and initial value delivery are working as intended.

By comparing your activation rate to that of competitors, you can evaluate whether your entry-point experience meets industry expectations and pinpoint areas for improvement if your rate lags behind.

2. Product stickiness

Product stickiness refers to how often users engage with your product, typically measured by the ratio of Daily Active Users (DAU) to Monthly Active Users (MAU). A sticky product is one that users find indispensable, making it a critical indicator of long-term engagement and user retention.

Benchmarking your product’s stickiness against competitors allows you to gauge whether users are engaging with your product on a regular basis, signaling that your product is meeting their day-to-day needs. If your stickiness is lower than competitors, it might point to areas where your product is failing to capture frequent usage or ongoing user interest.

3. Feature adoption rate

Feature adoption rate tracks the percentage of users who regularly use a specific feature out of the total number of active users. This metric helps you understand how well individual features resonate with your user base. When benchmarking feature adoption, comparing your rates to others in your space can highlight features that are underutilized and suggest opportunities to improve those features, making them more valuable and appealing.

If a particular feature has low adoption compared to industry standards, it could indicate usability issues or a lack of user education around its benefits, which you can address by creating a killer product tour to improve overall engagement.

4. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures customer loyalty and satisfaction by asking users how likely they are to recommend your product to others on a scale of 0 to 10. This score gives a broad picture of your product’s reputation and overall customer sentiment.

A high NPS compared to industry benchmarks can suggest that users are highly satisfied and willing to advocate for your product. On the other hand, a low score signals areas for improvement.

By benchmarking your NPS against the average standard in your industry, you can gain insights into where your product stands in terms of user loyalty and identify specific areas to focus on for boosting customer satisfaction.

5. Customer churn rate

Customer churn rate refers to the percentage of customers who stop using your product within a specific time frame. High churn is often a warning sign that your product may not be meeting users’ needs or that there are issues with user retention.

By comparing your churn rate to benchmarks, you can determine whether your retention efforts are on par with industry standards. If your churn rate is higher than average, it might suggest a need for improvements in user engagement, product-market fit, or customer support to keep users satisfied and reduce turnover.

6. Pirate Metrics (AARRR Framework)

The Pirate Metrics framework, encompassing Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, and Revenue (AARRR), provides a comprehensive view of your product’s performance throughout the entire user lifecycle. Benchmarking each stage of the AARRR funnel helps you identify strengths and weaknesses across your product’s journey.

For instance, if your retention rate is lower than the benchmark, it might suggest that your users aren’t finding lasting value or engagement in your product. Understanding how each of these stages stacks up against the rest of the industry helps you focus on areas with the greatest impact on your overall performance, guiding you toward optimizing your product for long-term success.

While the above metrics are common benchmarks, the specifics will shift based on your industry:

• B2B SaaS: Should also focus on metrics like free-to-paid conversion rates, customer lifetime value (CLTV), and time-to-value. These reflect the subscription-based nature of the model and the importance of long-term customer relationships.
• B2C Products: Metrics like DAU, MAU, and user engagement are more critical, as these products typically rely on high-volume, frequent interactions to thrive.
• E-commerce: Metrics such as average order value, cart abandonment rate, and purchase frequency come into play.

By customizing your benchmarking efforts to your industry and target audience, you can ensure you’re tracking the metrics that matter most, providing insights that directly support your product strategy.

So you know what to measure, but what are the benchmarks you’re looking to beat? Well, Mind The Product has a pretty interesting benchmarking tool that gives details on the overall performance of these metrics for various industries. It’s worth checking out. 

Common product benchmarking mistakes you might be making

Alright, here’s the juicy bit. There are a lot of things at play that mean that you may not be getting the most out of your product benchmarking.

Have you ever done your product benchmarking and felt like crying because everything pales in comparison? Have you ever done your benchmarking, seen where you’re lagging behind, but have no idea how to improve it? If these are common experiences for you when undertaking product benchmarking, the good news is that we’re going to help set you straight and turn this comparison exercise into something truly valuable for you.

