Main takeaways: A PM's day to day job is utter chaos -- writing docs, communicating with users, navigating the organization, dealing with fires -- constantly! In the middle of flying a plane when it is still under construction, how does a PM even find time to think about the long-term plans and vision? There are several practices that PMs can do, amidst the noise, to play the long game with your product, and your career.

1. www.productschool.com
Play the Long Game When Everything is on
Fire by Google Group PM

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5. How to think long-term
(When everything is on fire)
Glenn Wilson
May 2021

6. Who am I?
Group Product Manager at Google for 13 years
MBA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology ‘08
Software engineer, various startups
BS, Computer Science, University of Michigan

7. Product Management is an Art, not a Science
One size does not fit all

8. Write PRDs
Design UX
Executive
presentations
Talking with
customers
Bug triage
Tech support
Build
roadmaps
Navigating the
organization

9. Write PRDs
Design UX
Executive
presentations
Talking with
customers
Bug triage
Tech support
Build
roadmaps
Navigating the
organization
Website is
down!
Eng is blocked
on you!
Angry
customer!!
Emergency
executive
review!
Biz partners
backing out!
New
dependencies!

11. What’s our 5 year
vision?
Who are we and
where are we
going?

13. What are my tips and tricks for getting out of this?
● Recognize what “emergencies” and “critical issues” do to you
● Objectively assess the cost & benefit of the work you have to do
● Ruthlessly prioritize, constantly
● Set aside bandwidth for unstructured thinking and keep it sacred

15. Source: nih.gov, https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/understanding-the-stress-response

16. Super critical - do it now!
Meh, do it whenever Important - do it soon

17. Late PRD that eng
is blocked on
Feature the CEO
is demanding
Bugfix for angry
customer
Slides for
publicly-visible
product talk
Super critical - do it now!
Meh, do it whenever Important - do it soon
Think about the
future - 1, 5, 10
years from now

18. https://busterbenson.com/piles/cognitive-biases/

19. Project Expected Outcome If I don’t do it right now... Workload
Critical bug Stop losing 3% revenue We lose 3% of revenue/day High
Write Foobar
PRD
Advance project to
product review stage
Product review gets pushed
out. Engineers do other stuff
Medium
Talk to angry
customer
Customer isn’t angry
anymore
Customer will be angry.
Maybe -1% revenue
Low
CEO demanding
feature
CEO is happy, +3% more
revenue
CEO will be unhappy High

20. Priority Project Expected Outcome If I don’t do it right now... Workload
P0 Critical bug Stop losing 3%
revenue
We lose 3% of revenue/day High
P1 Write Foobar PRD Advance project to
product review stage
Product review gets
pushed out. Engineers do
other stuff
Medium
P2 Talk to angry
customer
Customer isn’t angry
anymore
Customer will be angry.
Maybe -1% revenue
Low
P2 CEO demanding
feature
CEO is happy, +3%
more revenue
CEO will be unhappy High
Not going
to do.
Everyone
should
know it!

21. Priority Project Expected Outcome If I don’t do it right now... Workload
P0 Critical bug Stop losing 3%
revenue
We lose 3% of revenue/day High
P0 Critical exec
review
Execs questions are
answered
Backlash from boss &
others
Medium
P1 Write Foobar PRD Advance project to
product review stage
Product review gets
pushed out. Engineers do
other stuff
Medium
P2 Talk to angry
customer
Customer isn’t angry
anymore
Customer will be angry.
Maybe -1% revenue
Low
P2 CEO demanding
feature
CEO is happy, +3%
more revenue
CEO will be unhappy High
Line
does
not
move
down!
New
interrupts
push the
list down

22. Ugh, doing this constantly will eat up a ton of time
● Snippets, quarterly goals
● Communicate what you’re doing with teammates & manager
● Everyone can see your prioritized list
● Don’t cut into unallocated time

24. Priority Project Expected Outcome If I don’t do it right now... Workload
P0 Major bug Stop losing 3% revenue We lose 3% of revenue/day High
P1 Feature foo +10% active users Partner team will back out
of the project
Medium
P2 Feature bar +5% early funnel
retention
We do it next quarter Low
P2 Minor bug Better user experience,
better satisfaction
Users have to keep using
workaround, less
satisfaction
High

25. If you take anything away...
● Very little is actually critical -- your brain plays tricks on you
● Ruthlessly prioritize, constantly
● Build in intentional slack into your time planning
● Make sure everyone knows what you’re doing -- and NOT doing
● Keep unstructured time precious

26. THANK YOU!
https://www.linkedin.com/in/wilsong
@glenncwilson

27. www.productschool.com
Part-time Product Management Training Courses
and
Corporate Training