Give me 5 minutes, I’ll explain what PMs actually do

👋 Hey friends,

One of the most common questions I get: “What does a Product Manager actually do all day?”

Even people inside tech companies don’t fully understand this role. I’ve had engineers ask if I’m basically a project manager. Sales teams think I just write feature specs. Leadership sometimes thinks I’m the one deciding what to build.

The confusion is real.

So let me break it down the way I wish someone had explained it to me when I was transitioning from customer success.

A Product Manager is responsible for:

Let’s unpack what each of these actually means in practice.

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This is where you talk to users to understand their actual problems, not just what they say they want.

What it looks like: Scheduling customer calls, asking open-ended questions, listening for patterns across conversations. Taking notes on the problems people describe, not the solutions they suggest.

Real example: When we were building our add-to-dashboard feature, customers kept saying “I want a button to add reports faster.” But when we dug deeper, the real problem was that they had to leave their dashboard context entirely, navigate through 14 steps, and then find their way back. The solution wasn’t just a faster button - it was keeping them in context.

Deciding what to build based on customer impact, business goals, and technical feasibility. This is where you say “no” a lot.

What it looks like: Evaluating feature requests against your roadmap. Asking “how many customers does this affect?” and “what’s the impact if we don’t do this?” Having hard conversations about what won’t make the cut.

Real example: Every quarter, we have more ideas than engineering capacity. Last quarter, we had to choose between building new analyze tabs and optimizing existing dashboard performance. We picked performance because customer research showed error rates were impacting CSAT.

Working with design and engineering to figure out how to solve the problem. Writing specs, user stories, acceptance criteria.

What it looks like: Collaborative sessions with designers sketching solutions. Writing PRDs that explain the problem and success criteria. Creating user stories that help engineering understand the workflow.

Real example: For drag-and-drop dashboard building, we didn’t just say “make it draggable.” We mapped out edge cases: What happens if someone drags a report that’s already on the dashboard? What if they drag it to a spot that’s full? How does this work on mobile?

Getting everyone on the same page - engineering, design, sales, marketing, leadership. Managing information flow without overwhelming people.

What it looks like: Tailoring your message for different audiences. Engineering needs technical context. Leadership needs strategic reasoning. Sales needs positioning for customers.

Real example: When we launched custom report tags, I had three different conversations: with engineering about the data model, with leadership about adoption goals, and with PMM about how this helps customers organize their reporting.

Unblocking the team, making trade-off decisions, keeping the project moving.

What it looks like: Daily stand-ups where you identify blockers. Quick decisions when the team hits an unexpected edge case. Clearing the path so engineering can build.

Real example: Mid-sprint on our dashboard project, we discovered a technical limitation with how reports filters get applied. I had to decide: delay the launch to and go back to the architecture, or ship with a workaround and iterate later. We shipped the workaround because it solved 90% of the use case.

Shipping the feature is just the start. Making sure customers know about it, can use it, and are actually using it.

What it looks like: Working with marketing on launch messaging. Creating help docs and videos. Monitoring adoption metrics. Talking to early users to see how it’s landing.

Real example: After we launched drag-and-drop dashboards, we didn’t just announce it and move on. We monitored usage, sent targeted emails to power users, created tutorial videos, and scheduled feedback calls with early adopters.

Listening to how the feature performs in the real world. Finding the papercuts. Planning improvements.

What it looks like: Reading support tickets, analyzing usage data, scheduling post-launch customer calls. Looking for patterns in what’s working and what’s not.

Real example: Our dashboard feature hit 100% CSAT in early feedback, but we also heard small friction points: “Love it, just wish I could reorder reports after I add them.” These papercuts became our next iteration.

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Here’s what I wish someone had told me when I was considering the PM path:

Being a PM is less about “telling engineers what to build” and more about connecting customer problems to solutions while keeping everyone aligned.

It’s detective work, translation, and a lot of decision-making with incomplete information.

Some days you’re in back-to-back customer calls. Some days you’re writing specs. Some days you’re just making sure five different people heard the same message the same way.

It’s messy. It’s not as glamorous as job descriptions make it sound. But when you ship something that genuinely solves a real problem for real people? That’s the whole game.

If you’re an aspiring PM: Pick one of these seven responsibilities and practice it this week. If you’re in CS or support, start doing customer discovery in your calls - listen for problems, not just feature requests.

If you’re already a PM: Which of these seven do you spend the most time on? Which one do you wish you were better at?

Hit reply and let me know. I read every response.

See you next week,

– Stef

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