If product benchmarking isn’t doing it for you right now, here’s where you may be going wrong: 

You’re comparing against the wrong benchmarks

You need to find the most relevant benchmarks you can to get the most useful comparison. Don’t base your assessment on extremely broad benchmarks that haven’t drilled down into your niche. It’s important to do your research and try to find the most granular data you can. If your product is a B2B SaaS tool, don’t settle for benchmarks for all ‘digital products’.

If your product is an e-commerce platform and you want to assess your ‘time on page’ performance (for example), don’t base your comparison on a general benchmark, look for specific e-commerce website benchmarks. 

Otherwise, you run the risk of unfairly comparing your performance against products that will always have a stronger performance in some areas than you. For example, if you are managing an e-commerce site as your product, you don’t want to be assessing your performance based on benchmarks for, say, returning traffic, which also include tools like email platforms. People are in their emails every day – you can’t compete with that! And nor should you. You need to be looking at benchmarks for returning traffic that are specific to the e-commerce industry.

You’ll also hit issues if you’re trying to conduct your product benchmarking against specific products rather than general industry data.  And that’s because it’s only the super mega-successful companies that are openly sharing their performance metrics! 

It’s a lot easier to gather information from the likes of Google, Slack, and Dropbox, as they are proud of what they’ve achieved and want to boast. These companies often share eye-popping metrics that seem like the gold standard. But here’s the issue: their performance isn’t typical – it’s exceptional. These companies operate on a scale, budget, and level of maturity that most businesses can’t match.

The issue here is that measuring up against these companies means that you end up comparing yourself against the top 1%. Setting your product benchmarking against ultra-successful companies leads to unrealistic expectations. It’s like comparing your weekend jog to an Olympian marathon runner – it sets you up for disappointment and skews your understanding of where you really stand.

It’s fine to aspire to these performance results and try and learn from these companies that are killing it, but it’s not fair to assess your performance against them right now.

The fix: Use benchmarks relevant to your industry and based on aggregate data across the broad spectrum of products in the space.  

It’s like boxing, a Heavyweight can’t fight a Featherweight as it’s an unfair matchup. This “weight class” approach ensures the comparison is fair and actionable. You’ll gain insights that are actually relevant to your business. 

You’re measuring against unreliable data

So you want to benchmark against competitors, but that creates another issue. Unlike big players that often flaunt their success, most companies keep their performance metrics close to their chest. I imagine you’re not posting every minute detail about your Q3 performance, so don’t expect your competitors to do the same.

This means that you have to rely on industry reports that provide an average across a specific market – that’s what benchmarks are after all. Although useful, you need to be mindful that this only provides a snapshot, and may not be as nuanced as you’d ideally like. Plus, these reports are usually released annually, meaning that you end up benchmarking against outdated statistics.

All this can lead you to draw wrong conclusions about your product performance.

The fix: Combine external benchmarks with internal data. If you’re struggling to establish a baseline, draw on your own performance metrics to establish what you need to do and where you need to be going. This can help you supplement the industry benchmarks you may already know. 

You’re focusing on vanity metrics 

Some metrics are great for stoking your ego but don’t really tell you the true health and performance of your product. They may look impressive at first, but may not give you any actionable insights to help you improve things.

For example, having a huge number of overall app downloads might look cool, but it means nothing if your activation and retention rate is abysmal. By skimming this surface-level insight, you risk ignoring more useful metrics about your product’s actual performance.

The fix: Shift your attention from vanity metrics to actionable metrics tied to product outcomes. Things like activation and feature adoption give you more of a clue on whether users find your product valuable. With these detailed metrics as part of your product benchmarking, you’ll know what you need to focus on to improve. 

You’re looking at lagging metrics

Product benchmarking metrics can either look backward or point forward. Metrics like churn rate or revenue often reflect outcomes from decisions made weeks or months ago. While important, they’re backward-looking indicators that tell you what happened, not what’s happening now or what’s likely to happen in the future.

Lagging metrics don’t give you the foresight to make proactive changes. By the time you identify a problem, the damage might already be done. For example, noticing a spike in churn after months of decline means you’re reacting to a crisis instead of preventing it.

