10 Essential Frameworks for any Product Manager

Being a successful product manager requires you to have a thorough understanding of many strategic and operational frameworks. Think of frameworks like toolboxes you can open up for specific situations. These tools help you to structure your thoughts, simplify decision-making, and provide clairty into a wide range of situations.

With how fast-paced and chaotic the world around us is, I believe any professional serious about a career in product management should have at least one framework for each of the following purposes. This list is by no means exhaustive, but is sure to give you a well-rounded toolset to take your far into your career.

The Frameworks

  1. User Research — Who is your target audience really? Think needs, behaviors, and motivations.
    • Examples: Jobs-to-be-done, persona development, empathy maps, value proposition canvassing
  2. Ideation — With your user in mind, what things could bring them value?
    • Examples: Design thinking, brainstorming, mindmaps, rapid prototyping
  3. Market Fit — Does your idea solve a problem your audience is looking for an answer for?
    • Examples: “The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries, Sean Ellis’ “indispensability test,” Steve Blank’s “Four Steps to Epiphany”
  4. Strategic Planning — Where should your solution go? How does it get there?
    • Examples: SWOT analyses, PESTEL (political, economic, social, technology, environment, legal) analysis, Ansoff matrix
  5. Goal Setting — What are your objectives and how do you measure against them?
    • Examples: Objectives and key results, SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) goals
  6. Roadmapping — What should be prioritized first? Second? Etc.
    • Examples: RICE (reach, impact, confidence, effort) scoring, MoSCoW (must have, should have, could have, won’t have) method, Kano model
  7. Development — How should your team work to execute upon the roadmap?
    • Examples: Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Waterfall
  8. Engagement — How will you measure your solution’s success?
    • Examples: AARRR (aka “pirate metrics” — acquire, activate, revenue, retain, referral), North Star, cohort analyses
  9. Decision-making — How will you collect and use data to take the right next step(s) for your solution?
    • Examples: Cost-benefit analyses, decision matrices, “Five Whys” analyses
  10. Stakeholder Alignment — How will you facilitate effective communication with both the internal and external stakeholders of your solution?
    • Examples: RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, informed) matrices, stakeholder mapping, documentation styles

It can only empower you to have more than one framework to choose from for each purpose. Just like screwdrivers, no one framework will excel in every situation; i.e. sometimes you need a Phillips, sometimes a flathead, other times a hex! That being said, it will only hinder you in the long-run if you don’t have at least one framework for each purpose. It’s no different than a house cleaner forgetting to bring their cleaning supplies! It’s better to have one tool for each job as opposed to no tool at all.