By skyforbes 
Most founders don’t come from a product management background, yet in the early stages of building a company this discipline can be essential to your startup’s success. While it can be tempting to hire a product manager right away, it often leads to overpaying for a team member who ends up being a glorified project manager.
Instead, I believe it’s incredibly valuable for founders to develop a strong understanding of product management before they make their first hire. Not only will this help you tackle the most critical product tasks yourself, but it will also make you better equipped to hire and appreciate a great product manager when the time is right.
This is a longer post, but I tried keep each section as brief as possible with key insights and valuable resources.
How will this information help?
Even without a PM on staff, understanding the role will:
- Help you manage product tasks effectively.
- Prepare you to identify when hiring a PM is necessary. Later in the article I also provide Marty Cagan’s advice on when to hire your first product manager.
- Equip you with the knowledge to evaluate and support a future PM.
What Founders Really Need to Know About Product Management
Product Manager Job Description
A Product Manager is the central figure responsible for defining a product’s vision, strategy, and roadmap. They ensure that the product meets customer needs, aligns with business goals, and is delivered efficiently by working cross-functionally with teams such as engineering, design, and marketing.
While PMs are often called the “CEO of the product,” this title is more metaphorical than literal — they are leaders without direct authority and rely on influence, collaboration, and clear communication.
Success Metrics for a Product Manager:
- Achievement of business goals (e.g., revenue, growth, retention).
- Positive customer feedback and satisfaction.
- Efficient cross-team collaboration and delivery of roadmap milestones.
This role is pivotal in driving a company’s success, requiring a mix of customer empathy, strategic vision, and operational excellence.
Core Responsibilities of a Product Manager
1. Product Strategy & Vision
- Define a clear product vision aligned with company goals.
- Conduct market research and competitor analysis to identify opportunities.
- Prioritize features based on customer needs, business impact, and feasibility.
2. Customer Insights & Advocacy
- Engage with users through interviews, surveys, and usability tests.
- Gather and analyze customer feedback to refine product strategy.
- Work with UX/UI teams to improve user experience.
3. Roadmap & Planning
- Develop and maintain a product roadmap balancing short-term wins and long-term goals.
- Manage trade-offs and resource allocation for maximum impact.
- Collaborate with engineering to define sprints, milestones, and deliverables.
4. Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Act as the bridge between engineering, design, marketing, sales, and support.
- Ensure alignment on product goals, priorities, and execution.
- Communicate updates and decisions across teams.
5. Execution & Delivery
- Write detailed Product Requirement Documents (PRDs).
- Manage the backlog, define user stories, and set acceptance criteria.
- Oversee sprints, testing, and feature releases.
6. Metrics & Continuous Improvement
- Define and track key performance indicators (KPIs) like retention, churn, and engagement.
- Conduct A/B tests and experiments to validate ideas.
- Iterate on the product based on data and insights.
7. Go-to-Market & Launch
- Work with marketing and sales teams to plan product launches.
- Coordinate launch strategies, messaging, and training.
- Gather post-launch feedback for continuous iteration.
Key Deliverables of a Product Manager
Strategic Planning & Roadmaps
- Product Vision Statement — A guiding declaration of the product’s purpose and value.
- Product Strategy — Defines vision, market insights, key challenges, and success metrics.
- Product Roadmap — A strategic visual plan outlining key milestones, feature releases, and priorities.
Product Research & Insights
- User Personas — Detailed profiles of target users, their goals, and behaviors.
- Customer Journey Maps — Visual representation of user interactions, pain points, and opportunities.
- Market Research & Competitor Analysis — Industry trends, competitor positioning, and gaps.
- Product Feature Analysis — Evaluation of feature demand, competitive differentiation, and feasibility.
- Product Comparison — Side-by-side analysis of competing products.
Customer & User Insights
- Customer Interviews — Structured discussions to uncover pain points and needs.
- Interview Guide — Prepared questions and structured flow to encourage deep insights.
- Usability Testing Script — Step-by-step tasks and observation criteria for user testing.
Requirements & Development
- Feature Proposal Document — Problem statement, solution overview, business alignment, and ROI.
- PRDs (Product Requirement Documents) — Detailed specs for engineering and design teams.
- User Stories — Short, goal-oriented descriptions of feature requirements.
- User Flows — Visual representation of how users navigate and interact with the product.
- Backlog Items & Prioritization — Organized tasks, feature requests, and ranking based on impact.
- Sprint Plans — Agile sprint agendas with tasks, goals, and timelines.
