Great PMs Are CRUD PMs
Product management is a field rife with advice on how to excel. And problematically, asking a PM to do too many things is a surefire way for them to burn out.
Some leading voices in our profession suggest that great PMs must master over a dozen competencies, ranging from "forecasting and measuring" to "writing effective copy" to "pushing back effectively."
Others point to extensive lists: consider Amazon's set of 16 core values, which include everything from Customer Obsession to Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility, or the Pragmatic Institute's framework of 37 “essential” product management activities.
While these frameworks offer valuable insights, they can also be intensely overwhelming. Every product manager already has infinitely many tasks in their personal backlogs, let alone all of the requests that are being made of their product development teams.
Is it truly necessary (or even possible) for a product manager to embody all these traits simultaneously?
Thankfully, we can simplify this approach significantly!
In my experience, exceptional product management often boils down to mastering four key operations. These operations form the foundation of effective PM work, enabling us to drive success for both our products and our teams.
What are these four critical operations? They're summarized by an acronym you might not expect in a discussion about excellence: CRUD.
For those unfamiliar with the term, CRUD stands for Create, Read, Update, and Delete. In computer science, these represent the four basic functions of persistent storage.
But I've found that they also serve as a powerful framing for understanding and excelling in product management.
While each CRUD operation encompasses multiple skills and activities, this framework provides a simpler, more organized way to approach the complex role of a product manager. It helps PMs categorize their many responsibilities into four clear buckets, making it easier to prioritize and focus their efforts.
In this essay, we'll explore how effective product managers leverage each of these operations, focusing on the most crucial elements.
We'll see how CRUD can provide a more actionable approach to product management than trying to embody an exhaustive list of idealized traits. By concentrating on these core actions, we can cut through the noise.
That said, a quick caveat: I’m definitely not claiming that this framework is the “one right way” to do things. Rather, I hope it helps to simplify many of the other frameworks that you might have been exposed to.
Think of it as a “meta-framework” or a “framing of frameworks” - that is, it helps us organize and contextualize the other frameworks that keep coming our way.
With that caveat out of the way, let's now dive into how being a "CRUD PM" might be the counterintuitive key to amplifying your impact.
Create: Bringing New Ideas to Life
The "Create" aspect is perhaps the most celebrated and the most tangible.
Creation in product management embodies innovation: giving birth to new features, products, and processes. The most crucial element here is identifying unmet user needs or market opportunities. Great PMs are constantly on the lookout for these gaps, using a combination of user research, market analysis, and intuition.
That said, we can’t just wait for inspiration to strike! Instead, we should regularly seek problems to solve. This might involve regular user interviews, analyzing customer support tickets, or monitoring industry trends. The key is to stay curious and to keep asking, "What could we do better?"
Once a potential opportunity is identified, the next step is to facilitate ideation with your team. This doesn't have to be a formal, high-pressure brainstorming session! In fact, sometimes the best ideas come from casual conversations or quick whiteboard sessions.
The goal is to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts, regardless of their role or seniority.
But creation in product management goes beyond just new features. We should also be creating processes, frameworks, and tools that enable our teams to work more effectively. This might be as simple as creating a new template for feature proposals or as complex as developing a new prioritization framework for your roadmap.
And of course, documentation is another crucial aspect of the "Create" operation. Clear, concise documentation ensures that everyone has a shared understanding of the product vision and plan.
But remember, the goal isn't to create paperwork for its own sake. Instead, our goal is to facilitate clear communication and alignment across the team and across our stakeholders.
The key to excelling at the "Create" operation is to balance innovation with practicality. It's great to have big ideas, but we need to ground these ideas in customer needs and business realities.
Read: Gathering and Interpreting Information
The "Read" operation is all about information gathering and interpretation. It's the foundation that supports all other aspects of product management.
Effective PMs are voracious readers of both qualitative and quantitative data. They leverage product metrics, user feedback, market trends, and competitive analyses. But it's not just collecting data – it's making sense of it all and turning it into actionable insights.
User research is a key area where the "Read" operation shines. This goes beyond just running surveys or looking at usage data. We want to truly understand our customers – their needs, their pain points, their behaviors. Our goal is empathy, where we’re putting ourselves in the shoes of our customers
But "reading" in product management isn't just about users and data. It's also about understanding your team dynamics and stakeholder communications. It's about picking up on the unspoken concerns in a meeting or noticing changes in team morale. This "soft" reading is just as crucial as data analysis.
One common pitfall in the "Read" operation is getting overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information available. The key is to focus on the metrics and information that truly matter for your product and your current objectives. Don't try to boil the ocean – concentrate on the insights that will drive meaningful action.
Remember, the goal of "reading" isn't just to gather information, but to synthesize it into a clear, compelling narrative that can guide decision-making. We want to connect the dots and help others see the bigger picture.
Update: Iterating and Improving
The "Update" operation is where insights are turned into actions, where we leverage continuous improvement and iteration.
Great PMs understand that the first version of a product or feature is rarely perfect. They embrace an agile mindset, continually refining and improving based on user feedback and performance data. But this doesn't mean changing things just for the sake of change. Updates should be thoughtful and driven by clear goals and metrics.
