5. Is product manager managing his/her time?

As I was settling into my official role as a product manager, I began interacting with various product managers in Borland, some of them as experienced as my age :)

Almost every one I talked to told me that they do not get enough time doing their primary job. I did not understand it quite well, because it appeared that almost all of them are doing excellent job

• meeting customers, and
• bringing out releases of their products.

And then, my mentor explained to me why it is not justified!

1. Meeting customers is good, but not enough. Meeting customers help product managers get more items in their funnel, but does not improve responsiveness to existing items waiting for processing. As much as it is necessary to have good relationships with stakeholders, it is much more important to respond to their demands at a consistently acceptable pace.
2. Product managers should focus more on inbound tasks than outbound tasks. Instead of spending time on strategic planning, writing detailed and mature requirements and synchronizing engineering team and stakeholders, product managers are spending more time handling tactical issues like deployment issues of a release.
3. Product managers have a very active role, and spend time on non-productive activities like travelling.

Points to ponder

1. Products mangers should ideally spend as much time on inbound activities (at least 40%), but in reality spend less than 5%
2. Products mangers should ideally spend just sufficient time (around 10%) on build activities (sprint planning and reviews) , standups) , but in reality spend less than 5%
3. Products mangers should ideally spend just little time (around 20%) on outbound activities (deployment prep), but in reality spend more than 40%
4. Products mangers should ideally try to minimize time spend on housekeeping activities (less than 30%) , but in reality spend more than 50%