PM 101: Types of meetings
3 months as a PM, I have a good sense of what the calendar looks like…
You might have also heard that a PM spends a lot of time in meetings with multiple different stakeholders. This is why soft skills like communication (both verbal and written) and persuasion become super essential as a PM, especially as one grows in the role.
In this blog, I give a flavor of the different types of meetings that PMs are involved in, their frequency, and key stakeholders. Read on!
(Do check out my earlier blog below, on a 1-month onboarding plan as a new PM)
Meetings with Tech/Engineering
Tech is the most critical function and the backbone of the company. PMs may fantasize about new features all they want, but without a tech team to ship them, may the force be with you!
The main meetings are:
Backlog grooming
Duration: 45-60 mins; Weekly (or every 2 weeks)
Key stakeholders: Engineering manager
Objective: PMs provide a view on tasks expected in upcoming sprints while getting a sense of tech feasibility of proposed jobsPre-sprint planning
Duration: 45-60 mins; Every 2 weeks (or as per sprint frequency); ideally few days before the next sprint begins
Key stakeholders: Senior folks from Engineering, other PMs
Objective: Prioritization of suggested tasks for the next sprintStandup
Duration: 30-45 mins; Daily or every alternate day
Key stakeholders: Engineering manager
Objective: Developers/QAs provide quick updates about task progress in the current sprint (a 2-week block), request support if needed and share revised timelines
Meetings with Design
The design team helps bring the feature from idea to life - by sharing UI/UX best practices, their perspective and past experience.
Design review
Duration: 1-1.5 hrs; Twice per week
Key stakeholders: Designers, other senior PMs
Objective: The designer and PM pitch new features using wireframes or high-fidelity designs (depending on the product lifecycle stage). Senior folks from design and product review these and suggest changes in real-time/async.
Meetings with Business
Business is another integral function which brings in the financial angle. Given finite time and resources, it is not possible to address all customer requests at once. Thus features that maximize ROI need to be prioritized.
Business strategy
Duration: 1-2 hours (can even be more); Every 6-12 months
Key stakeholders: Senior leaders from the business and product teams
Objective: Strategize goals (at Meesho we call them BHAGs = Big Hairy Audacious Goals) and actionables for the medium-termBusiness metrics review
Duration: 45-60 mins; Weekly, monthly and quarterly
Key stakeholders: Senior leaders from business and product teams
Objective: Evaluate how product KPIs are translating into business metrics and if the team is on track to achieve planned OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)
Meetings with Product (internal)
Saving the best for the last! Here are a few meetings we have within product teams:
Product metrics review
Duration: 30-45 mins; Weekly
Key stakeholders: Senior product leaders
Objective: Review product health metrics on a weekly basis, RCAs (Root Cause Analysis) for any anomaliesMonthly product review
Duration: 60-90 mins; monthly
Key stakeholders: CPO, Senior product leaders
Objective: Share key highlights for the past month - impactful new features launched, plans for next month, any guidance neededRetrospective (Retro)
Duration: 45-60 mins; Every 4-6 weeks
Key stakeholders: Senior product leaders, other PMs
Objective: Identify positives and improvement areas over the past 4-6 weeks from a product lifecycle perspective, gaps to be addressed, key learnings and best practices. All with the goal to keep improving iteratively!Product strategy and roadmap
Duration: 1-2 hrs (can even be more); Every 6-12 months
Key stakeholders: Senior product leaders, other PMs (possibly business teams also)
Objective: Once the business team has finalized medium-term goals in strategy review, this meeting is to identify requirements from the product team so everyone is aligned on the objectives and product roadmapX-to-10x ideas/ CPD (Continuous Problem Discovery)
Duration: 1-1.5 hrs; Every 4-6 weeks
Key stakeholders: Senior product leaders, other PMs
Objective: Think 10x, think long-term is a core Meesho Mantra (FYI there are 10 mantras in total). PMs are empowered to discover product improvements using various methods such as competitor research, user interviews and cross-functional collaboration.
The objective here is to 1) filter ideas which have the potential to be 10x levers through brainstorming and 2) develop a product backlog for future execution.
My takeaways
Personally, I have found some meetings (such as design review, backlog grooming, business metrics review and monthly product review) particularly engaging as a participant.
Wondering why? This is because I get to:
Learn what interesting features other teams are building
Gain insights from leaders regarding product sense, user empathy, and past learnings
Present my viewpoints (which may be unique or not previously considered)
Hope you now have a better sense of why PMs never get as much time for deep work 😋 (and why it is a highly cross-functional, collaborative role)
What meetings do you most look forward to? Comment below!
Also checkout
How Meesho got rid of many meetings using async culture:
Here is how we strived for more meaningful meetings at MeeshoFun meetings at Meesho:
The Four Cs to Guarantee Employee Engagement While WFA
References
#PM #product #productmanagement #meetings #stakeholdermanagement