The fix: Focus on leading metrics when product benchmarking. These are statistics that by improving them, you’re sure to drive growth. metrics such as activation rate, feature engagement, or product stickiness, provide early signals of potential success or failure. Use these to stay ahead of problems and respond to trends before they snowball into larger issues. 

Your product benchmarking metrics don’t tell you how to improve

All metrics paint a picture and let you know how you’re performing, but when benchmarking your product, you want to isolate metrics that give you insight into where you need to improve. For example, say you’re benchmarking ARR and see that you’re pretty far behind the industry standard. It’s useful to know that you’re behind, but now you’ll be scratching your head trying to figure out why.

It’s like comparing your 100m sprint time to 2024 Olympic Champion Noah Lyles. You can see that your time of 15s (we’re being generous here) against his 9.78s is worse, but why? This metric doesn’t tell where to improve. Is it because he’s got a longer stride? A quicker reaction time off the blocks? Has better lung capacity? You just don’t know where to start to make the biggest improvements. This could lead to you focusing on improving something that gives you marginal gains.

Say you find out that your reaction time off the block is actually comparable to Noah’s, but it’s your stride length that’s letting you down. You’ll get bigger gains by focusing on what’s worse. This is the same thing you need to do with your product – look at metrics that shine a light on the best areas to improve so that you can allocate resources well and efficiently to improve performance.

The fix: Every metric you track in product benchmarking should have a clear purpose, and make it clear what aspect of your product you need to work on. Tracking monthly recurring revenue tells you nothing – but tracking your Customer Retention Rate tells you whether users are sticking around long enough to generate that revenue, and this can give a better indication of what you must do to improve it. 

So, how do you measure up?

Not getting the most out of your product benchmarking? Well, hopefully with this overview and advice on how to fix common mistakes, you’ll be able to compare better and see how you match up. Benchmarking is more than just seeing how you’re doing against others; the focus should be on learning where you should look to improve to make gains and stay competitive.

Product benchmarking is a tool to drive product growth and to make you more successful, so be sure to utilize these tips to take your product benchmarking to the next level.

And if you’re keen to improve your entire Product Management process, why not give ProdPad a try? Our tools help PMs implement best practices into their everyday workflow, helping you to manage roadmaps, tie customer feedback to ideas, and a hell of a lot more. Plus, we’re benchmarking pretty well against other Product Management tools .

But don’t just take our word for it word for it, why not see for yourself. Schedule a demo with one of our product experts and see what ProdPad can do for you.

The post Product Benchmarking: How to Do It Right to Improve Your Product Performance appeared first on ProdPad.

What is a Product Management report? 

Let’s clear something up right away: there’s no such thing as a “Product Management report.” Unlike a Product Requirements Document or a User Journey Map, there’s no standardized format or checklist for what this document should include. That’s exactly what makes it such a head-scratcher when a stakeholder requests one. What are they really asking for?

The truth is, a “Product Management report” is often shorthand for “Give me an update on what is happening in Product, what decisions are being made, and what success we are seeing as a result.” Without clear expectations, it’s easy to feel stuck, unsure of whether to include granular data, high-level strategy, or a mix of both.

Here’s the key: understanding what your stakeholders are really asking for is half the battle. Is your stakeholder looking for insights on your roadmap? Metrics on user adoption rate? A summary of feature releases? Clarifying their goals upfront will save you from creating a report that misses the mark – or worse, overwhelms them with irrelevant details.

This lack of a defined structure can be terrifying, as there’s no universal way to do things to measure your report against. But, if you want to get philosophical about things, this can also be freeing. As a Product Manager, you’re able to make your Product Management report just how you want to, and choose to include what you think is important and relevant for whoever the Product Management report is for.

At the end of the day, your stakeholder is just looking for a window into your product progress. Most of the time, you don’t even need to make a report to do that. In fact, some existing forms of product documentation that you’ll have might already serve as a “report” depending on the context. For example:

• Roadmaps provide a forward-looking view of priorities and progress.
• Release notes summarize what’s been delivered and the impact of recent changes.
• Product performance dashboards offer up-to-date metrics and KPIs.
• Customer feedback analysis reveals trends and insights driving your decisions.

When a stakeholder asks for a report, they might just need a tailored version of one of these, presented in a way that aligns with their specific needs.

