The Typical Day of a Product Manager

What does the typical day in the life of a product manager entail? 

While we answer this question below, there’s something you need to know. No two days are the same. Even if you have a basic structure to guide you, every day is different and every day is busy. And that’s why so many people love this career path.

With that in mind, let’s dive into a loose outline of what your day will look like as a PM.

Meet With Stakeholders

As a product manager, you’re always meeting and communicating with other stakeholders. It’s rare for a day to pass without some level of communication with other members of your team. This includes but is not limited to:

• Engineering
• Marketing
• Sales 
• Business operations
• Legal
• User experience
• Customer service

Remember, you’re the CEO of your product. Efficient communication with stakeholders is essential to moving your product forward. 

Time commitment: 60 minutes

Meet With Engineering

Adding to the above, you’ll have a daily standup call with at least one member of the engineering team. This is your time to discuss progress, roadblocks, and how to address issues. 

This is generally a separate meeting between you and an engineer (or engineering team). Don’t lump it in with a general conversation with multiple departments. 

Time commitment: 30 minutes

Meet With Product Design

Just the same as engineering, you’ll take roughly 30 minutes per day to collaborate with product design. 

What new features are they working on? What changes have they recently made? Are they on track to reach their goals? Do they have any new ideas or designs to present?

Depending on the call agenda, it’s often helpful to have someone from engineering in the meeting. For example, if you’re set to discuss the potential addition of a new feature, an engineer can help a product designer determine if it’s feasible. 

Time commitment: 30 minutes

Meet With Users

How you do this depends on the stage of your product. For example, if your product is still in the early stages of development, you’re probably meeting with internal team members who are first to experiment with it. But if you’re further along, such as in the beta phase, you’re communicating with real users who are testing the product in the same environment as the final release.

Spend this time doing the following:

• Asking user testing questions
• Obtaining feedback (both positive and negative)
• Learning more about product bugs

This is your chance to go inside the minds of the people who will be using your product. 

Time commitment: 30 minutes

Competitor Review

Knowing your top competitors is just the tip of the iceberg. You must also know what they’re doing at all times. A competitor review should focus on details such as:

• Current product status
• Recent announcements
• New features
• Product reviews and user ratings 

A competitor review allows you to answer questions such as:

• Are you taking steps to remain competitive?
• Are you moving ahead of your competitors?
• Are you falling behind your competitors?
• Do you need new features to remain competitive?

Don’t spend too much time worrying about the competition, but make sure you have a solid grasp of what they’re doing. This allows you to stay one step ahead. 

Time commitment: 30 minutes

Health Metrics Review

Don’t just assume that everything is going as planned with your product. Conduct regular health metric reviews with a focus on details such as:

• Website traffic
• User growth or decline
• Engagement 
• Sources of new customers
• Churn rate

You hope to find positive results across the board, but it’s not guaranteed. There will be days when you pinpoint a problem. You must then find the culprit, consider multiple solutions, and take the necessary action. This is where your problem-solving skills get put to use. 

Time commitment: 15 minutes

Review Product or Future Release Plans

If your product is set to hit the market soon, you’ll review release plans on your own and alongside other stakeholders, such as sales and marketing. 

Conversely, if you already have a live product, your focus will turn to upcoming feature releases. 

This is your time to answer questions such as:

• Is everyone on the same page regarding the release?
• Do you have a firm date or dates in mind?
• What does the timeline leading up to the release look like?
• Are you on schedule?

It’s your responsibility to make sure everyone knows what’s in the pipeline. Are the sales and marketing departments aligned? Is engineering working on testing? 

Time commitment: 30 minutes

Quality Assurance (QA) Testing

Sometimes you’re doing this yourself, sometimes the responsibility falls on engineering. But most of the time, you’re collaborating in some way, shape, or form.

Quality assurance testing is done with the idea of launching the highest quality product possible. Without this, there’s a greater chance that your product will miss the mark, such as by launching it before working out all the bugs.

Time commitment: 30 minutes

Meet With Your Product Manager Peers

There will be days when you do this in a formal capacity, such as having a scheduled call with other product managers in your company. There will also be days when you simply meet with product managers as time allows, such as to discuss progress, request input, or provide guidance.

This is your time to ensure that everything is moving along as planned. You can also use it to ask for advice, mentor others, and gain an overall understanding of where things stand. 

Time commitment: 15 minutes

Job Interview Tasks

An often-overlooked task, there will be times throughout the year when you focus heavily on job interviewing and related responsibilities.

Generally, this unfolds in one of two ways:

• You personally interview job candidates
• You assist another department with the interviewing and hiring process

A common example is if your employer is hiring a new engineer. Since you’ll be working closely with this person, engineering may want you to partake in the interview process to ensure that they hire someone with whom you’ll get along.

If you’re employed at a company with a long interview process — such as Facebook — you could find yourself spending hours every week, for several months, assisting with job interviewing tasks. 

Time commitment: 1 – 2 hours 

Communicating With Others 

The rest of your time is generally spent communicating with others about details such as:

• Project status and timeline
• Stakeholder management
• Product direction decisions

With many product manager jobs moving toward full-time remote, communication is generally done via phone, Slack, email, and even Loom videos. And of course, if you’re working in a traditional office setting, in-person meetings may be part of your day.

Time commitment: varies

Time Commitments are Always Changing

The time commitment estimates above are just that: estimates. Don’t expect these numbers to remain the same, day after day. 

Consider this: If your company is actively hiring, you could spend two or more hours per day interviewing and moving qualified candidates through the process. On the other hand, if your company isn’t actively hiring, this task is put on the shelf for the time being.

Also, you don’t have to take on all of the tasks above every day. For example, competitor and health metrics reviews are often best done every other day or once a week. 

As you learn more about your company, position, and how your team members like to work, you can better formulate a schedule that works for you. 

Final Thoughts

So, there you have it. That’s what a typical day of a product manager looks like. But as noted in the introduction, don’t expect any two days to be the same. There’s always something new to focus on. There’s always another person to chat with. Flexibility can go a long way in helping you achieve success.

If all this sounds good to you and you’re ready to chase your first product manager job opportunity, we’re here to help. Sign up for our interview prep course, review and answer common PM interview questions, and partake in mock interviews.