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George from 🕹prodmgmt.world Profile picture
@nurijanian
Jul 15 • 11 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
the best product managers ignore 90% of execution tasks that junior PMs obsess over.

no ticket grooming. no standup theater. no backlog babysitting.

took me a few years to learn this brutal truth.

here's the only framework that matters: 🧵👇
1/ Stop running the daily standup

"But who'll run it if I don't?" Any eng can do it, rotate the schedule

Why? Every minute you spend running process is a minute not spent on:

- Finding highest-impact problems
- Aligning stakeholders on vision
- Uncovering hidden assumptions
2/ Stop being the team's secretary

Common trap: Becoming the human JIRA

- Taking all the notes
- Updating all the tickets
- Chasing every status

Startup: Let engineers own their tasks
BigCo: That's what delivery managers are for
3/ Stop playing project manager

"But things won't ship on time!"

Startup: Time box efforts, not outcomes. Let tech lead manage capacity
BigCo: Partner with your TPM, don't compete with them

The moment you own the timeline, you lose the ability to negotiate scope.

Leaders: Clear ownership prevents double work.
4/ Stop being the requirements police

"But they'll build the wrong thing!"

Wrong approach: Detailed specs + heavy process
Right approach: Clear outcomes + guard rails

Startup:
- One-pager with clear success metrics
- Weekly team working sessions
- Rapid prototypes and feedback
- Document decisions, not specifications

BigCo:
- Focus on the "why" and business case
- Get sign-off on outcomes, not features
- Keep technical specs as appendix
- Document key trade-offs and decisions

Leaders: Measure outcomes, not requirement compliance.
5/ Stop being the backlog janitor

"Someone needs to groom the backlog!"

Startup: Delete it. Start fresh. What matters now?
BigCo: Archive old tickets quarterly. Keep only next quarter visible.

Your job isn't managing tickets.
Your job is managing value creation.

Leaders: Large backlogs = unclear strategy.
6/ "But my team expects me to do all this!"

Startup: Have the hard conversation about role clarity
BigCo: Get your manager involved in resetting expectations

Script:
"I've been doing X, but it's preventing me from focusing on Y, which delivers more value because Z"

Leaders: Back your PMs in these conversations.
7/ What to do instead:

Startup PMs:
- Own strategy, not tickets
- Focus on weekly customer learning
- Partner with tech lead on trade-offs
- Keep process minimal

BigCo PMs:
- Build stakeholder coalition
- Focus on quarterly outcomes
- Partner with TPM/EM roles
- Document key decisions
8/ For PM Leaders:

Your PMs fall into these traps because:

- Role confusion
- Unclear expectations
- Wrong incentives
- Fear of losing control

Fix the system, don't blame the PM.
9/ Reality check:

Doing "product owner" work feels safe

- Clear deliverables
- Visible progress
- Team happiness

But it's a career trap.
Real PM work feels uncomfortable:

- Ambiguous problems
- Uncertain outcomes
- Hard trade-offs

That's how you know you're doing it right.

Follow @nurijanian for more PM reality checks 🤘🏼

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More from @nurijanian

George from 🕹prodmgmt.world Profile picture
Jul 14
1/6 The Skills AI Will Take From Product Managers 👀

Here's the truth that'll keep you up at night: AI is coming for 80% of what you do today as a PM.

Data collection, slide decks, user stories, competitive analysis reports - all that stuff you learned in your first 90 days? AI does it better, faster, and without needing coffee breaks.

You're not a chef who's about to be replaced by a microwave. You're a chef who's about to stop chopping onions.

Think about it. Every great restaurant has line cooks doing the prep work - chopping vegetables, measuring ingredients, following recipes exactly.

That's what most PMs spend their days doing. Writing the same user stories. Making the same slides. Running the same analyses.

AI is your new line cook. And if you're smart, you'll let it handle the prep while you do what actually matters.
2/6 The Simple Rules That'll Save Your Career:
1. If AI can generate it in 5 minutes, then don't spend 5 hours on it.
2. If it's about collecting data, then let AI do the heavy lifting.
3. If it's about understanding WHY users do something, then that's still your job.
4. If it's about choosing WHAT to build, then AI can't replace your judgment.
5. If it's about convincing skeptical stakeholders, then AI can draft but you need to deliver.
3/6 What You Can Do Tomorrow Morning:

Stop writing that PRD from scratch. Use AI to draft it, then spend those 2 saved hours actually watching a user struggle with your product.

