How to Write an End-of-Year Review: Product Managers

8 Steps to Showcase Your Impact

End-of-year reviews are a crucial part of your professional journey. It’s your opportunity to reflect on your accomplishments, set new goals, and demonstrate the value you bring to your organization. While writing a comprehensive review might seem like a daunting task, trying to recall all the products, features or even bug fixes you’ve shipped, the intent of this post is to help you navigate the process efficiently and effectively with specific sections you should include in your review. By following these steps, you can craft a compelling end-of-year review that not only showcases your achievements but also highlights your impact as a product manager.

1. Keep Track of Your Success
2. Emphasize Your Impact
3. Ask for Feedback from Your Peers
4. Acknowledge Areas of Improvement
5. Set Goals for the Future
6. Highlight Extracurricular Activities
7. Celebrate Teamwork and Collaboration:

Keep Track of Your Success

Product managers are often engaged in various projects and tasks, making it much more important to keep a record of your accomplishments throughout the year. Regularly document your achievements, positive customer feedback, and any notable accomplishments related to your products. It can also help you stay motivated and focused on your goals. When you see evidence of your progress and accomplishments, it can give you a sense of satisfaction and encourage you to keep working towards your objectives. Additionally, it can help you identify patterns and trends in your performance, which can help you adjust and make improvements as needed. Having a record of your successes can be useful when it comes time to update your resume or prepare for a performance review or job interview. Making tracking your success a regular ongoing practice will make it easier to recall your successes during your review process.

Emphasize Your Impact

A product manager’s role is not just about completing tasks; it’s about making a significant impact. In your review, focus on the problems you’ve solved and how you’ve improved the lives of your customers, whether they are internal or external. Highlight the broader goals you’ve aligned with and the outcomes you’ve achieved. You may have worked on multiple products and projects, but rather than listing every actionable item, select your top 3 to 5 most impactful ones to keep your review concise and powerful. A great way to narrow down your impact is to identify which items contributed the most to your organization and aligned with the objectives and goals. By emphasizing how your work directly supports your company’s mission and goals, you can demonstrate your strategic thinking and commitment to the company’s success.

Ask for Feedback from Your Peers

Feedback from colleagues can provide valuable insights into your collaborative skills and your impact on cross-functional teams. If your company doesn’t have a formal feedback process, proactively reach out to those you have worked with; peers, stakeholders, even external customers and request specific feedback on your collaboration in particular projects or scenarios. Be open to constructive criticism and view it as an opportunity for growth. Here’s an example of how you can request feedback from others:

“Hi Jane! It was a pleasure working with you on the cloud migration project this year. I wanted to take a moment to ask you for your feedback and insights on my performance for the project. Specifically, what do you think we did well during the project, and what areas could we improve on in the future?

Your feedback will be incredibly helpful to my growth, thank you in advance for taking the time to share your thoughts.”

Acknowledge Areas of Improvement

A part of growing in your career requires you to assess yourself and which areas you need to work on. No one is perfect, and acknowledging areas for improvement is a sign of self-awareness and personal growth. Reflect on the past year and identify one or two examples of things you could have handled differently. This may include communication, setting expectations, or prioritizing tasks. Addressing your areas of improvement demonstrates your commitment to self-improvement and professional development.

Set Goals for the Future

A forward-looking approach is vital in your end-of-year review. Outline your aspirations for the upcoming year, whether they involve new products, features, personal growth, or learning objectives. Aligning your goals with your manager’s expectations helps you stay accountable and ensures that your aspirations align with your manager’s expectations and helps avoid misunderstandings. Setting future goals can help you stay focused and motivated. When you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve in the coming year, it can help you stay on track and avoid getting sidetracked by other tasks or distractions. By setting specific, measurable goals, you can easily track your progress throughout the year and see how far you’ve come.

Highlight Extracurricular Activities

Beyond your daily responsibilities, your involvement in extracurricular activities and your contributions to your organization’s culture or mission are valuable. For example, if you are a technical product manager and you have contributed to an open-source project in your spare time, that could be seen as a valuable extracurricular activity that demonstrates your skills and expertise. Mention your participation in teams outside your routine, volunteer events, mentorship, and any contributions that align with your passions and your company’s mission. Ultimately, the importance of extracurricular activities in an end of year review will depend on the specific context of your job and the goals and objectives that you and your manager have set. If you’re unsure whether a particular extracurricular activity is worth mentioning in your review, you can always ask your manager for guidance

Celebrate Teamwork and Collaboration:

While your review is about your individual contributions, don’t forget to emphasize teamwork and collaboration. Showcase how you’ve worked with others, supported your colleagues, and contributed to the overall success of your team.

A review isn’t meant to be a task list or everything you do, it should be short, concise and covers the most important and impactful parts of your role. Your end-of-year review as a product manager is an opportunity to demonstrate your value, reflect on your achievements, and set a path for future growth. Don’t wait until your review to talk to your manager to see how you are doing. If you only get feedback from your manager at review time, that is something you need to change. Make sure you are having one-on-ones with your manager throughout the year and are regularly getting feedback on your performance.

Writing a review can take some time and practice to get it right, but if you can create processes throughout the year to help yourself, it gets easier. By following the steps outlined in this guide and maintaining open communication with your manager throughout the year, you can make the review process more manageable and use it to propel your career forward.

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