Product management is equal parts experimentation and analysis. You hypothesize, test, learn, and repeat. But somewhere between aligning cross-functional teams, fielding stakeholder asks, and nudging the product forward, your own tasks become blurry. That clarity you strive to offer the org? It starts with managing your own chaos.
The Cross-Functional Reality of PM Work
Product Managers are connectors by nature. On any given day, you’re:
- Coordinating with Design and Engineering
- Responding to urgent stakeholder escalations
- Writing product briefs or epics
- Jumping into customer calls
- Reviewing metrics
- Planning future roadmap items
And just when you think you’re caught up, someone Slacks you: “Can you quickly look into this?”
This isn’t a complaint. It’s the reality of a role that thrives on context-switching and decision-making. But it also means that if you don’t have a system to track and prioritize, your day starts to run you.
Making Sense of the Noise
In high-pressure environments, where decisions influence large teams and timelines are tight, managing your own workload becomes critical. You can’t lead if you’re always catching up.
So we asked ourselves a simple question:
“How do we bring the same discipline to our own work as we ask from our teams?”
Pitching the JIRA Experiment
I pitched an idea to our team:
“Let’s log every Product ask, initiative, or even small task in JIRA.”
The same way our dev teams track their work. This included not only roadmap projects but also ad-hoc requests from Marketing, Sales, and Customer Support.
Why JIRA?
- Our Engineering teams already use it
- It integrates seamlessly into our workflow
- It allows visibility, prioritization, and collaboration
We created Product Epics for larger themes like “Roadmap Prioritization Process” and grouped related tasks within them. For other work like “Build analytics dashboard for Campaigns,” we added product tasks directly into existing dev epics.
Examples of Epics we created:
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Strategic Roadmap Prioritization – An epic dedicated to organizing and managing the strategic roadmap assessments, prioritization processes, and stakeholder alignments.
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Quarterly Product Launches & Go-To-Market Processes – Tasks and initiatives related to preparing, coordinating, and executing successful quarterly product launches and associated marketing strategies.
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Internal Process Improvements – Capturing and tracking efforts aimed at continuously refining internal workflows and increasing operational efficiency.
A Hybrid Approach That Works
What emerged was a hybrid model:
- Dedicated Product Epics for strategic work (e.g., product discovery, roadmap evaluation)
- Embedded Tasks in Engineering Epics for delivery-focused contributions (e.g., QA a new feature, define metrics, support rollout)
This kept us visible, involved, and accountable without creating parallel systems.
Problems This Solved
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Cognitive Overload
Instead of juggling tasks mentally or via random notes, we had one system of truth. -
Better Collaboration
Engineers, Designers, and PMs could easily see the bigger picture in JIRA. -
No More Siloed Work
Our PM team could see each other’s priorities clearly and step in when necessary. -
Shared Prioritization
Weekly check-ins helped align on critical priorities. -
Proactive, Not Reactive
We anticipated needs instead of merely reacting to asks. -
Clearer Stakeholder Communication
Easily shared timelines, dependencies, and current progress. -
Lightweight Documentation
JIRA tickets captured context otherwise lost in casual discussions. -
Product Sprints
Yes, we ran our own bi-weekly Product Sprints. Leveraging my dev background, I introduced that structured discipline into PM workflows. -
Capacity Planning
Logged tasks allowed PMs to clearly track contributions, making a strong case for their work and advocating effectively for resources. -
Continuous Reflection
Retros became data-informed and actionable.
We Are Still Experimenting
This isn’t a perfect system—but it’s promising. Our team has already seen significant benefits, making our work more intentional and structured.
We saw a need. We recognized an opportunity to improve. We used existing tools to minimize risk. Then we started.
Now, we analyze, reflect, and iterate. Because that’s what product managers do.