CTC3: How I use structure to drive product clarity
Why process helps product managers cut through chaos — and how I use structure to create clarity, not busywork.
As a Product Manager, it’s not unusual that I find myself doing delivery tasks — writing documentation, updating tickets, testing new features, and checking in on progress. It’s especially common in scrappy startups, or teams without delivery managers.
But just because I’m happy to run standups or keep the board tidy, doesn’t mean I’m the team’s Scrum Master.
My real goal is to cut through chaos so that product priorities are clear, actionable, and solve real problems for our customers.
On occasion, members of my team have asked if I can raise a ticket for something, to make sure we have one logged. Sometimes I’ll do it — other times I’ll remind the team they can raise tickets too. We’re all on the same team and we can all contribute to the process.
Why you need process in product management
Structure can help with making sure we have documentation, such as product requirement docs (PRDs) and decision logs. This means you don’t have to rely on your memory to explain why you took one route over another.
Putting the most important tickets at the top of the list helps the team to know what to pick up next. However, this is only a small part of the process. It’s super important that the team also understands why something is a priority — and not just that it’s the topmost item.
Following a process doesn’t mean we are project managers. Don’t be afraid to spend time getting the process right. What worked for you in the past may not work for every team. And once the process works, you don’t have to spend much time on it going forward. Just stick to it — and tweak it as needed.
A few of my process tips
Keep your backlog short
As I wrote in last week’s post, the first thing I recommend is having a tidy backlog.
Your backlog shouldn’t contain user feedback, undeveloped ideas, known issues that have little impact, or low value items that you’re keeping just so you don’t forget about them. Move all of these to documentation — or archive them altogether. Be ruthless — only allow refined, worthwhile tickets onto the backlog.
Use themes, not just epics
Adding a field to group tickets together is incredibly useful. An epic should be considered as a defined, clear block of work that you start and finish. A theme can be broader — think of it as a category. For instance, “add referrals to onboarding journey” is an epic, whereas “onboarding journey” is a theme. You can also group tickets by problem or opportunity, rather than simply by sprint, or “phase 1” / “phase 2” — which is likely to cause more confusion.
Link delivery to the roadmap
Make it clear which tickets relate to items on your roadmap. Your team then immediately sees which are the big ticket items that move your product forward. You can also identify which tickets don’t relate to the roadmap, and clarify how they came about — e.g. client requests, bug fixes, or other unplanned work. This will help if you want to track how much of each type of work your team is doing.
Keep decision records
Instead of relying on Slack messages or agreeing something on a call, try to keep light documentation to record things that have been decided, and why that decision was made. They can be part of a wider document such as a PRD. Without decision documents, you’ll keep revisiting past decisions. If someone asks why you made a decision — it’s liberating to be able to send them a quick link, rather than try to recall the details and type it all out.
Good processes are there to support product managers — they aren’t there to create busywork that we do blindly.
In summary
Bringing order to chaos is a product skill, not a project skill.
Process is a tool that product managers use - it’s not our whole job.
When structure helps the team build the right things faster, that’s product leadership — not ticket admin.
Hi, I’m Ben Barden. “Cutting Through Chaos” is about organising messy, chaotic information in product management. Head over to the About page to find out more.
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