Metrics, Reporting & Decision Making
- Performance Reports — Data-driven analysis of KPIs like retention, churn, and engagement.
- Product OKRs (Objectives & Key Results) — Aligns product goals with measurable business outcomes.
- Cost-Benefit Analysis — A structured evaluation of feature costs vs. expected benefits.
Launch & Execution
- Launch Plans & Ship Day Docs — Detailed steps, team responsibilities, and go-to-market strategy.
- Product Launch Checklist — Ensures readiness across testing, marketing, and analytics.
- Product Launch Meetings — Cross-functional syncs to finalize details and address risks.
Communication & Stakeholder Alignment
- Prepare Updates for Stakeholders — Clear summaries of progress, challenges, and next steps.
- Weekly Product Team Kickoff/Standups — Review priorities, blockers, and progress.
- Product Reviews — Share progress and gather feedback.
Collaboration & Communication in Product Management
By keeping communication open, setting clear expectations, and creating a culture of shared ownership, product managers help teams stay aligned and focused. When everyone — from engineering to marketing to leadership — feels heard and informed, execution becomes smoother, collaboration feels more natural, and the entire company moves forward with clarity and purpose.
Key Collaboration Tactics:
- Provide Direction: Define vision, roadmap, and prioritized backlog.
- Get Alignment: Use cross-functional meetings to align teams on goals.
- Ensure Communication: Act as the central point between teams, stakeholders, and users.
Typical Meetings:
With Design
- Kickoff Meetings — Define user flows and wireframes.
- Design Reviews — Iterate on prototypes and finalize UX/UI.
With Engineering
- Sprint Planning — Set development goals and priorities.
- Daily Standups — Review progress and address blockers.
- Backlog Grooming — Maintain clarity on feature priorities.
With Stakeholders
- Demo Days — Present completed features to internal/external teams.
- All-Hands Meetings — Company-wide updates on product direction and successes.
Essential Product Management Skills
Great PMs are strategic thinkers, skilled communicators, and empathetic problem solvers. They thrive in ambiguity, make data-informed decisions, and balance short-term wins with long-term vision.
The overview of skills below are inspired by The Product Map, a PM handbook developed by Graphica, a product design partner for startups. They have collaborated with global community experts to create a comprehensive knowledge map of product management topics and learning resources. It’s a true masterclass.
The role spans five key domains: Product, Customer, Analytics, Process, and People.
The Five Skill Groups
Mastery of these areas ensures that a founder, and eventually their product management team, can effectively navigate the complexity of developing, delivering, and optimizing successful products.
1. Product
- Strategic Impact: Drive long-term success by aligning product initiatives with overarching business goals.
- Product Discovery: Continuously identify opportunities by researching user needs and market trends.
- Business Goals Ownership: Own key metrics and ensure product decisions drive measurable outcomes.
2. Customer
- Voice of Customer: Advocate for customer needs by gathering and interpreting feedback.
- User Experience: Shape seamless interactions that delight users.
- Product Marketing: Position the product effectively in the market, ensuring clear value communication.
3. Analytics
- Data Fluency: Interpret data insights to make informed decisions.
- Measuring Progress: Track performance using KPIs and ensure goals are met.
- Stakeholder Management: Align with cross-functional teams by setting expectations and prioritizing transparency.
4. Process
- Product Vision & Planning: Define and communicate the roadmap to stakeholders.
- Software Engineering: Collaborate with development teams on product delivery and to understand technical constraints and opportunities.
- Backlog Management: Prioritize tasks to ensure impactful delivery.
5. People
- Communication: Foster clear, concise, and effective dialogue across teams.
- Team Leadership: Inspire and guide teams to achieve shared goals.
- People Development: Mentor team members to elevate overall capability and morale.
These skills collectively enable a founder or product manager to be a strategic leader, a customer advocate, a data-driven decision-maker, a process optimizer, and a team-builder.
Top 5 Skills:
- Analytical Thinking: Ability to interpret data and make informed decisions.
- Customer Empathy: Deep understanding of user pain points and needs.
- Strategic Planning: Define the direction and evolution of the product to maximize user engagement, growth and revenue.
- Leadership: Guiding teams without direct authority through influence and clarity.
- Execution: Driving initiatives to completion while adapting to constraints.
When should you hire a product manager?
On a recent episode of Lenny’s Podcast, Marty Cagan of Silicon Valley Product Group had some great advice on this.
