A Gift from ProductFTW - ProductFTW #63
A collection of practical product templates we use to create alignment early, reduce friction, and keep teams focused as work gets messy.
Every January feels familiar. We set resolutions, make plans, buy new notebooks, and convince ourselves that this is the year we will be organized, focused, and ahead of the chaos. The holiday break gives everyone a chance to reset, reflect, and try again.
If you work in product, you already know how quickly alignment slips once the year gets moving. Sprint one turns into sprint four, priorities shift, and suddenly, you are reacting instead of leading.
This year, we want to help you get off to a great start.
Over the holidays, we pulled together a set of practical templates that you can use immediately. These are the tools we reach for in our own work. They remove friction, create alignment early, and save you from reinventing the structure every time someone asks for a brief, a checklist, or a way to evaluate something.
Today, we are sharing them with you.
Templates you can use right now
Product Brief
A simple structure to define a new idea and align your team before you start discovery. Use this when you want everyone to agree on the problem, the objective, and how success will be measured.
View the Product Brief template
API Evaluation Checklist
A quick way to evaluate partner APIs when you do not have engineering resources available yet or when you want confidence from your own early diligence. Use this before you ask engineers to invest serious time in a vendor.
View the API Evaluation Checklist
Fintech Development Checklist
A fintech-flavored checklist that helps you avoid the most common and painful issues that show up in systems dealing with money, time, and asynchronous workflows. Use this before launch or when you are trying to debug something that feels mysterious.
View the Fintech Development Checklist
Why we built these
Everyone loves to talk about outcomes and strategy. The daily reality of product management is different. It is mostly clarity, process, and repeatable tools. You do not always need new frameworks. You need documents and checklists that get everyone aligned quickly and reduce the frequency of having to explain the same thing twice.
These templates are designed to do exactly that. They are concise, opinionated, and tailored to the specific kinds of problems that product teams at startups actually face.
Your turn
As you ease back into work and start thinking about this year’s goals, take a moment to bookmark or download the templates that fit your current work. Use one in your next project kickoff or vendor evaluation. Even better, share them with your team and get everyone operating from the same starting point.
Here is to a year of clearer thinking, fewer surprises, and product work that feels a little more manageable.
About ProductFTW
ProductFTW is a weekly newsletter about product management, with a focus on real-life experiences in startups. We want to help product leaders be successful by giving realistic approaches that aren’t for giant tech companies. We know you don’t have a full-time product designer on each team. We know your software probably hasn’t been used by millions of people worldwide–yet. We’re here to bridge the content gap from building your product and team to scaling it.