PM Rounds

I was in a meeting with the CEO discussing a project in progress. While sharing my screen showing the Linear issues, he was asking questions about tracking work:

• “Should every issue have someone assigned?”
• “Should there be a due date on issues?”
• “How can we know when an issue is stuck?”

I paused and thought about these questions.

And then I had a realization:

This is ingrained into my usual rhythms on a project when reviewing work.

The problem wasn’t in how we’re setting up Linear—it’s the lack of time and attention I’m giving the work. As I increased my time and focus on this project (Better Defaults!), these questions were answered through intentional cultivation of the work in progress.

Another instance cropped up when a lot of work was in flight and I had a string of meetings. The CEO asked about the work again, and I quickly saw the issue: I wasn’t doing my rounds.

Doctors do rounds and check in on all their patients in rapid succession. And they often use these routines to teach medical students. They can triage multiple patients and teach the students in the process. The more experienced a doctor is—the more their intuition is honed—the better and faster they are.

This work is more art than science. And this is the type of work I love to (try to) define.

So let’s define PM Rounds, a 3-step system for product managers to keep work healthy and moving. You assess the context, diagnose the work, and choose a treatment.

Here’s the PM Rounds formula:

Treatment = (Context + Case Type + Condition) × Priority

Assess the Context

Context is king. You can’t reasonably solve a problem without the right level of context. This is very much a garbage-in-garbage-out situation. And the inverse is true: The better the context, the better the decisions and, ultimately, the solution. Don’t fight a losing game.

If the context is lacking, then you can pause here and work to improve it. Deepen the understanding of the problem, narrow down the scope, and create more fidelity to work from.

If your context is well-defined, then you can move forward to diagnose the work. And, depending on the type of issue, you may need to come back and improve the context in other ways, which we’ll talk about during diagnosing.

This is also a good place to make sure the title of the issue is clear. I like to make sure it’s a short and clear action. It should be easy to scan, read, and understand immediately.

Diagnose the Work

There are three vectors to diagnose the work:

1. Case Type: Is this a diagnostic (uphill) or procedural (downhill) issue?
2. Condition: Is the status stable (green), monitoring (yellow), or critical (red)?
3. Priority: How important is this right now?

Case Type

There are two Case Types:

1. Diagnostic: You are trying to determine what the work is based on uphill discovery.
2. Procedural: The work is known, and this is just downhill execution.

Diagnostic

If the issue is about discovering the work to do, then it’s an uphill issue. The work is to identify the root cause, which can generate more work as a result. I call these “generative issues”. I pay special attention to these because it’s easy for an engineer to get lost in a rabbit hole.

Procedural

If the issue is about executing the work, then it’s a downhill issue. We know what to do. In this case, it’s important to make sure the scope of work is sized right. The smaller, the better. You can set an appetite (time budget) and alter the scope if complexity grows.

Condition

There are three Conditions:

1. Stable (green): The work is moving.
2. Monitoring (yellow): Potential for issues.
3. Critical (red): Immediate action needed.

Using traffic-light coloring for statuses is a great way to adopt a shared mental model. The colors quickly convey their meaning.

Stable

Stable issues are in the green. These are the ones I quickly move through because the work is clear, there are usually updates in the form of comments, and the path to resolution is clear. I always encourage the team to open draft Pull Requests as quickly as they can and link them. It provides a more granular view of the work.

The Stable Criteria

1. The work is clearly defined.
2. The latest updates are posted.
3. The path to resolution is progressing.

Monitoring

Monitoring issues are in the yellow. The work is moving more slowly, additional pathways are opening up, and the root cause could be murky. Sometimes this is part of the process, but sometimes it’s an emerging problem. Either way, it’s important to keep a close eye on the work.

The Monitoring Criteria

1. The work is moving slowly.
2. The updates are outdated.
3. New pathways are opening.

Critical

Critical issues are in the red. You know them when you see them. The work has stalled out, updates are rare, and the scope of work is increasing. What started as a small change has now ballooned and careened off course. Things aren’t good.

The Critical Criteria

1. The work is stalled.
2. The updates are rare.
3. Scope is increasing.

Priority

Priority is the multiplier. It amplifies the urgency of any issue, no matter the condition. If the work is critical, you need to move it up the list and stay on top of it. Volatility is high.

This is especially true of diagnostic issues. If there’s uphill, unknown work, then you need to make sure efforts are trending toward identifying the root cause, or determining what work is required as a part of the diagnostic—the generative issues you created.

But even on the downhill, procedural side this is true. If it’s a critical issue, you have to continually refine the scope of work in order to deliver it on time. Constrain, constrain, constrain. Reduce the surface area to increase the probability of quick success.

Choose a Treatment

Now that you’ve diagnosed the work, it’s time to choose the treatment. A doctor leverages their existing knowledge and experience to form an intuition that guides decision-making. They create a “Treatment Plan” designed to resolve the problem based on the diagnosis.

While I’m not comparing product managers to doctors, the correlation in the work process and output is clear: once you make the diagnosis, you have to treat it.

There are three Treatment Options:

1. Leave It: Do nothing and revisit later.
2. Nudge It: Make a small comment.
3. Treat It: Dive in and help drive progress.

Leave It

Not every problem needs to be solved. Sometimes the best thing you can do is wait and see how it develops on its own. And sometimes the issue is nearing resolution without any intervention at all. Based on the diagnosis, one option is to do nothing and leave it.

You can use this Treatment Options when the issue is stable or monitoring. If it’s critical (or high priority), you should be more aggressive.

Nudge It

While small, a gentle nudge is often just what an issue needs. It can be a question about the status; or making an observation of the progress updates; or it can be recommending a simpler solution. When the issue is critical or high priority, you can nudge it more regularly to see if you need to step in more directly.

Treat It

When you need to dive in, you can:

1. Reveal more context.
2. Remove any blockers.
3. Redirect to a new solution.

Reveal

While assessing the context is the first step of PM Rounds, you may need to go deeper when treating an issue. You need to clarify the problem and the root cause. Make sure the team is working on the source, not the symptoms. Be an investigator. Ask questions that help the team see the problem from different angles.

Remove

If there are blockers, remove them. Find out what is slowing the work down or holding it back, and remove that friction. You can connect two team members to pair; or call a quick huddle to collaborate; or bring in outside perspectives. Each issue is unique, but you will discover common themes and techniques to reuse.

Redirect

When an issue veers off course—the scope has bloated, the problem has shifted, a better solution presented itself—you have to bring the work back on track. Bring the team together to realign on the new path to maintain forward progress and momentum.

Building Intuition

This may seem like a lot of steps to go through in order to triage issues, but it happens quickly, and you get faster at diagnosing issues and resolving them. The more you do it, the more patterns you will see. Like a doctor, you will recall previous experiences that equip you with the knowledge to solve current challenges. The rounds build reps, and those reps build your intuition. PM Rounds is a system and a practice that heightens your awareness, keeps the team moving, and allows you to strategically focus on key issues that drive impact.