How do you manage the 1000 questions and tasks that are shot at you when you are a PM in an early stage startup?

When you’re working at an early-stage startup, I know it can feel like every conversation, Slack message, or email thread throws another item on your plate. It’s totally normal to feel overwhelmed because there is always more work than can be done by a PM. To help manage this, here are a few strategies and tips I use: Define Clear Priorities and Communicate Them:Define the priorities for you and your team in terms of areas of focus. What are the most important things that will have the biggest i ...Read More

Startups are all about speed. To move fast, you need to know where you are going (aka what to be ruthlessly focused on) and allocate the most of your time/energy to that. Easier said than done, right? One thing that helped a lot in my early startup days was my framework of "One thing I am going to fail today".  Once you establish together with your team what you are focused on this week, month, quarter - write that down and look at it every day when planning out your work. Then, notice things th ...Read More

Actually, no differently than managing the 1001 questions and tasks shot at you in a large company :) A PM wears many hats. If any one area takes over disproportionately, the risk is that you are no longer doing the job of a PM. Some common blurring of the boundaries is when PM is acting to fill gaps that are normally entirely different functions: - Project manager - QA - Technical Support - Technical Writer - Trainer - Solution Consultant - Marketer - Data Analyst, etc. Write down the CORE PM r ...Read More

I've definitely been there! As you correctly intuit, your first order of business is to buy yourself some time to develop a strategic point of view and a roadmap that supports that it. Obviously that means you're going to need to spend time meeting with customers, prospects and customer-facing teams inside your organization, synthesize the learnings, and develop that roadmap & strategy. In a startup, you have to do this at a much higher tempo than at a more established company, but it's esse ...Read More

In a startup, the R&R is faintly defined at its best. You naturally get pulled into 1000 different things - that is both fun and a challenge :) A few things that you might find helpful: In the beginning, it is good to get exposed to a variety of different topics. It can be overwhelming for sure. Once you understand the organization's needs, ask yourself "What can I do to make our company successful?" (and I hope your equity motivates you to ask this question each step of the way). The answer ...Read More

Remember your safety instruction on a flight ‘put your oxygen mask on first, before assisting others’. Its a good rule to use when you are a PM in a start-up, especially because you can actually do more for others. As a PM your oxygen mask equivalent is you are critically aware of your top 3 goals at any given time. Especially in an early stage startup, its important to reassess your top 3 in a monthly or at the very least quarterly basis because it tends to be fast moving and lot of changes as ...Read More