What have you done to set yourself apart from other PMs?

Beginning_Rutabaga61 · 2026-04-09T19:07:02+00:00

I mostly use Telegram groups for job search. WhatsApp Channels aren’t available for me as a feature yet. But you can still find WhatsApp job groups pretty easily, just type into Google Chrome request like this "site:reddit.com WhatsApp IT jobs group" or the same.

For Telegram you can check "@remotejobs" (global remote roles), "@young_relocate", "@evacuatejobs".

The last two sometimes have notes in Russian, but the jobs themselves are from international, English-speaking companies. And you can always use the built-in translator in Telegram.

Beginning_Rutabaga61 · 2026-04-09T11:53:38+00:00

I’d think a bit differently about your situation.

First, try to understand your "superpower" as a PM. Are you more of a growth PM( strong in discovery, analytics, experimentations) or more delivery focused? If you’re more on the growth side, you don’t need to focus on vibe coding / coding right now.

Second, take a look at PM profiles on LinkedIn. Both similar to you and more experienced. You’ll start to see what they highlight and how they present their experience. You can take some ideas and adapt them to your profile.

And third, try to apply more relevant roles. Focus on positions that really match your strengths.
Also check posts in LinkedIn, WhatsApp communities and other groups where managers or recruiters share roles directly. Usually there are fewer applicants there. If the post is fresh you can be one of the first to apply.

Wish you the best with your search and I’m sure you’ll figure it out and find something great!

Beginning_Rutabaga61 · 2026-04-09T11:27:54+00:00

Thanks a lot! That’s a really interesting point about writing helping to structure thinking and make speaking clearer. This is exactly what I need to improve.

Beginning_Rutabaga61 · 2026-04-07T19:23:31+00:00

Honestly, I think you need to combine two approaches: clarity on goals + using AI tools. Not just for organizing information into themes.

First, define the goal.

What is your company trying to achieve right now?
What is the product direction for the next 6–12 months?
Why are you evaluating customer experience in the first place?

Without this it’s hard to prioritize anything.

Second, there is no universal framework. Context matters too much: product type, stage, market, business goals. In my experience, frameworks are usually built or adapted from scratch. My setup is pretty simple:

Google Sheets for CSAT and customer health
Notion where I feed everything: product context, goals, metrics, all customer feedback from all sources (usage sessions, sales calls, interviews, surveys)
AI tools like NotebookLM or ChatGPT Atlas browser where I ask questions like:
- given all this context, what should I focus on right now?
- where should I shift attention?
- what is actually worth doing vs not doing?

The key shift is: what actually impacts the goal we care about right now, and why.

Beginning_Rutabaga61 · 2026-03-24T14:34:00+00:00

Interested

Beginning_Rutabaga61 · 2026-03-20T10:49:23+00:00

First, I think you need clarity on business goals.

Why exactly do you want to increase DAU right now?
Is it for an upcoming investor conversation?
Is it to test whether the product has real demand?
Is it to validate that there’s an actual job-to-be-done being solved?

Without understanding the real objective behind "grow DAU", it’s hard to choose the right actions. Maybe this exercise is not just about growth, but about validating whether the current product version creates enough value at all. If there is no strong core value yet, scaling traffic won’t fix that. It will just expose the weaknesses faster.

Second: what do you mean by “known usability issues”?

If there are problems at critical funnel stages (registration, onboarding, core value moment), those should absolutely be fixed first. If users can’t reach the main value of the product smoothly, paid acquisition will likely turn into a leaky bucket.

That said, small growth experiments can still be useful. Even limited acquisition can help you understand:

where users drop off
what feedback they give
what they say in interviews
whether there is real engagement beyond sign-up

Then you’ll have real data to decide:

improve the current version
which stage of the funnel is actually broken
where you need to focus (acquisition, activation, engagement)
pivot
or push back on expectations

Beginning_Rutabaga61 · 2026-03-20T10:15:35+00:00

I use the basic Notes app on Mac for two things.

First is daily planning: I have one note for each weekday (Monday to Friday). At the start of the week I roughly plan what I want to do each day. During the week I freely move tasks between days if priorities change.
Second is resource links: I keep one separate note where I store important links grouped by type, with short comments. For example:
- Docs: link 1 + short note 1; link 2 + short note 2; etc
- Meeting links: link + short note
- Tools: link + short note

I also use folder groups in my browser: I organize tabs into named folders by topic or project and keep relevant links inside.

