There a several great frameworks out there, e.g. RICE. I like to prioritize problems against feasibility (e.g. RICE), and then against their alignment to the company's overall strategy. Being able to articulate why the problem(s) you're solving support company strategy is a key part of building stakeholder alignment around your idea, if you're operating in an existing company. When evaluating potential strategies, I like Gibson Biddle's DHM model as a starting point.

Collaborating with Product Marketing is a key part of any product's success. In smaller teams/companies, that role can fall on to the Product Manager directly, whereas at bigger organizations that is a more dedicated role. I am fortunate now at Cisco to have access to some of the best product marketing resources in the business. The work that we do together from product strategy, execution planning, and external marketing helps ensure our business objectives are met and made visible within our specific market. We work closely throughout the GTM process and fostering this relationship is one of the key components to a solid product launch.

PM work life is a firehose of Slack/Teams message, customer emails, meeting requests and deadlines. Here is what I find helpful to make sense of the chaos and stay on top of the key things. * Capture, Organize, Get Shit Done. Resist the urge to jump on every message or email the same moment - you may find yourself exhausted while still behind on your goals. Instead, find a tool which lets you to quickly “capture” a thing which require your attention - and move on. Organize these to-dos thoughtfully - later, when you have time: what need to be done now, today, later this week? Some people find Eisenhower matrix framework helpful, though it may require much discipline and self-training to apply it to every day situations. My personal go-to solution for capturing and organizing PM to-dos is Trello. * Meetings. Look at your calendar and brutally question it. Which meetings you don’t have to be in? Which ones you’d be fine just reading a summary after? Sometimes you’ll have to say “no” to get your work done, even if it slightly annoys someone. * Async collaboration. A great way to reduce meetings load for me is Atlassian Loom: record a short video clip and share with your collaborators, let them responds or even with another video clip, async, at the time which works best for everyone! * Focus time. Every week you likely have a Big Rock - a bit of work which isn’t immediately urgent, yet have an outsize importance and require significant focus time to accomplish. * Plan your week. Apply everything above to your Friday routine - plan your next week ahead. Meetings you’ll decline? Focus time you’ll block on your calendar - to accomplish most important tasks? 3 things (maximum) you are looking to accomplish next week? * Plan your energy, not time. Lastly, recognize when you are at the peak of your productivity - late afternoon? mid-day? morning? Do your best to allocate this time to the most important things you are looking to accomplish. You are most productive on Fridays? Make it a no-meeting day to finish up that blog or product spec!

Love this question. User research is critical to incorporate throughout the funnel journey for a PM - from awareness, to consideration, to decision. * Awareness: During this phase we want to understand how prospects are learning about your product. For example, do they resonate with the messaging and positioning on your website, do they understand the market you play in, do they understand the problem you are looking to solve? This type of research can be conducted often at trade shows, through surveys, anonymous interviews, new generative AI tools to look at user review, and other marketing driven & community events. In the case of PLG products - data can play a critical role. For example what was the click through journey of your prospect, which pages did they spend the most time on etc. * Consideration: During this phase we want to understand what type of buying decisions a prospect is considering in the purchase of your product or new feature. This is often the most difficult to do direct research on as it can be hard to identify when a prospect is in this phase. I find secondary proxies here who are interacting with your prospects in this phase extremely valuable - for example the sales & sales engineering teams, & channel partners. * Retention: Once a prospect has purchased a product, this research helps us understand what will help a customer retain usage and expand footprint. Example forums for this type of user research include small customer advisory boards, private preview feature feedback, UX design sessions, customer success & support manager feedback, user questions & trends on online support communities. 

Market trends can be a good indicator of what will matter to users, investors or stakeholders. Don't ignore them, but also don't let them distract you from the fundamentals. * Do you think this trend will drive a permanent shift in the market you operate in? If so -- consider how you can position yourself for success in the long term and the pros / cons of investing in alignment. If not, consider whether there are short / mid term changes you want to make to take advantage, or whether you just want to ride it out. * Identify where the trend is coming from. Is it driven by macroeconomics? A technological innovation? And are you and your org well positioned to take advantage of it? * Are you moving early enough vs other competitors? If you have an opportunity to be out in front of the crowd -- can you position yourself as a leader in this trend and drive marketing value from doing so? * Does it genuinely drive economic advantage for you, either directly or by second order effects?

