These are all what I would call “foundational” parts of the product manager job. There’s a lot of things product managers do you won’t find on this list, such as running scrum meetings or writing PRDs. Things that you may or may not choose to do depending on if it’s right for your product, team, company stage, etc. When I say “foundational” I mean things any product manager should be doing regardless of their situation. When you’re starting a new PM job, or when you feel like you’re out of rhythm or floundering in your current PM role, visit this list to make sure all these items are in place.

Plan

• [ ] Mission - Do you have a defined mission detailing the purpose of your products existence?
  • [ ] Is it written down?
  • [ ] Does your team know what the mission is and are they aligned with it? Do they know where to find it?
  • [ ] Are your stakeholders aligned with the mission?
• [ ] Vision - Do you have a defined vision detailing how you’ll know when the mission is accomplished?
  • [ ] Are you revisiting the vision every year?
  • [ ] Reference all sub points for mission, but replace it with vision.
• [ ] Strategy - Do you have a strategy that outlines how you plan to achieve the things you want to achieve?
  • [ ] Are you revisiting the strategy every quarter?
  • [ ] Reference all sub points for mission, but replace it with strategy.
• [ ] KPIs - Do you have a way to measure your progress so you know whether or not you are headed in the right direction? Are you measuring and discussing with your team weekly?
• [ ] Projects - Over the next three months, what projects do you think are the most important to get done? These should be the projects that you hypothesis will move your KPIs in the right direction.

For an example plan, see Roadmap Template

Execute

• [ ] Does your team have everything they need to complete the tasks they are currently assigned?
• [ ] Do you have the next tasks prepped and ready to be built?
• [ ] Are you involving engineering and design in the discovery process? Meaning, as features move from idea to “ready for build” are you touching base with engineering and design to get their feedback?
• [ ] Are you talking to users face to face weekly?
• [ ] Are you using the product every day?
• [ ] Do you have a regular touch point with customer support (if exists)?
• [ ] Do you have a regular touch point with sales (if exists)?