Use chatprd, get my AI prompts, do your own thing - whatever.

The test is simple. If your stakeholders start saying "you really understand our users" instead of "nice slides," then you're using AI right.

While everyone else panics about AI taking their jobs, you can become the PM who uses AI to do the job that actually matters. Let AI handle the data dumps and first drafts. You handle the conversations where someone's confused, frustrated, or trying to explain a problem they can't quite articulate.
Read 6 tweets
George from 🕹prodmgmt.world Profile picture
Jul 8
After studying high-performing PMs for years, I noticed something strange:

The most impactful product managers often do LESS than their peers.

They write shorter docs. Hold fewer meetings. Create simpler processes.

They've mastered making impact look effortless.

Here's how:
I spent my first 3 years as a PM writing 30-page PRDs no one read and creating complex processes no one followed.

I thought "good product work = hard product work."

But what if the opposite is true? What if making it harder actually reduces your impact?
Greg McKeown in his book Effortless suggests we ask: "Why is this so hard?" followed by "What if this could be easy?"

This simple inversion challenges everything in product culture.

Every time you feel you're pushing a boulder uphill, that's your cue: there's probably an easier path.Image
Read 20 tweets
George from 🕹prodmgmt.world Profile picture
Jul 7
You left engineering because you were tired of:

- PMs who don't understand system dependencies
- "Product people" who can't think in flows
- Leaders who demand random features
- Roadmaps built on hope

But what if product management was actually about systems?

"Thinking in Systems" blew my mind:Image
1/ Most technical people are trained to see the world as a series of cause-and-effect relationships:

- Input → Process → Output
- Problem → Solution
- Bug → Fix

But products are systems, with:

- Multiple feedback loops
- Delays
- Unintended consequences
2/ Meadows taught me why obsessing with the "parameters" (features, specs, technical details) ranks as the LOWEST leverage point in any system.

The highest? Mental models and system goals.

PMs, take note 😅
Read 11 tweets
George from 🕹prodmgmt.world Profile picture
Jul 3
Roadmaps 101: Not a schedule. Not a backlog. A communication tool.

Here’s how to get it right:
1. Why You Need a Roadmap

If you don't have a roadmap, three bad things happen. Your team builds random features. Your stakeholders constantly ask when things will be ready. Your customers don't understand what's coming next.

If you have a roadmap, everyone knows what's important and when to expect it.
2. What Goes in a Roadmap

A roadmap has three main parts. These parts answer three questions.

Part 1: Where are we going? This is your product vision. Write one sentence about what problem your product solves.

Part 2: What are we building? These are your major features or improvements. Group them into themes like "Better Search" or "Faster Checkout."

Part 3: When will it be ready? These are your time estimates. Use quarters or months, not specific dates.
Read 10 tweets
George from 🕹prodmgmt.world Profile picture
Jun 30
Most PMs bomb this interview question:

“Tell me about a time you influenced without authority.”

It’s not about persuasion.

Here’s what they’re really testing:
First, understand what kills most answers.

Candidates tell stories about convincing people. They talk about charisma. They focus on winning arguments.

But that's not influence without authority. That's just being loud.

If you tell a story about winning a debate, then you already failed.
What interviewers are ACTUALLY testing:

They want to know if you can create shared context. Can you make everyone see the same picture? Can you understand what matters to each person in the room?

This is the core PM skill. Not persuasion. Alignment.
Read 18 tweets
George from 🕹prodmgmt.world Profile picture
Jun 29
Everyone asks, "How do I break into PM?" but nobody asks, "What would I actually DO as a PM?"

Here's the truth every aspiring, junior or jaded product manager needs to hear:
1/ Most of you would hate this job. Let me show you what product managers really do all day.

Product managers often end up as professional cat herders who write documents that nobody reads.
2/ You spend your mornings in meetings where engineers tell you why your ideas won't work.

You spend your afternoons in different meetings where executives tell you to make those same ideas work anyway.
Read 23 tweets

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