It's hard form be to give specific advice to you without more context about your situation such as who is assigning these tasks to. Is this your manager? If yes, my first thought is, does your team / organization understand the value product managers bring? Is there a strong focus on product management craft? If the answer is no, then you have 2 options 1. Try to build an understanding of the product management craft within your organization. This only works if you are sufficiently senior in the organization (or the organization is smaller). 2. Move to an organization that has a stronger understanding of the product management craft.

I find that there are 3 basic traits that a team looks for a product manager to provide in any project: * Create Clarity - Does the product manager have the ability to disentangle the many signals a team may be sorting through and help everyone get aligned on a plan or point of view? * Generate Energy - Can the product manager effectively create momentum the team needs to get a project done? In early career stages, this is often the daily mechanics like running the stand-ups, prioritizing the bugs in a timely fashion, quickly and decisively resolving open questions and so on are all things that help a team build energy and momentum towards delivery * Deliver Results - It’s important to show that you have the ability to put points on the board - both individually and through leading your feature team. Knock out some items that have been on the backlog for too long, help see that stubborn feature thats been stuck in development for too long thru to delivery. If you can show to the team multiple examples of being able to do the above 3 core capabilities consistently and repeatably, I expect you’ll build trust and influence with your new team well.

I've been working at fully (or practically) remote companies for ~5 years now and I believe they can certainly work. Tools like Zoom, Slack, and Miro can (mostly) handle the day to day activities of product teams. However, in person time is still critical for some activities and for building a product culture you want. Some rules I have: 1. I try to do a team offsite at least quarterly. This allows for free flowing discussions and brainstorming that don't translate well virtually. I plan a few days that include ample whiteboard time as well as dinners to do some bonding. 2. As a product leader, you need to be hyper aware of how team members perform in a virtual environment. You don't get as much signal from body language virtually. I always try to check in during 1:1s on how each team member feels about the culture, their role within the team and try to manage virtual meetings accordingly.

Expecting glory right off the gate. The thrill of launching a first test is huge. The disappointment from reality vs. expectations might be huger. Any number of things may go wrong in the beginning. Something may be off with the test setup (dang, that missed attribute), the test might fail gloriously (think big red stat sig negative), the test may be a disappointing win (whoaaa….wait, that’s it? I was hoping 10X impact…), or something totally out of one’s control derails the test (sorry, data outage mid-way through the test, need to run it again). First time (and not first time) growth PMs must instead focus on the bigger picture. Really understand your customers, the product, the market landscape. Be curious. Understand the opportunities (user pain points, drop off points in the experience, greenfield areas), the underlying growth loops, chart your unique learning agenda and then the roadmap needed in place to tap into all of these. Drive the roadmap diligently, bring back learnings effectively. With this, you will build your credibility - a currency much needed to then drive collective creativity and audacious ideas within your org.

One key thing would be to have empathy for your fellow data scientists. When working with data scientists, remember that simply asking for Level of Effort won't suffice. Feasibility and effort are often exploratory in the AI realm. So, change the language you speak to foster successful collaboration! Shared Understanding: As a PM, it's crucial to ensure that data scientists understand your goals and objectives. Clearly communicate what you're trying to achieve and the assumptions that need validation even before an AI model is developed. Collaborative Exploration: Instead of seeking concrete estimates, foster a collaborative environment for exploration. Encourage open discussions, knowledge sharing, and joint problem-solving. Embrace the iterative nature of AI development to uncover insights and uncover the realm of possibilities. By shifting the conversation and fostering collaboration with data scientists, PMs can bridge the gap between product goals and AI exploration. Embrace the power of shared understanding and collaborative exploration for AI success!