Melissa Perri Profile picture
Mar 9, 2020 10 tweets 2 min read Read on X
Great question! I worked with a #remote team as a PM and our team is all very remote these days - Spain, Kansas, Amsterdam, NYC, Croatia. Here’s my tips for #prodmgmt /1
Establish times you will be online, especially if there are different timezones. Make sure everyone knows how to reach you and when you will be available. /2
Set checkins once a day if you’re not used to working remote to make sure you can align. As you get better at aligning remotely, you can move this down to a quick slack message. /3
Jump on Zoom or video messaging to hash things out. You don’t need to set a specific time - if you’re working through something on chat and it’s easier to do it face to face, get used to jumping on a call. This usually resolves things 10x faster. /4
Document, document, document. If you haven’t been doing this before it’s time to start. I’m not talking crazy long specs, but your team needs to know where to go find answers if they can’t reach you. It’s very different than walking over to a desk to ask questions. /5
Retro every week on the remote parts - how is it going? What can we improve? /6
Keep an open line of communication with your stakeholders. They may not be as comfortable working remotely as your dev team. Set up more frequent check ins with them. Use documentation to communicate more effectively. Send updates in emailed. /7
Besides this general advise, I can say my team and I worked really really well remotely. We were constantly chatting online, jumped on video when needed, and generally talked the same amount remotely as we would have in the office. /8
We also made sure our team knew when we were going heads down or needed to step away. There was no guessing if we were coming back that day or how long we’d be gone for. /9
Over communicating was key for us at the beginning. As we learned our flows, we decreased set meetings for adhoc ones. We chatted more online.

You’ll find your groove. Seeing what works and refining it every week will help you move along. /10

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More from @lissijean

Jun 26, 2023
There's been a lot of talk about #Airbnb "getting rid" of the #prodmgmt role. From what I can tell, they are morphing this into a more business related role, rather than purely tech. I don't think this is a bad thing. /1
PM has always firmly sat between business, tech, and the user/customer. In SAAS companies, the Product Management role has always been about figuring out how to grow the business by solving customer problems with the right software. /2
In other companies that are not software-native, you saw this being done by GMs of the business, but with the tools available to drive business at the time - sales, marketing, and human operations. /3
Read 9 tweets
Nov 22, 2022
When building a product, remember not all of your users are experts in the domain, but that opens up a golden opportunity for you /1🧵
It’s important to gauge the level of competence in the domain with the users, especially if you’re an expert in the area /2
People buy products because it fulfills a job-to-be-done, but that doesn’t mean everyone knows *how* to do that job. /3
Read 7 tweets
Oct 22, 2022
I find it funny how many people are asking me what the alternative to SAFe is, like there aren’t thousands of successful companies out there building products without it…
Those who are asking this don’t want to hear the truth, and the truth is context matters for what you implement for each company. So there’s no “one framework to rule them all”. It’s incredibly hard work to set this up in companies BUT there are principles which remain constant.
And that was the point of @cagan’s talk and what I talk about in the Build Trap, etc.

So no, I can’t give you a pretty little diagram where everyone has a box and it defines specifically what to do. I honestly wish I could!
Read 4 tweets
Aug 18, 2022
Five things I wish I could go back and tell myself when I was starting in #prodmgmt 🧵/1
You don't have to come up with all the ideas. Ideas can come from anywhere. It's your job to make sure they are the right ideas for the business and the customer /2
Check your ego. While being confident when communicating is important as a Product Manager, you do not want to be perceived as an asshole. #prodmgmt is about influence, not authority. /3
Read 7 tweets
Aug 8, 2022
First time Product Leader? Congrats! It's hard to make the leap, but once you're there, now you got to keep the position.

Here's the most common mistakes I see first time product leaders make so you can avoid them. /1 🧵

#prodmgmt
1. Focusing too much on processes and ignoring the roadmap.

While you have to implement the process and structure for the organization, remember you're also the person responsible for vision and direction. You need to balance working on both of these things.
2. Blaming others

"I can't do this because the CXO won't let me." You're now a leader, it's up to you to usher things through. You shouldn't be asking permission of the other leaders, you should be working with them.

No one is coming to save you. You got to take initiative.
Read 9 tweets
May 12, 2022
Ah airport layovers, time for a thread that keeps coming up.

How do I convince my executives to change/ do things I’d like them to do as good #prodmgmt. Here’s my tips. 🧵 /1
The thing I see people do most often that doesn’t work is not taking the time to understand how other people are being judged for success and what matters to them.

You have to learn to put your proposal in terms that will help the other person. /2
For example, say you have a problem with the Head of Sales. How are they judged for success?

Bookings, new sales, new logos, revenue growth.

Their comp is tied to it. How do you think they feel when you say you need to deprioritize something that they *think* will make $$? /3
Read 10 tweets

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