Product Manager
🟢 Required
Use this when: You're a PM at Artium and want to understand your role in the iteration cycle — or when you're an engineer or designer wanting to understand what the PM is responsible for and what they need from you.
The PM's job
The PM owns the what and why. Engineers and designers own the how.
You are the voice of the user on the team. You own the backlog, write stories, facilitate ceremonies, manage stakeholders, make prioritization decisions, and unblock the team. Your job is to make sure the team is building the right thing — and that they have everything they need to build it well.
Core responsibilities
- Own the backlog. Prioritize by value vs. effort. Top stories are always refined and estimation-ready.
- Write stories. Vertical slices with Gherkin acceptance criteria. See Story Writing Standards.
- Facilitate ceremonies. IPM, demo, retro — or rotate facilitation. See Facilitation.
- Manage stakeholders. Proactive communication, managing expectations, translating between business and team.
- Make prioritization decisions. When the team asks "what's most important?" — you answer. Fast.
- Unblock the team. Answer questions about AC, clarify scope, resolve ambiguity. If engineers are waiting on you, you're the bottleneck.
What PMs do NOT do
- Dictate technical approach. You own what to build, not how to build it.
- Design UIs. Designers own the user experience. Pair with them — don't prescribe solutions.
- Estimate effort for the team. Engineers estimate. You provide context to make estimates informed.
- Present every demo. The builder presents. You frame the narrative and handle stakeholder Q&A.
- Work alone. A PM who doesn't pair with design and engineering is guessing.
Weekly rhythm
| Day | PM focus | Key skills |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | IPM prep and facilitation | /ipm-plan, /ipm-facilitate |
| Tue–Thu | Unblock, refine, stakeholder work | /backlog-refine, /stakeholder-prep, /stakeholder-map |
| Friday AM | Demo prep | /demo-prep |
| Friday PM | Retro, weekly update | /retro-plan, /retro-synthesize, /artbeat |
For the full day-by-day breakdown, see Weekly Iteration Rhythm.
Working with engineers
Stories are the contract. Write clear acceptance criteria, answer questions fast, and don't change scope mid-story without negotiation. If the AC doesn't cover an edge case, the engineer should push back — and you should welcome it.
- Pair with engineers on story clarification at least once per iteration
- When estimates surprise you, ask what's driving the complexity — don't negotiate the number
- Review what engineers demo and give product feedback, not just approval
See Cross-Functional Pairing: PM + Engineer and Engineer role guide.
Working with designers
Pair on user flows and research synthesis. Don't hand off requirements — co-create them. Review designs before stories are written, not after.
- Involve designers in story writing, especially for UI-heavy features
- Designers work one iteration ahead — coordinate on what's coming next
- Don't prescribe UI solutions in stories. Describe the user need and let design own the experience.
See Cross-Functional Pairing: PM + Designer and Designer role guide.
AI workflows
Every Skillet skill follows the human-agent model: the agent drafts, you decide. For AI concepts, see AI Foundations.
| Responsibility | Skill | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Write stories | /story-write |
When you need a story with Gherkin AC from a feature description |
| Split stories | /story-split |
When a story is too big for one iteration (> 3 days) |
| Review stories | /story-review |
Before IPM — check stories against quality standards |
| Groom the backlog | /backlog-refine |
Weekly — assess backlog health, identify gaps, reprioritize |
| Plan the iteration | /ipm-plan |
Before IPM — draft the iteration plan with candidates and pairs |
| Facilitate IPM | /ipm-facilitate |
Before IPM — generate the facilitation script |
| Prepare demos | /demo-prep |
Friday — build the demo agenda with presenters and narratives |
| Plan the retro | /retro-plan |
Before retro — select format and generate the agenda |
| Synthesize the retro | /retro-synthesize |
After retro — extract themes and action items |
| Map stakeholders | /stakeholder-map |
At engagement start or when stakeholder landscape shifts |
| Prep for stakeholder meetings | /stakeholder-prep |
Before any stakeholder meeting — build the briefing |
| Send weekly update | /artbeat |
Friday EOD — generate and send the weekly stakeholder update |
v0.2 will add /daily-wrapup, /standup-facilitate, and /standup-prep for the daily loop.
Anti-patterns
| Anti-pattern | Why it fails | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| PM as project manager | Tracking tasks instead of driving outcomes. The team ships features but not value. | Focus on user needs, prioritization, and stakeholder alignment — not status updates. |
| PM as gatekeeper | Bottlenecking every decision. Team velocity drops because everything waits for PM approval. | Define decision rights. Engineers own technical decisions. Designers own UX. You own scope. |
| PM as solo player | Not pairing with design or engineering. Stories are written in isolation, missing edge cases and UX context. | Pair on stories, pair on research synthesis, pair on ceremony prep. |
| PM as stenographer | Writing what stakeholders dictate instead of synthesizing user needs. The backlog reflects politics, not product strategy. | You synthesize — stakeholders provide input, you decide what to build. Push back when needed. |
How to prepare
New to PM at Artium:
- Start with Iteration Planning and Facilitation — these are your first two ceremonies
- Read Story Writing Standards before your first
/story-write - Understand Balanced Teams — your role is one of three, not the lead
Experienced PM adopting Skillet:
- Read Skillet Overview for the skills model
- Try
/stakeholder-prepfirst — it's fast, useful, and teaches the human-agent pairing model - Review Human-Agent Pairing for how to work with AI tools effectively