High Output Product Management: Working Like Andy Grove (Without Working Yourself Into the Ground)

A framework for doing "less", thinking more, and delivering real impact without burning out.

If you’ve ever read High Output Management by Andy Grove—and if you’re in product and haven’t, stop reading this and go read that. Grove taught me that output isn’t only about how many hours I work; it’s about leverage. He taught that the output of a manager is the output of the team. Simple, powerful, timeless.

It turns out that the same rule applies to PMs. The output of a PM is the output of the team.

But here’s the thing: somewhere between that idea and today’s Slack-saturated, Always-On hustle culture, “high output” got confused with “responding 24/7”. Productivity became a lifestyle instead of a strategy. I’ve caught myself chasing dopamine from checklists, mistaking motion for impact. Ugh, exhausting dude.

So this is my remix: High Output Product Management 9 Lessons For PMs- like me who want to do meaningful, needle-moving work without burning out. It’s my framework for sustainable excellence. And, to be totally honest, I’m writing this as a practice tool for myself because I haven’t mastered the balance yet.

1. Selective Productivity

Dear diary: stop being addicted to “productivity.” I’m not a factory. I’m not judged by how many tasks I check off—I’m judged by the impact of what I choose to do. My job is to think deeply, prioritize ruthlessly, and ship outcomes, not perform busyness theater.

There, I said it. I feel like I need to tattoo that on my forehead. Something in me—maybe a warped sense of work ethic or classic East Coast chutzpah gone awry—makes me feel like I need to do everything immediately. I fight it. One of my key tactics is writing things down to get them out of my head (highly underrated, by the way). I plan in the morning, at the end of the day, and after every meeting. I don’t try to remember—I schedule thinking time, decision time, and doing time.

Still, even with that habit, I drift into misinterpreting what productivity really means. I think it’s because product management is inherently nebulous, like leadership. It’s not about a daily list of deliverables. It’s about creating alignment, influence, and momentum—often with results that don’t show up until weeks or months later. Sometimes it’s the email I don’t send. Or how I phrase a question. Or how I bring people together.

Because the outcomes are delayed and a little abstract, I gravitate toward things where I can see output. But I’ve learned to zoom out. When I pause to think strategically—when I can articulate my impact on the entire chessboard—I’m less tempted by low-impact “productivity.”

That’s why I now aim to be selectively productive—because only selective productivity is real productivity.

2. Eat That Frog... Or Don’t

Mark Twain (via Brian Tracy) says to “do the hard thing first.” Sure. But not every frog is worth eating. Some frogs are just distractions wearing urgency as a costume—usually someone else’s, not mine.

My trick is to breathe and ask: Is this really my priority? Does it align with the business outcomes I’m driving? If not, why do I feel the need to own it or respond?

As a PM, I get pulled in a thousand directions. I’ve had to learn to recognize: That’s not my urgency. I don’t need to carry it. There’s a huge difference between hard things that matter and hard things that don’t. I love solving hard problems—but only the ones that create value. My job isn’t to conquer difficult problems for the sake of it. My job is to deliver value.

3. Space Is Productive

PM work is knowledge work. I know that sounds obvious, but I’ve had to learn (and re-learn) what that actually means. It’s not factory work. Sometimes, the most productive thing I can do is nothing. (Painful to admit as a semi-type-A Bostonian.)

But space creates insight. That 2 p.m. walk? That’s not slacking—it’s my subconscious doing real work. Some of my best ideas have come from space. But if I don’t schedule it, I default back to fake productivity.

Now I plan space into every day. Focus time. Thinking time. Protected calendar blocks. Because that is knowledge work.

4. There’s a Lot of Ins, Outs, and What-Have-Yous

Cue the Big Lebowski quotes, please. Nobody told me that half of product management is surfacing the right “what-have-yous” at the right moment. PM work is messy. Context switching is real. Alignment is fluid. I’ve learned to make space for clarity check-ins: What matters now? What’s just noise? What’s blocking the water flow?

To be honest, I often feel like Bruce Springsteen’s line: Like a river that don’t know where it’s going, I took a wrong turn and I just kept going. And too often, I treat my job like I need to personally manage everything. But that just creates bottlenecks.

If my team’s momentum depends on my availability, I’m not running a system—I am the system. Worse, I’m the dam in the river.

My job is to influence flow, not block it. I don’t need to own everything to drive value. In fact, trying to own everything kills velocity. The highest-output PMs I’ve seen don’t hoard control—they trade ownership for leverage.

I ask myself constantly: Where can I create the most leverage right now? That’s my job. Everything else is optional.

5. Delegation: Give Away the Fun Stuff

If I’m only delegating the boring or painful parts of the job, I’m doing it wrong. I’ve started giving away the fun stuff too. Training others to think like owners means letting them run with things I love doing—things I’m good at.

If I’m the bottleneck, it doesn’t matter how fast I move—the team’s output is capped at my speed. That’s not scale, that's selfishness.

6. Value ≠ Volume

Shipping more features doesn’t make me a better PM. Say it again. Louder. For the people in the back.

More meetings? More JIRA tickets? More...whatever? Doesn’t matter. Customers don’t care how busy I am. They care whether their problem is solved.

Volume isn’t value. Value is value.

7. Never Have Less Responsibility

Every time I level up, I try to design systems that allow me to hold more responsibility—not take on more work. I’ve been focused on this over the past few years: how to build scalable systems that take weight off my shoulders, not add to it.

It’s not about doing more. It’s about doing less better, so I can hold more. That’s the real game.

8. Health Is a Product Strategy

This one’s hard to admit. I’ve absolutely fallen into the burnout trap. I’ve confused grind with grit. I’ve pushed through exhaustion like it’s a badge of honor. But that’s not leadership—it’s denial.

It’s like running on an injured ankle and bragging about the mileage. Not smart.

My new mantra: Long-term impact requires long-term energy. My health—mental and physical—is part of my roadmap now. It has to be.

9. Work “Less”, Think More, Ship Better

High Output Product Management isn’t about doing everything. It’s about doing the right things, at the right time, in a way that allows me to still love the work a year from now.

Zoom out. Use leverage. Build space. Delegate. Create value—not volume. And never forget: my output isn’t just what I ship. It’s the system I build to keep shipping.

Here’s to me actually taking my own advice—at least most of the time.

Growth Corner

Good Read:

• High Output Management by Andy Grove: I mean duh, what else would I put. His book taught me that real productivity isn’t about grinding—it's about leverage, systems, and multiplying the impact of others. The manager’s true output is the output of their team, which means success isn’t in the to-do list, it’s in the ripple effects of how you lead, decide, and delegate.

Good Listen:

• I found this episode of HBR: Coaching Real Leaders super relatable—I'm in that interesting space between being a generalist and a specialist, and figuring out how to define my impact. This conversation really got me thinking about my own personal brand and what I want to lean into going forward. Highly recommend both the series and this episode in particular.