By understanding their intent and leveraging existing documentation, you’ll be better equipped to deliver a Product Management report that hits the right notes.

Who is a Product Management report for? 

Anyone in your organization could one day come up to you and ask for a Product Management report. These documents can serve a wide range of stakeholders, each with their own priorities and interests. Here’s a look at who might benefit from a report and what they’re looking for:

• Executives (CEOs, CTOs, CFOs): High-level insights into how the product aligns with business goals, financial performance, and strategic initiatives.
• Sales Teams: Key information on upcoming features, value propositions, and competitive advantages to help close deals.
• Marketing Teams: Insights into product launches, customer personas, and feature adoption to shape campaigns and messaging.
• Customer Success Teams: Updates on user feedback, churn trends, and features that solve pain points for their accounts.
• Development Teams: Progress updates on the roadmap, blockers, and upcoming priorities to align their work with product goals.

Knowing who you’re reporting to is crucial for sharing a report that’s useful and engaging. Each stakeholder group will have a unique perspective and set of priorities, so a one-size-fits-all approach simply won’t cut it.

For example, executives care about the bottom line. They want to see metrics like ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue), market penetration, and strategic KPIs. Keep it concise, and tie the data back to company goals.

Sales Teams are looking for ammunition to win deals. They need clear, actionable insights into upcoming features, use cases, and competitor differentiation. Focus on what helps them sell.

Customer Success Teams thrive on customer-centric data. They want to know about churn trends, customer satisfaction scores, and which features are delighting users. Highlight the human side of your metrics.

Think of your role as a Product Manager as part translator, part diplomat. You’re not just sharing numbers; you’re presenting them in a way that resonates with the person reading the report. This skill is key when managing stakeholders.

How do I customize my Product Management reports?

You want what you’re reporting to match the people who you’re creating them for. Here are a few key things to think about when putting one together to make sure it’s right for them.

1. Ask what they need upfront: Clarify their goals for the report before you start creating it.
2. Filter the noise: Include only the data or insights that matter to your audience; don’t overwhelm them with unnecessary details.
3. Use their metrics: Speak in terms they understand. Financial stakeholders care about profit and loss; sales teams care about conversions.
4. Highlight their impact: Tie the product’s success to the stakeholder’s role. For example, show Customer Success how new features reduce churn, or demonstrate how marketing campaigns drove user adoption.
5. Keep it accessible: Use visuals like graphs or charts and write in plain language to ensure clarity across diverse audiences.

Do I need to create a Product Management report? 

We think reporting the progress on your product is super important, but we don’t think you need to spend time creating a static document every time you’re asked for one. That just creates more work for you.

Instead, the next time you’re asked for a Product Management ‘report’, it’s best to direct them to a dynamic view of your Product Management tool. If it’s anything like ProdPad, they’ll be able to see a customized view that shares things like your OKRs, the timing of each initiative, linked customer feedback, and the workflow stage for each idea. All things your stakeholders would want to see in a traditional report.

Reporting on your progress and letting the wider organization beyond your Product Team know how things are ticking along boosts alignment and helps improve things in multiple ways.

It’s always worth exploring the existing, in-built reports that your product tools already include. You don’t want to be doubling up and doing unnecessary work. So be sure to familiarize yourself with the reporting tools at your disposal. For example, ProdPad has a robust suite of ready-made reports ready for you to export and share. Check out our reporting features below:

Benefits of Product Management reporting

No matter if you’re crafting a new report or sharing insights from your Product Management tool, sharing reports about your product has a whole host of benefits. Let’s break down the reasons why every Product Manager should make reporting part of their routine:

Keeps stakeholders aligned

Product Teams work with a wide range of people, each with different priorities and expectations. A Product Management report consolidates information in one place, ensuring that absolutely everyone has a shared understanding of the product’s current state and future direction. This alignment minimizes miscommunication and keeps everyone focused on the same product vision and goals.

Showcases progress and achievements

If things are going well, you should shout about them. A well-crafted report is a platform to celebrate wins. Whether it’s delivering a key feature, meeting a critical milestone, or improving upon your North Star metric, the report highlights your team’s contributions to the product’s success. This not only boosts morale but also reinforces the value of the product team to the organization.

