Tamar Hadar

As a first PM, you will need to be very judicious with how you allocate your time and resources. In fact, I think that’s true for larger companies as well. There are always going to be more ideas than resources available. As a product manager, you are responsible for translating the company’s vision into a roadmap so your first priority should be internalizing the company’s goals. Is it to drive sign-ups? Increase retention? Increase MRR? Or something else altogether? Narrowing in on that top go ...Read More

First off, take a deep breath and remember, crushing those OKRs is going to take time and effort. Next, set clear goals for each milestone and build a plan around it. Just like you would when defining a project, identify success metrics for yourself and create a plan. Here’s an example: First 30 days: Learning and Absorbing Establish good working relationships with stakeholders: the key to being effective is having open lines of communication with your coworkers. Take the time to get to know the ...Read More

I have been a part of small teams, large teams, a PM consultant and an entrepreneur. I have yet to scale a PM team beyond the first PM but here are the things I would consider: Structure your team based on where the company will be in a few months/years—hiring should reflect the company’s vision and serve as a blueprint for where the business is headed. Ideally, each one of the identified goals above would have a subject matter expert (e.g. a retention PM, a growth PM, a localization PM, an Ente ...Read More

Speaking to your cross-functional teams is the best way to gain a deeper understanding of your company’s goals, its processes and challenges. It’s also an excellent way to get to know your new coworkers! I like to start by telling the person a little bit about myself, the parts that don’t show up on my resume. Beyond forming a real connection with the person you’re speaking to, sharing something about yourself will lead to greater trust. In your conversations, make sure to include members of you ...Read More

I think it takes a thorough understanding of a product and its users to achieve success. For that reason, I am not a big believer in “quick wins”. Take the time to learn before executing and think of “winning” as the result of iterative experimentation. That said, the main thing you, as a new PM, bring to the table is a fresh perspective. That perspective is invaluable and could lead to great insights. We all tend to make assumptions about users’ behavior or their likelihood to convert or churn, ...Read More

This is a common misstep for everyone, PMs included. I’ve certainly been led astray by assuming I know what users want. It’s important to have empathy for users, but not to confuse our own experience with theirs. That said, engineers often have valuable insights because they understand what it takes to build and maintain a successful API. Their perspective should absolutely inform your decisions, but not replace direct learning from users. The best approach is to observe real users, validate ass ...Read More

This usually signals a trust or communication gap rather than a purely logistical issue. Engineering teams sometimes struggle to be heard and may feel that maintenance work or platform upgrades are frequently deprioritized in favor of flashier, user-facing features. The mistake is assuming one can exist without the other; long-term product success depends on both. If we’re talking about user-facing features (rather than unplanned technical work or tech debt), this may point to a lack of buy-in o ...Read More

I love this question. Ensuring everyone deeply understands the project’s scope sets the entire team up for success. Scope misalignment is one of the biggest drivers of wasted effort and frustration. Getting scope right at the very beginning is crucial not only for clarity, but also for adaptability. When trade-offs inevitably come up (i.e: a deadline moves up, a dependency slips, or a new insight changes direction), having a shared, detailed understanding of scope makes it far easier to make cut ...Read More

That is a tough one. No one likes being asked to do more with less. But, constraints do make things clear and can be freeing. As a product owner, you will always need to think about growth. With less resources, you will just have to think more strategically and creatively.  Here are a few principles to help you get there: Prioritize ruthlessly based on impact: with limited resources, every decision should be about ROI. Ask: which initiatives will deliver the most growth or user value for the lea ...Read More

Every PM dreams of a steady, sustainable flow of work that leads to great outcomes. The tricky part is finding that “sustainable pace.” On one end of the spectrum, you have engineers overwhelmed with work (and on the highway to burnout). On the other, you have engineers waiting for direction because Product or Design has become the bottleneck. I’ve often heard that the “ideal” ratio is 1 PM to 4-5 engineers. That can be true in some contexts, but the real answer is: it depends. A few key factors ...Read More