The full-stack PM | Anuj Rathi (Swiggy, Jupiter Money, Flipkart)

1. Stop Externalizing, Own Misery

Adopt the motto “Stop externalizing” or “You are the reason for your own misery.” When things go wrong, reflect on what you could have done better, taking responsibility for outcomes and focusing on improving your skills rather than blaming external factors.

2. Be a Full-Stack Product Manager

Own outcomes, not just features. A full-stack PM thinks broadly about external users, competition, engineering, and marketing, building partnerships and running ideas through diverse stakeholders to ensure the product achieves desired business outcomes and behavioral changes.

3. Develop Core PM Skills

To succeed in product management, cultivate three core attributes: raw smarts (problem identification/solving), drive/grit (curiosity, learnability, never giving up, consumer-backward thinking), and influence (the ability to persuade others). Be excited about continuously improving in these areas.

4. Assess Product Management Fit

Reflect deeply on whether product management is the right field for you, as many enter without fully understanding its demands. While skills can be coached, a fundamental misalignment can lead to misery, so ensure it genuinely excites you.

5. Prioritize Excellence Over Speed

When faced with a choice between shipping faster or shipping better, prioritize excellence. Encourage “thought experiments” to avoid wasting time on obviously failing ideas, and aim for quality over rapid, undifferentiated launches.

6. Work Backwards from GTM Machinery

When applying the ‘working backwards’ framework, don’t just focus on the customer value proposition; think about the entire machinery needed for a successful Go-To-Market (GTM) on a specific date. Plan all necessary steps from the present to that GTM date to ensure both launch and long-term product success.

7. Explore Three Divergent PR/FAQs

During product discovery, have your teams write three alternative and divergent PR/FAQs (Press Release/Frequently Asked Questions) for a given problem. This ensures thorough exploration of options, helps leadership compare and contrast, and demonstrates that various viewpoints were considered, leading to a more robust decision.

8. Recommend One Strategy

When presenting multiple strategic options (e.g., three divergent PR/FAQs or 4BB allocations), always recommend one specific option. This demonstrates that you’ve thoroughly explored all bases, crystallized a concrete plan, and are prepared to champion it, while still allowing for leadership input and refinement.

9. Use PR/FAQ for Alignment

Leverage the PR/FAQ (Press Release/Frequently Asked Questions) as a powerful tool for internal alignment and negotiation. Use the target GTM date and desired customer/business quotes to engage engineering, marketing, and business leaders, identifying disagreements early and adjusting plans collaboratively.

10. Use FAQs for Systemic Checks

Integrate mandatory systemic checks into your PR/FAQs, such as compliance, legal sign-offs, or implications for all sides of a marketplace (e.g., consumers, delivery partners, restaurants). This ensures that complex interdependencies and critical processes are considered and addressed upfront, leading to more robust product designs.

11. Visualize Strategy on One Page

For product leaders, create a “strategy on a page” (or growth loops) that visualizes the entire company strategy, including market, user acquisition, activation, cross-pollination, and key levers, all on one page. Present three divergent strategic options to gain CXO alignment and clearly communicate the chosen direction to all teams.

12. Use 4BB Product Strategy Framework

To prioritize product strategy, use the 4BB framework: Brilliant Basics (tech debt, core platforms), Bread & Butter (optimizing existing product), Big Bets (large delta bets), and Breaking Bad (redefining company identity/pivoting). Allocate focus points across these buckets with leadership, presenting three divergent alternatives to clarify trade-offs and align on a strategic direction.

13. “Show Don’t Tell” Product Journeys

Instead of just describing, “show, don’t tell” the entire user journey by creating all collaterals and literally recreating the exact situation a specific user (a “person,” not just a persona) would experience. This detailed, pixel-by-pixel approach, including real-time scenarios and emotional states, helps design products effectively and cuts out random design choices.

14. Design for Lazy, Vain, Selfish Users

When building products, especially for new users, assume they are lazy (no time, blow their mind), vain (resistant to changing habits), and selfish (show them what’s in it for them). Design onboarding, copy, and first-welcome experiences to empathize with these attributes, as this is more critical for product success than core features for loyal users.

15. Unify Marketing & Onboarding

Connect your marketing messages directly to the onboarding experience. Understand the user’s trigger, marketing message, and promotion that led them to your product, then seamlessly continue that journey in your onboarding with consistent language and user experience to show instant results.

16. Optimize for Marginal Users

Focus on the “marginal user” or “adjacent user” – those who are not yet using your product or are new to it – when optimizing the onboarding experience, rather than solely focusing on existing loyal users.

17. Lead with One Value Proposition

When attracting new users, choose one clear value proposition or positioning statement and carry it consistently through the entire user journey, from marketing to onboarding, instead of overwhelming them with all product features.

18. Be a Full-Stack Influencer

Recognize that product management is fundamentally about influence, both internally (engineers, leadership) and externally (users). Embrace the role of a “full-stack influencer” to drive desired behaviors and achieve product success.

19. Combine AI with Human Intelligence

When building with AI, focus on how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can work synergistically with Human Intelligence (HI). Balance AI capabilities with great UX and behavioral science to ensure the best outcomes, rather than relying solely on technology.

20. Diagnose Performance Issues

As a leader, when things don’t go as planned, diagnose the root cause: is it a capability issue (can’t do), a motivation/alignment issue (won’t do), or a systemic problem with setup/org design (not set up to do)? Address the specific root cause, such as coaching, mentoring, re-aligning, or improving organizational structure.

21. Ensure Stable Marketplace First

Before prioritizing one side of a marketplace, ensure all sides are stable enough to prevent them from leaving. A stable foundation is crucial before deciding which customer segment to primarily serve.

22. Clarify Primary Marketplace Customer

After achieving marketplace stability, clearly define your primary customer (e.g., end consumer, seller, delivery partner) based on your company’s vision and values. This clarity guides product development and ensures all other sides are viewed as partners in serving that primary customer.

23. Manage Multiple Marketplace Empathies

In marketplaces, product managers must manage “multiple empathies” simultaneously, understanding the emotional states and scenarios faced by all sides (e.g., consumers, delivery executives, restaurants). PMs for one side must also champion the needs of other sides to create a cohesive experience.

24. Use Big Bets for Marketplaces

For marketplaces, “big bets” are more effective than OKRs. Frame strategic initiatives as comprehensive stories where pulling one lever (e.g., increasing delivery fees) is understood in the context of its impact on all other marketplace sides, allowing for strategic direction setting.

25. Avoid OKRs in Marketplaces

In complex multi-sided marketplaces (e.g., three-way), traditional OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) often fail because goals for different user types (consumers, suppliers, delivery) are inherently in conflict. Instead, consider alternative strategic frameworks that account for multiplying complexities and interdependencies.

26. AB Tests Fail in Marketplaces

Be aware that A/B experiments often don’t work as expected in marketplaces due to pervasive network effects. Running A/B tests on one side (e.g., drivers) can have unintended and complex network impacts on other sides, making results unreliable.