He recommends that founders should avoid hiring a product manager too early, as it can create unnecessary conflict and slow progress. In the early stages, especially before product-market fit, the founder should own responsibility for product value and viability. As the person closest to the vision and the customer, the founder is best positioned to guide product decisions. Hiring a product manager too soon often leads to “too many cooks in the kitchen,” making it harder to move quickly and align on priorities.
The right time to hire a product manager is typically after achieving product-market fit or when the engineering team reaches 20–25 people. At that stage, the company’s scale and complexity make it valuable to bring in someone to manage priorities and streamline the product process. A skilled product manager can then free the founder to focus on growth and new opportunities, while ensuring the product vision is executed effectively.
How to Master Product Yourself
These five essential books will give you the knowledge and insights you need to make better product decisions and give you a strong foundation in product management.
1. Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
Quick summary: Zero to One This book offers insights on startups and how to create innovative solutions that shape the future.
Amazon LInk: Zero to One by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters
2. Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days
Quick summary: Sprint A guide to solving big problems and testing new ideas quickly through a five-day process.
Amazon LInk: Sprint by Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky and Braden Kowitz
3. Think First: My No-Nonsense Approach to Creating Successful Products, Memorable User Experiences + Very Happy Customers
Quick summary: Think First Provides a practical approach to creating successful products and memorable user experiences.
Amazon LInk: Think First by Joe Natoli
4. Product Leadership: How Top Product Managers Launch Awesome Products and Build Successful Teams
Quick summary: Product Leadership Offers insights into the role of product leadership and provides guidance on building high-performing product teams.
Amazon LInk: Product Leadership by Richard Banfield, Martin Eriksson, and Nate Walkingshaw
5. Continuous Discovery Habits: Discover Products that Create Customer Value and Business Value
Quick summary: Continuous Discovery Habits Focuses on developing habits to continuously discover and create products that deliver value to customers and businesses.
Amazon LInk: Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres
Additional Resources & Templates
Books are a great starting point, but having the right tools and frameworks can make applying these concepts much easier. Below, you’ll find additional resources and templates to help you put product management principles into action.
5-Day Design Sprint Materials
The Design Sprint by Jake Knapp & John Zeratsky is a proven 5-day process that helps teams quickly build and test a prototype before investing in a full product, service, or campaign. It’s an efficient way to gain valuable customer feedback in just a week, helping you make smarter decisions with less risk. Over five days, your team maps out the problem, sketches solutions, selects the best ideas, builds a realistic prototype, and tests it with real users. This approach not only speeds up product development but also fosters smarter, more collaborative problem-solving across your team.
This process is outlined in the book Sprint (above), but their website includes a number of invaluable complementary resources and templates to effectively execute a sprint. Highly recommend buying the book and diving into all of the resources.
Product School Templates
Product Management Templates from Product School offer a library of ready-to-use templates to help you streamline your PM tasks. These templates eliminate the need for repetitive prep work, allowing you and your team to focus on what matters most. Whether you’re working on strategy, design, or prioritization, you can find the right template to tackle your next product management challenge efficiently.
Shreyas Doshi’s Product Almanac
Shrevas Doshi’s Product Almanac is a free collection of Shrevas’ most popular resources on product, leadership, and strategy. Organized into categories like leadership, management, strategy, and communication, it offers practical insights on everything from time management and organizational navigation to product truths, B2B strategies, and go-to-market (GTM) approaches. With additional sections on antipatterns, life lessons, humor, and recommended resources, this comprehensive almanac is a must-have for any founder looking to level up their skills.
Lenny’s Podcast & Newsletter
If you’re a founder looking to dive deeper into product strategy and growth marketing, I highly recommend checking out Lenny’s Podcast and Newsletter.
Lenny’s Podcast features interviews with top product leaders and growth experts, offering actionable insights to help you build, launch, and scale your product. It’s packed with tactical advice you can apply right away. His newsletter is one of the top business resources on Substack, where he addresses reader questions on product, growth, and career. Paid subscribers get access to exclusive posts and a vibrant Slack community, while non-subscribers still receive one free post each month. It’s an invaluable resource for any founder.
Here to Help
Building a startup is a wild ride — I know how overwhelming it can feel to juggle everything while trying to make the right decisions for your product and growth. If you’re at a point where an extra brain might help, whether that’s figuring out your product strategy, expanding your growth marketing initiatives, optimizing revenue or just having someone to bounce ideas off of, I’d be happy to lend a hand.
Shoot me a message if you ever want to chat. No pressure — just here to help if you need it.