There are two types of work:

1. High impact work
2. Corporate chores

The first type finds you exerting leverage to multiply your impact. The second finds you scratching your head why. Product Managers have far too much work to do much of the second type. And great Product Managers find and eliminate it.

How do you identify the chores? Ask yourself a few questions:

1. How many people are going to read this?
2. Is this critical to hitting my OKRs?
3. Will this affect my performance review?

More work than you realize doesn’t pass these filters.

How many people are going to read this?

• If we’re building a research report, for 5 people, does it make sense?
• If we are reformatting notes from a meeting for 2, could they go unformatted?

There are many instances where Product Managers can intentionally decrease the formality. On the other hand, if the work is more high exposure, it may make sense to keep.

Is this critical to hitting my OKRs?

There is a surprising amount of work that is high impact, but isn’t high impact for you, NOW.

• Is the PRD for a feature that won’t move the metrics?
• Does the product review have points where input can help?

These can be “traps.”

Will this affect my performance review?

Sometimes, work will not impact many people or move metrics. But, it will impact our performance review. Then, we should do it well. This might be related to an area of development feedback. Or, work with a peer feedback giver.

So, if the work passes one of the three filters, keep it. If not, try and eliminate it. Eliminating busy work is tricky. There are a few techniques you should select from:

1. Reframe to your boss & requestor how you want to solve a problem
2. Let others solve the problem
3. See if it gets escalated
4. Negotiate it away

1. Reframing should be your go-to move:

All work that comes in to you is designed to achieve a goal. Tell folks how you plan to achieve that, without the work. For a UX report – “This round of user testing is to inform usability, so I’ll have Design summarize the findings.”

2. Letting others do the work is another option:

Many requests will come in to a group of people. A subtle way to eliminate this is not responding. You may later get asked specifically, but some percentage, others will do.

3. Delay is a subtle and risky technique:

Even if a request comes in to you, wait to respond. See if the team cares to follow up. If they don’t, it may not have been so important.

4. Negotiation is a final tactic:

Go to the people who are asking you to do work and negotiate its scope. Example – the UX team wants a report done a certain way. Go to them with a time card of how long it took you. Let them help you solve the time problem.

Great Product Managers mix and match these techniques to only focus on high impact work.

What are your tactics for avoiding busy work?

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