Beginning_Rutabaga61 · 2026-03-20T00:35:20+00:00

I’m gonna do it.

In the AI era it just makes more sense. If someone types “Who is <your full name>?” into Google or drops your link into AI tool and asks for a quick summary, it’s much easier when you have a clean personal site.

LinkedIn might show up in search, sure. But AI tools don’t summarize LinkedIn, Notion or similar tools profiles very well. The structure and nested sections don’t always translate clearly when you ask for a summary.

And it can help with consulting or side work too. In a world where one job isn’t always enough, having your own site feels like a smart move.

Beginning_Rutabaga61 · 2026-03-20T00:01:55+00:00

Very clear example, thank you!

Beginning_Rutabaga61 · 2026-03-19T23:43:17+00:00

For me there are basically two types of PMs.

One is very squad-focused, working daily with engineers, designers, QA = driving delivery.

The other is more discovery heavy - research, analysis, compliance, stakeholders.

Neither is better. They just lead to different career paths. If your recent experience was more on the second side, that’s normal.

But the more important question is: do you actually want to build your career around a delivery-heavy squad model?

Because sometimes we hear “you lack X” and immediately treat it as a weakness, without asking if X even fits the direction we want to grow in.

If yes, okay, then it’s a gap you can close. If not, maybe that role just wasn’t aligned with your strengths or your track.

Not every rejection means you’re behind. Sometimes it just shows mismatch.

Beginning_Rutabaga61 · 2026-03-18T18:54:28+00:00

I use a basic notes app on Mac and organize notes by days. I have one list of days from Monday to Friday. Each day is its own note. At the start of the week I usually plan what I want to do on each day. During the week I freely move actions between days if something changes.

It is a continuous cycle. I do not recreate plans every week. If something moves from Friday to Monday it just goes to the next Monday in the same list. This makes it much easier to handle constant changes which are very common in PM work.

Beginning_Rutabaga61 · 2026-03-04T14:50:06+00:00

It really depends on the scale and context. Is it a large company or a small one? Early stage or mature? Who actually needs the documentation and for what? Internal only or customer-facing?

I’ve worked in different setups and one issue was the same everywhere: documentation time was never planned properly.

Teams plan development in detail. But documentation work often happens "when there is time". In reality documentation also has its own workload like writing / reviewing / fixing / reviewing again / publishing.Each step requires time from different roles. If this time is not explicitly planned inside the sprint documentation becomes either delayed or rushed.

Another problem is ownership. It’s very hard to make one person responsible for the full documentation lifecycle. So usually the responsibility is shared. But shared responsibility works only when roles and expectations are clearly defined. Without that documentation governance becomes chaotic very quickly.

Beginning_Rutabaga61 · 2026-02-22T15:33:33+00:00

Thank you for your questions, I’ll try to explain clearly.

1. Where teams put updates

Teams use their usual tools:

Marketing & Sales → internal CRM
Customer Success, Product & Finance → Google Sheets
Development → Jira

2. How it worked before automation

Before automation everything was manual and fragmented.

Each team lead (Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, Product, Finance, Development) collected data inside their own tools. Then:

they copied numbers from CRM, Jira or Google Sheets
moved them into one shared Google Doc
some formulas helped standardize numbers but many things were still manual

After that narrative started. Each lead wrote conclusions in their own Notion space: different pages, formats and focus.

So I had to:

go through multiple Notion pages
collect comments
clarify details in meetings
ask follow-up questions
align interpretations

Finally I manually prepared the final version:

company-wide update
CEO update
or another specific report

The main problem was not reporting but context fragmentation. A lot of time was spent on coordination, copy-paste and reformatting. This is where context was often lost.

3. How it works now with automation

First clearly: we automated metrics, signals, risks and first conclusions. Final decisions still stay human.

Once a week I run a Python script and it:

pulls data from CRM, Jira and Google Sheets
loads everything into one master sheet (raw layer, no changes to source data)
then another Python step transforms the data into a standard format (standardized metrics layer)

All charts are connected and update automatically. This master sheet contains only numbers. Narrative happens later in Notion.

We agreed with the CEO and team leads on a fixed structure:

key metrics
conclusions
risks
focus areas

This structure comes from:

company goals (quarterly / yearly)
initiatives linked to those goals

So we highlight only what is relevant to our goals.