Knowing what to update and when can be tricky. After all, we have to balance short-term improvements with long-term strategic goals. And, we have to prioritize updates based on user impact and business value. On top of that, sometimes it's about having the courage to make significant changes when the data suggests it's necessary.
Updating isn't just about the product itself. It includes regularly refreshing your roadmaps, strategies, and team processes. Part of “updating” is fostering a culture of continuous improvement, where everyone on the team feels empowered to suggest and implement updates.
As a PM, you should also be constantly updating your own skills and knowledge. The tech industry evolves rapidly, and staying ahead of the curve is crucial. This might involve attending conferences, taking online courses, or simply staying curious and open to new ideas.
The "Update" operation is really about adaptability. Our goal is to be responsive to change, whether that change comes from user feedback, market conditions, or new technologies.
Delete: Knowing When to Let Go
The "Delete" operation is perhaps the most underappreciated aspect of product management, but it's crucial for maintaining focus and efficiency.
Deleting in product management often means sunsetting features or products that are underperforming or no longer align with the company's strategy. This can be a difficult decision, especially when significant time and resources have been invested. But hanging onto unsuccessful features can drain resources and complicate the user experience.
Knowing when to delete something isn't always straightforward. It involves looking at usage metrics, maintenance costs, strategic alignment, and user feedback. Sometimes, it's about recognizing when the resources devoted to a feature or product could be better used elsewhere.
Deletion also applies to your backlog. Regularly pruning your backlog, removing outdated or low-priority items, helps keep your team focused on what truly matters. An overgrown backlog can be overwhelming and counterproductive.
But perhaps the most challenging aspect of "Delete" is being willing to let go of your own ideas and assumptions. Great PMs are open to challenging their own preconceptions and are ready to discard ideas that aren't supported by data or user feedback.
Remember, deletion isn't failure – it's focus. Saying “no” is what makes room for the things that truly matter to your users and your business.
Balancing CRUD Operations
While we've discussed each CRUD operation separately, in practice, they're deeply interconnected. Great PMs don't just excel at each individual operation; they know how to balance and integrate all four to drive product and team success.
The insights gained from "reading" inform what to "create," "update," or "delete." The act of "creating" often involves "updating" existing ideas or processes. "Deleting" outdated features or processes creates space for new "creations."
Effective PMs know when to focus on each operation. There are times when creation should take center stage, such as when entering a new market or addressing a significant user pain point.
Other times, the focus needs to be on reading and updating, like when fine-tuning an existing product based on user feedback. And there are periods when deletion should be the priority, such as when streamlining a bloated product or simplifying complex processes.
The key is to maintain a balance. Too much focus on any one operation can lead to problems. Creating without adequate reading can result in products that don't meet user needs. Constant updating without occasional deletion can lead to feature bloat. And too much deletion without creation can stifle innovation.
Great PMs apply CRUD operations at different levels - from individual features to entire product lines, from daily stand-ups to long-term strategy. They're as comfortable using CRUD to manage their personal task list as they are to shape the product roadmap.
Simplifying through CRUD
The power of the CRUD framework lies in its simplicity. By categorizing the many responsibilities of a PM into these four buckets, CRUD provides a clear structure for prioritizing and approaching work.
When faced with a new task or challenge, a PM can quickly determine which CRUD operations might be most relevant. This helps in deciding how to approach the task and where it fits in the broader context of their responsibilities.
For example, when considering a new feature request, you might create a plan for the feature, read user data to validate the need, update the product roadmap, and potentially delete lower-priority items to make room for this new feature.
This structured approach helps navigate the complexity of the PM role more effectively, ensuring you're addressing all crucial aspects of product management without getting overwhelmed by endless lists of competencies or principles.
Implementing CRUD at Work
Implementing the CRUD framework in your daily work as a PM doesn't have to be complicated. Start by categorizing your current activities into the CRUD buckets. Are you spending too much time in one area and neglecting others?
When planning sprints or roadmaps, ensure you're incorporating all four CRUD operations. Use CRUD to structure your updates to stakeholders, helping them understand the full scope of your work. In your personal or team retrospectives, use CRUD as a framework for reflection.
Remember, the goal isn't to force a strict balance between all four operations at all times, but to ensure you're not neglecting any of them over the long term.
Closing thoughts
The CRUD framework provides a practical, simplified lens through which to view the multifaceted role of a product manager. While each operation encompasses multiple skills and activities, CRUD helps organize and prioritize these many responsibilities more effectively.
Great PMs excel at balancing these four operations: They create innovative solutions and clear documentation. They read data, user feedback, and market trends. They update products, strategies, and their own skills. And they delete underperforming features and inefficient processes.
By mastering these four operations, product managers can navigate the complex landscape of product development more efficiently. They can focus on what truly matters, driving innovation and delivering products that meet user needs and business objectives.
In essence, CRUD PMs are adaptable, data-informed, and focused on continuous improvement. You can use this simple framework to bring clarity to your role and make a bigger impact without becoming overwhelmed by nuance.
So, the next time you feel that you’re struggling under the many demands of product management, remember: great PMs are CRUD PMs.
By calmly focusing on these four operations, you’ll drive outsized impact - and hopefully, you won’t feel the need to tear your hair out!
Thank you to Pauli Bielewicz, Mary Paschentis, Goutham Budati, Markus Seebauer, Juliet Chuang, and Kendra Ritterhern for making this guide possible.