Facilitates data-driven decision-making

By presenting clear metrics and trends, a Product Management report provides the foundation for informed decision-making. Stakeholders can see what’s working, what isn’t, and where adjustments are needed. This clarity ensures that decisions are based on evidence rather than guesswork. This is a core foundation of data-driven Product Management.

Identifies challenges early

Listen, not everything about your product is going to be doing well all the time. If it was, you’d be a billionaire. Every product has its hurdles, from technical blockers to shifting market demands. Regular reporting helps surface these challenges early, giving teams time to adapt and implement a pivot strategy to mitigate risks. Including a dedicated section for risks and issues ensures they are acknowledged and addressed proactively.

Secures buy-in for new initiatives

Want to pitch a new feature, increase the budget, or justify additional resources? Providing a report gives the evidence you need to make your case. Highlighting trends, customer feedback, and business impact helps stakeholders see the rationale behind your recommendations, and can help convince them. A good Product Management report can be a tool to help you get what you want.

Supports continuous improvement

By consistently reflecting on what’s been achieved and what can be improved, the report drives a culture of continuous improvement. It encourages teams to learn from successes and failures, ensuring the product evolves in a way that delivers maximum value.

How often should you give a Product Management report?

How frequently you report to stakeholders largely depends on your organization’s product velocity and the needs of your stakeholders. While situational triggers like major releases, strategic reviews, or quarterly business updates often warrant a dedicated report, it’s better to build a regular habit of sharing product insights rather than waiting for someone to ask.

Weekly or biweekly updates can align with sprint cycles, offering stakeholders a snapshot of short-term progress. Monthly or quarterly reports work better for high-level updates, tying product developments to broader business goals.

However, don’t limit yourself to formal reports. Providing regular visibility into your dashboards, roadmaps, or other dynamic tools can be just as effective in keeping everyone on the same page. This proactive approach helps stakeholders see the progress and impact of your product in real-time, reducing the risk of last-minute requests for detailed reports.

This is something you can easily do within ProdPad. You can share Roadmaps, Ideas, and Initiatives across your entire organization, letting everyone contribute to bolster collaboration and alignment. See what else you can share in ProdPad – give us a go for free.

By consistently sharing insights – whether through reports or accessible tools – you create a culture of transparency and ensure that your product’s story is always being told. Remember, waiting until you need a report to fill people in only increases confusion and diminishes trust. Instead, make regular reporting an integral part of your Product Management workflow.

What should be in a Product Management report? 

As we’ve already mentioned, there’s no one-size-fits-all for a Product Management report, and you shouldn’t really be making a static document anyway. That said, when creating views and sharing your roadmap with stakeholders, there are a few things you’ll want to include.

These are the common elements that can provide valuable insights to your stakeholders. While it’s up to you to tailor your report to their needs, here are some key areas that should typically make an appearance:

• Progress against OKRs
  Track how the product aligns with broader business goals to show whether you’re on track to meet high-level objectives. This helps executives and investors understand the product’s contribution to company success.
  
• Roadmap status
  Provide an update on what’s on track, what’s delayed, and what’s upcoming in the product roadmap. This helps teams like marketing and sales plan their campaigns and set expectations.
  
• Roundup of customer feedback
  Summarize insights from user feedback, surveys, or support tickets to highlight customer pain points or areas for improvement. This is critical for Customer Success and Sales teams to understand user sentiment and for product teams to prioritize features.
  
• Competitor analysis
  Compare your product to key competitors to see where you excel and where others may pose a threat. This informs strategic planning, marketing, and sales, helping to refine product positioning and go-to-market strategies.
  
• Churn Rates
  Report on the percentage of customers leaving over a specific period. The customer churn metric is crucial for Customer Success teams to identify issues and for executives to understand product retention and areas for improvement.
  
• A Changelog
  Highlight recent product updates, new features, or bug fixes. Keeping teams informed on changes helps them stay up to date, particularly Sales, Marketing, and Customer Support, who need to know about new releases and updates.
  
