Working From Home

Marty Cagan argues that when product managers find themselves working from home, they should treat the unexpected free time as an opportunity rather than a loss. Most PMs struggle to find time for the deep, high-value parts of their job, such as strategy, research, and data analysis, and remote work can create that space. He acknowledges that people juggling childcare or family duties may not have this luxury. For those who do, he offers ten concrete activities, from writing decision narratives and strategy documents to customer calls, stakeholder deep dives, and self-assessment. The payoff, he suggests, is returning to the team as a far more valuable contributor.

01Key takeaways

• Use unexpected free time to tackle the high-value, time-consuming parts of product work you usually postpone.
• Write key decisions and product strategy as written narratives, then iterate on them with designers, tech leads and your manager.
• Go deep on metrics and financial data to build a clear understanding of your product's health and how it changes over time.
• Hold a series of customer calls focused on what you are failing to do for users, not on praise.
• Build an FAQ for a key stakeholder and answer it with evidence to become a true partner on their challenges.
• Honestly assess your weaknesses and write a concrete improvement plan, ideally with your manager's input.

02Key sections

Reframing the remote opportunity

Cagan notes the drawbacks of physical separation but focuses on the chance to gain uninterrupted time for work PMs usually cannot prioritize. He explicitly excludes people who are overloaded with caregiving.

Strategy and decision thinking

He recommends writing a narrative for a key decision and drafting or stress-testing product strategy, iterating with designers, tech leads, and managers.

Understanding data, users and technology

Suggested activities include deep dives into product metrics and financial data, richer qualitative research with the user research team, and exploring enabling technologies with the tech lead.

Competitors, customers and stakeholders

He advises studying industry dynamics and disruption theory, running a series of customer video calls to find unmet needs, and building an evidence-based FAQ for a key stakeholder such as finance or legal.

Personal growth

Cagan closes with a self-assessment and improvement plan, plus a short list of recommended books on leadership and craft.

03From the post

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04Frameworks mentioned

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.