Hey friends,

Product management is often described as “the CEO of the product.” But if you’ve ever actually worked as a PM, you know the reality is very different. Instead of making big strategic calls all day, most of our time is spent:

✅ Chasing down Slack updates
✅ Debating priorities with stakeholders
✅ Realizing our assumptions were wrong (again)

So, how do we work smarter instead of just working harder? This week, I want to share a few lessons that have helped me be more productive, make better decisions, and—most importantly—stay sane as a PM.

Let’s dive in. 👇

🎯 Lesson 1: The 3-Hour Rule for Deep Work

PMs are constantly in reactive mode—meetings, messages, and “quick asks” that derail our day. But the best PMs I know block 3 hours of protected time every day for high-leverage work.

How It Works:

🕘 Morning Block (1.5 hours) → Strategic thinking, roadmap planning
⏳ Mid-Day Block (1 hour) → Creative problem-solving, user research
 🌅 End-of-Day Block (30 mins) → Reflection & strategy adjustments

Even if you can only carve out one of these, you’ll be amazed at how much clearer your thinking becomes.

📖 Further reading:
🔗 Cal Newport’s Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success
🔗 Paul Graham’s Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule

⚠️ Lesson 2: The Biggest Mistake I Made as a PM

When I started as a PM, I thought my job was to have the answers. Turns out, that was a disaster.

I’d jump straight into solution mode without deeply understanding the problem. The result? We built features that sounded good on paper but didn’t actually solve user pain points.

What I do differently now:

Before kicking off any project, I ask three key questions:

💡 What’s the real user pain point?
 📊 How will we measure if this actually solves the problem?
 🔬 What’s the smallest experiment we can run to validate our assumptions?

📖 Further reading:
🔗 The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick – How to ask better questions and truly understand user pain points.
🔗 Teresa Torres’ Continuous Discovery Habits – A framework for building the right thing based on user insights.

⏳ Lesson 3: The 5-Hour MVP – Testing Ideas Without Code

Most PMs think an MVP is about building a basic version of the product. But that’s a trap.

A great MVP is about testing assumptions fast—without building anything at all.

Here’s a simple framework:

🕐 Hour 1: Define your core assumption (What needs to be true for this idea to work?)
🕑 Hour 2: Find a fast way to test it (Landing page? Manual process? Cold outreach?)
🕒 Hour 3-4: Run the experiment
🕔 Hour 5: Analyze results → Pivot, persevere, or kill the idea

Example: Dropbox didn’t build a product first—they launched with a simple explainer video. People signed up before a product even existed.

📖 Further reading:
🔗 Dropbox’s original video

📖 Lesson 4: Why the Best PMs Think Like Writers

If you want to be a better PM, stop studying product roadmaps. Start studying great writers.

Why? Because both PMs and writers need to:

🧠 Clarify their ideas → If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it.
 👀 Think from the audience’s POV → It’s not about what you want, it’s about what they need.
 📖 Tell compelling stories → Data convinces, but stories drive action.

📖 Further reading:
🔗 Ann Handley’s Everybody Writes – A guide to clear, engaging writing.

🤔 Final Thought: What’s the Hardest Part of Being a PM?

To wrap things up, I’m curious—what’s the most challenging part of product management for you?

❌ Saying “No” without making enemies?
⚙️ Getting engineers to care about business goals?
🌫️ Dealing with constant ambiguity?

👉 Reply and let me know—I read every response!

Until next time,
Stefanie