Reclaiming Your Time as a Product Manager

The role of a Product Manager, as well as similar roles like Product Owner or Business Analyst, is often misunderstood. Ask a developer, sales person, marketer, senior manager, founder, or even another product manager what the job entails, and you’ll likely get very different answers.

The scope of a Product Manager’s role is so broad that different stakeholders have different expectations. As a result, additional tasks often creep into the PM’s job. This can lead to neglecting core responsibilities, making the product function ineffective and reducing trust from stakeholders—especially management or founders in smaller companies.

Product Managers often find themselves wearing multiple hats—handling delivery management, reporting, customer success, training, onboarding and more. In my experience, since these functions directly impact a product’s success, stakeholders often assume they naturally fall within the Product Manager’s role. However, without clear boundaries, this can quickly lead to an overwhelming workload, pulling focus away from core product responsibilities.

Where you can win back time

Here are a few strategies that helped me cope, stay organised, and win back time. Some of these lessons came later than I would have liked, and I hope to keep them in mind moving forward.

1. Delivery or Project Management

In the absence of a Delivery Manager, Scrum Master, or Project Manager, these responsibilities often fall on Product Managers. While some elements of delivery management align with product management, it is ultimately a distinct and specialised role requiring unique skills.

Motivate teams to take responsibility for as much of this role as possible. This starts with providing accurate status updates, reporting potential delays as soon as they become aware of the it, and communicating with other teams or colleagues to avoid blockers, misunderstandings and delays due to unexpected dependencies.

If your team uses a work management tool such as Jira or Azure Devops, each team member must update their tickets daily and note any decisions taken and context that may be useful later on.

Ask teams to take turns running stand-ups and other ceremonies that might fall upon the PM in the absence of a Scrum Master. They should also carry through with any follow-up actions.

2. Use technology to work smarter

There are many tools that can help you be faster, more creative, and cover more ground in a shorter time. With the latest AI tools, you do not need to spend hours creating Acceptance Criteria for new features anymore!

One of the tools that saved me and my team the most time is the custom GPT I created. It contains a knowledge base of documents describing the existing product features, future plans, any rules or design principles, and format for outputs such as user stories and its acceptance criteria. The GPT then uses this information to help with many tasks from brainstorming new features and improvements to creating user stories and other requirements outputs.

You can read more about creating a customised GPT in my post here.

3. Consolidate the systems you use

Choose tools that consolidate key product management activities such as backlog management, roadmaps, research and insights and reporting in a single platform. Avoid tools that require frequent updates like spreadsheets, static documents or email templates.

Whenever possible, share live links instead of standalone files that need constant revisions. If a static snapshot is necessary, export it directly from your primary tool to ensure accuracy.

If a dedicated product management tool isn’t within budget, make the most of existing systems like Jira or Azure DevOps, which offer built-in work management features that many teams underutilise. Investing time in properly configuring these tools can significantly improve efficiency.

If you have some budget flexibility, consider using tools such as Productboard which I used for about 3 years and found very effective for managing insights, product backlogs and prioritisation, roadmaps, reporting, and communication with various stakeholders. Some initial effort is required to find the way that works for you, but well-structured implementation can save significant time in the long run. Other solid options I explored include Airfocus and ProductPlan.

4. Create templates for feedback and product requests

When feedback from stakeholders such as Sales and Client Success teams is rushed or frequent, it often lacks the necessary context, leading to extra back-and-forth and wasted time for the product team – or worse, the loss of valuable and potentially profitable insights.

To streamline the process, provide internal stakeholders with a structured feedback template which could include key details such as:

• The customer or team that raised the request and who else it affects
• The client job or activity where the feature or improvement is required
• The specific pain-point and any workarounds currently employed
• Expected outcome
• An importance/urgency rating

Establishing a standard method of describing feedback such as clearly defining importance rating scores and using a structured approach like the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework, enhances communication across the organisation. When everyone aligns on how to categorise priorities and describe user needs, it reduces ambiguity, speeds up decision making and ensures consistency in how product requests or feedback are evaluated and addressed.

5. Be pragmatic with documentation

Avoid over-documenting when all your team requires for a change are a simple description, design or low fidelity wireframe is enough for your team to move forward. A well-structured user story or acceptance criteria often provides the necessary clarity without the unnecessary overhead.

For larger projects, a few pages might be needed to establish a shared understanding of feature’s functionality. However, after that foundation is set, try keeping documentation lean – just enough detail for the team to confidently build and deliver.

After launch, maintain a brief internal document outlining the feature, known issues, key assumptions, and potential future improvements. This same document can be used to keep tools such as your AI helpers up to date (the customised GPT post here).

Removing the expectation that you and your team must always produce the most comprehensive documentation will relieve pressure and reduce stress. Instead, focus on delivering the right level of detail for the context, ensuring efficiency without unnecessary perfectionism. 

6. Push Back When Necessary

Protecting your core product management responsibilities is very important. If additional tasks or requests from any stakeholder start to interfere with your ability to focus on strategic priorities, don’t hesitate to push back.

When requests fall outside your scope, redirect stakeholders to the right person or guide them on how to find a solution themselves. This not only preserves your time for high-impact work but also helps create a culture of accountability and efficiency across teams. Setting clear boundaries ensures that product management remains focused on driving product success rather than becoming a catch-all for unrelated tasks.

Conclusion

As a product manager, your time is one of your most valuable resources. By setting clear boundaries, using technology cleverly, standardising processes, and focusing on the right level of documentation, you can work more efficiently and avoid the frequent feeling of getting overwhelmed. Winning back your time isn’t just about productivity—it’s about ensuring you can focus on what truly matters: building great products, aligning teams, and driving meaningful outcomes. Small changes in how you manage responsibilities can have a big impact, helping you stay effective, reduce stress, and maintain trust with stakeholders.