Reload, don't remember
Every document you own opens with the context needed to restart cold — what this is, where it stands, what's next. You are writing for yourself in three weeks, with nothing in your head.
adhdpm.com
Product management assumes a brain that holds context between meetings.
Mine doesn't. These are the systems that work anyway — starting with a free tool that turns your meeting notes into the tickets you were going to forget.
- What this is
- Operational systems for product managers whose working memory isn't something to plan around. Written up after they survived a real roadmap.
- Where it stands
- Live One tool, free and ungated. Four systems written, publishing monthly.
- What's next
- The state-reload doc, in full, with the template. Sent to the list first.
This block is the first system on the site. Every document you own should open with one.
Paste your notes. Get the tickets back.
Decisions, actions with owners, and a summary you can drop straight into a ticket. Works on a transcript too.
Three systems that hold up
Capture at the source
If the ticket isn't written during the meeting, it doesn't exist. The gap between the conversation and the artifact is where the work actually disappears.
Make the system carry the trust
Stakeholders don't lose confidence because you forgot — they lose it because they can't see the state. Visible state buys you the slack to forget.
That took four seconds. The rest of the system takes a bit longer.
Once a month I write up one system that holds under pressure, with the template to go with it. The state-reload doc, the in-meeting capture setup, the 1:1 that works without memory. No archive to catch up on, no course at the end.
Who writes this
Principal product manager on a data platform team at a large enterprise software company; nearly fifteen years in product and engineering, most of it with ADHD and none of it with a system I inherited from anyone. Everything here is what I actually run, written up after it survived contact with a real roadmap.