The top 1% PMs use frameworks.

Frameworks are a tool for systematic decision making. Frameworks help you repeat your decision making process across other seemingly similar problems.

The top 1% PMs have frameworks for everything – for valuing companies, for assessing the market, for prioritizing requirements, for translating vision into execution, for pricing the product etc.

The top 1% PMs are people like Steve Jobs (yes, he is the best PM IMO), Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and the likes.

Peter Thiel, for example, has shared a framework he uses to value the companies in his book “zero to one” – it consists of the following components:

1. Identifying whether the business is a monopoly
2. Is it scalable ?
3. Does it have a network effect ?
4. Is it a brand ?

Frameworks help you to focus on what is important and eliminate the noise. This becomes very essential as the complexity of the problem grows and there are so many factors that come into play, many of which you cannot control directly. For ex. if you are to launch a new phone model, you have to focus on manufacturing capabilities, market size, competition but you can certainly leave out the macro-economic conditions. This becomes your framework.

Frameworks have been in use for a very long time. Management consultants use it all the time, frequently advising the executives with strategic insights.

There are many such frameworks available to a Product Manager. Examples include the technology S-curve, Porter’s five forces model, SWOT analysis. There are a must in the arsenal of an effective Product Manager. You can always develop our own framework or adapt any existing framework to your needs.