Product Managers are ace prioritizers when it comes to business requirements and feature requests. However, they, along with other product team members, can suffer when prioritizing their own work. Each day our schedule and our to-do lists are an exercise in prioritization. We can approach this work in a value/effort matrix or any other sort of prioritization framework, but things like scrum ceremonies and standing meetings have a way of skewing the results.
With a full calendar it can be difficult to see what modifications can be made, and even harder to follow-through on eliminating them. But, imagining a clean slate can be a way to think through prioritization. Use this stand-up exercise to spark a discussion (afterward, maybe think about beginning to default to no to protect your calendar).
STAND UP EXERCISE
Invite your team to an imagination exercise. Picture waking up and all your responsibilities and obligations have vanished. What do you miss? What items do you immediately add back into your schedule / to do list / life?
After making a full list, contemplate the flip side of this question - what do you fight to keep off of your calendar?
Can you use this theoretical exercise to prioritize your calendar going forward? How do you add in more of or focus on the first set of items and deprioritize or cancel the second set?
