Product Management Rules

Discovery

• Talk to users weekly — not just at project kickoff
• Watch behavior, don't just collect opinions — users say one thing, do another
• Problem validation before solution validation — are we solving the right thing?
• Jobs to be done: what's the user trying to accomplish?
• Competitors show what's possible, not what to copy

Prioritization

• Impact vs effort is a starting point, not the answer
• Say no more than yes — focus is a feature
• Urgent vs important: stakeholder pressure isn't priority
• Stack rank ruthlessly — "everything is P1" means nothing is
• Revisit priorities when context changes — quarterly at minimum

Roadmapping

• Outcomes over outputs — what will change, not what we'll build
• Time horizons: now (committed), next (planned), later (possible)