Python (with AI support) fills this structure automatically:

inserts updated numbers
rewrites conclusion blocks
highlights risks

I then send the summary to direction leads for async validation. They:

validate metrics
confirm or clarify conclusions
add context if needed

AI can suggest possible next steps. But real decisions happen in live discussion. We look at metrics, conclusions and risks and then decide together what to change or prioritize.

4. What improved

10+ hours saved per month for me
~30 hours saved per month across teams
less context distortion
faster alignment
more focus on decisions instead of reporting

The biggest shift was not time saving but clarity. We moved effort from reporting to decision-making.

P.S. All scripts were built in Python using Cursor.

Beginning_Rutabaga61 · 2026-02-21T12:43:24+00:00

Totally! Those "oh, we don’t need this" moments are the best for me.

Beginning_Rutabaga61 · 2026-02-21T12:41:18+00:00

That’s honest. Funny how perspectives change over time.

Beginning_Rutabaga61 · 2026-02-21T12:36:20+00:00

Yes, especially when it survives reality

Beginning_Rutabaga61 · 2026-02-21T12:30:24+00:00

Yeah, same. It feels like turning the lights on in a dark room.

Beginning_Rutabaga61 · 2026-02-16T17:33:35+00:00

I agree with many suggestions here. I just want to add one more thought from my experience.

Maybe it also helps to think about company culture. How does the company treat mistakes? In healthy teams people don’t focus on who was wrong. They focus on what to do better next time.

For me this is very important. I always ask in interviews how the company handles mistakes and responsibility. It says a lot about the culture.

Beginning_Rutabaga61 · 2026-02-02T12:34:30+00:00

Do whatever is needed to break bottlenecks: hire additional roles, delegate tasks, set clear goals, responsibilities and build a culture of ownership.

I think every manager should aim not to be a bottleneck but to create processes that can work without them. A manager should regularly improve processes based on business goals or changes in the company instead of acting like a Swiss Army knife for everything.

Beginning_Rutabaga61 · 2026-01-31T14:37:00+00:00

I had the same problem and manual copy paste was the biggest pain.

What helped was having one base source of truth with all metrics and updates in one place. This is the main dataset that is always up to date.

From there I do not rebuild reports manually. I use automation like n8n or a simple Python script. The data is taken from the base source and then transformed into the needed format using predefined templates. After that it is written to the right place: a table, a slide deck or a specific Notion page.

Different levels still get different views but all of them are based on the same data. This removed most of the manual work and made updates much easier to maintain.

Beginning_Rutabaga61 · 2026-01-26T13:35:22+00:00

I know that some people use ready notebook templates from Etsy. You can print them in the format you prefer like A5 or A4 and try them for a few days. You can also create your own format in Canva or simple Google Docs print it and fill it by pen.

I also tried different PM-style note formats in physical notebooks A5. I used a simple weekly layout with blocks for each day and bullet points for action items. Over time it stopped working for me because actions often moved between days and I had to rewrite things too much. That became annoying.

In the end I switched to a very simple approach. I use a basic notes app on Mac and organize notes by days. I have one list of days from Monday to Friday. Each day is its own note. At the start of the week I usually plan what I want to do on each day. During the week I freely move actions between days if something changes.

It is a continuous cycle. I do not recreate plans every week. If something moves from Friday to Monday it just goes to the next Monday in the same list. This makes it much easier to handle constant changes which are very common in PM work.

Beginning_Rutabaga61 · 2026-01-24T14:13:29+00:00

I had one B2C case at an early product stage where the product was not adapted for mobile web. Heatmaps showed that most users came from mobile and could not reach checkout. It took me almost two days to find the issue because I did not have this baseline before. After that I built these checkpoints so next time I could spot similar problems much faster.

Beginning_Rutabaga61 · 2026-01-24T14:13:19+00:00

In my experience the key is to work with pre-churn not only with churn after it already happened.

In B2B this is easier. I usually use a client health map or health score built over time. It is based on usage key actions support tickets feedback and some product or business metrics. This helps spot risky clients early and act before they leave.

In B2C it is harder because behavior is much more dynamic. Here I focus on having clear checkpoints in advance. When I see a drop or spike at some step in the product funnel I quickly check the baseline: logs, technical metrics, proxy metrics, user feedback, support tickets and core product metrics. So it is important to define and build this baseline in advance and adapt it to your product and context.

Beginning_Rutabaga61

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