• Product performance metrics
  Include metrics such as usage data, adoption rates, and retention to evaluate how well the product is meeting its goals. This helps Product Managers and executives assess the product’s success and areas needing attention. Unsure what to focus on? Download our ebook for the complete list of the product metrics that matter.

Remember, the specific content of your report should always be driven by the needs of your stakeholders. For example, while OKRs and roadmap status might be critical for executives, customer feedback and churn rates might matter more to Customer Success teams. By considering your audience and what they care about most, you can create a report that delivers real value, rather than just a collection of data points.

What should I avoid when writing a Product Management report? 

When reporting on your product, the main thing you should avoid is creating a huge, static, one-off document that’s going to be outdated the second you send it to your stakeholders.

Creating these separate documents keeps your stakeholders at arm’s length, making them feel separated from your product. Instead, you should aim to invite them in and give them view access to your roadmap and centralized Product Management tool, so that they can benefit from consistent transparency.

Instead of giving them an occasional, often overwhelming burst of information, by reporting on your product through a roadmap, you can constantly share with them what they need to know, allowing stakeholders to self-serve themselves and gather information as and when they need it. By providing this window, you allow them into your product decision-making process.

Depending on who’s asking for a report, you should set up customized roadmap views that include the right level of detail for each type of stakeholder. If you’re setting up reports in ProdPad, your stakeholders can see a bunch of juicy stuff, like: 

• The problems you are trying to solve for customers and the business
• The product Objectives and Key Results you are trying to achieve with each Initiative
• The timing of each Initiative
• The individual ideas within each Initiative
• The workflow stage for each Idea
• The linked customer feedback for each Idea
• The target outcomes you hope to achieve
• All the completed initiatives along with their actual outcomes

Of course, whether you’re creating static reports or sharing information on a dynamic Product Management tool, there are a few other important things you should avoid. Try not to make these silly mistakes, as they can make your reports more confusing, something you really don’t want.

Overloading the report with data without context

Raw data can overwhelm stakeholders if not interpreted properly. Numbers like monthly active users or churn rates need context to show their real impact on the product. Focus on the “so what” behind the data and use visuals to make the insights clearer.

Not tailoring the report for the audience

Different stakeholders care about different aspects. Executives want business impact, while developers focus on technical progress. Customize sections for each audience, highlighting what matters most to them.

Making the report too long or too short

Too much detail can overwhelm, while too little can leave stakeholders in the dark. Be concise and focused on key insights. Organize the content to be easily skimmed, using headings and bullet points.

Ignoring design and readability

A poorly designed report can make even the most valuable information hard to digest. Use a clean, professional layout with plenty of white space and visuals like charts or graphs to break up the text.

Neglecting regular updates

Infrequent reports can lead to misalignment and confusion about the product’s progress. Set a consistent reporting cadence that matches your organization’s needs.

Overlooking challenges or risks

Focusing only on successes can make the report feel incomplete or misleading. Acknowledge challenges and risks, and suggest solutions or mitigation strategies. Transparency builds trust and encourages collaboration.

Sharing Product Management reports the right way 

While traditional, static reports have their place, they’re becoming somewhat outdated – especially when a stakeholder simply needs a snapshot of your product’s progress. The good news is that you don’t have to spend your time generating a new report every time someone asks for an update. Instead, consider using a dynamic Product Management tool like ProdPad that allows for continuous visibility into your product’s evolution.

With tools like ProdPad, you can provide stakeholders with real-time access to your product roadmap, customer feedback, and key metrics. This means they can stay updated at any time, without waiting for a formal report. Not only does this save you time, but it also ensures that the information they receive is always up-to-date and relevant. This kind of transparency fosters better collaboration, enabling teams to make decisions faster and with more confidence.

By centralizing all product-related information in one accessible location, you also avoid the risk of outdated or inconsistent data creeping into your reports. Stakeholders are always looking at the most current state of the product, which makes the entire process smoother and more efficient.

While Product Management reports are still useful, moving towards continuous reporting via a centralized tool like ProdPad offers a more dynamic and streamlined approach. This shift from static reports to live, accessible data isn’t just more efficient – it’s the future of how product progress should be communicated.

Try it out in our pre-loaded Sandbox to see how it all works.

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