A Day In The Life Of A Product Manager At A Creative Production SaaS Marketplace
A Product Manager's day is highly dynamic, beginning with reviewing previous deployment results to inform the day's activities, which might include user interviews, addressing support tickets, and market research ("see what OpenAI's last announcement was"). The role also involves prototyping, articulating requirements for the tech team, sprint planning, and prioritizing tasks based on customer needs, making it a constantly evolving process where "one of these tasks might take up the whole day".
Project Management, Communication, Problem-Solving, Data Analysis, Technology
Advizer Information
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Job Title
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Evan Bradshaw
Product Manager
B2B SaaS Marketplace for Creative Production
UCSB
UCSB: Engineering School, Master of Technology Management (MS)
Psychology
Technology, Advertising, Communications & Marketing
Product / Service / Software Development and Management
Greek Life Member
Video Highlights
1. A day in the life of a product manager involves a mix of reacting to immediate issues and proactively planning for the future. This includes analyzing the results of past deployments, conducting user interviews to understand customer needs, and creating support tickets to address problems.
2. Product managers must stay current with industry trends and new technologies, such as advancements in AI. They use this knowledge to inform their roadmap and ensure their product remains competitive and relevant.
3. A significant portion of the job involves bridging the gap between ideation and execution. This means creating prototypes and wireframes to test ideas, articulating requirements and tickets for the tech team, and collaborating with the team in sprint planning to ensure effective development and implementation of product features.
Transcript
What does a day in the life of a product manager look like?
A typical day for a product manager varies depending on the company and the current stage of development. Usually, the day begins by reviewing the results of recent deployments. You'll assess how well experiments performed the previous day or week, as this information informs your subsequent tasks.
You might then conduct user interviews. If an experiment was very successful, you'd talk to users to understand why. Conversely, if it failed, you might reach out to offer a refund and learn about their experience.
Based on user feedback or issues from the night before, you may create support tickets. This could involve problems like a user being unable to attach a credit card. You'd then follow up with finance and operations, handling some internal administrative tasks.
However, the majority of the job focuses on future planning. You'll conduct research, like reviewing announcements from companies such as OpenAI, as these can significantly alter your roadmap. You also need to consider what potential customers are learning.
Another common activity is building or adding to prototypes and wireframes. A prototype, which captures about 80% of the value, helps articulate ideas and gather feedback. You might further develop these prototypes or extend them.
You may also have customer interviews scheduled to present these prototypes. You'll articulate requirements and create tickets, transitioning from the initial idea phase to actual development. This involves writing ticket goals, user stories, and getting technical team buy-in on feasibility. You'll also address potential risks associated with the assigned tasks.
Finally, you'll prepare for or participate in sprint planning. Ideas are incorporated into sprints based on customer information, outlining the plan for the next two weeks based on learnings. These responsibilities can all fit into a single day.
The life of a product manager involves flexibility. You might start a task but discover something significant that requires immediate attention, like a critical customer issue. In such cases, a single task might end up consuming your entire day.