2 Mistakes Product Managers Should Avoid

Most specs are like rear view mirrors.

They make things appear smaller than they really are.

Even if you have project experts working on estimates, poor definition on the Product Manager's part can contribute to flaky timelines.

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A couple of such sore areas PMs flub on:

1. Story GranularitySpecs often miss out finer details that get overlooked during estimation.

Ex: Important edge cases, transactional email/SMS with placeholders, implicit validations, meta-data etc.

When the document forces the team to read between the lines, work items fall through the cracks and manifest later on to bloat timelines.

2. Runtime ScopingUser flows are often amended or enhanced or enhanced during in-flight sprints which makes the end goal a moving target.

This is usually a result of full breadth/depth of user stories not thought out or rushed through or not thinking about backward compatibility.

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Tip:

Sit with the BA, Tech Lead or QA and brainstorm what each work item actually entails. Load this up in a mindmap.

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See more: How to make an effective mindmap

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This might even uncover more than you need.

However, this way you make the details explicit and can decide whether to break the work into multiple sprints.

Estimation is tough enough.

PM folks - don't make it harder.