The 30-Day PM Challenge
30–60 minutes a day. By day 30 you'll have a published teardown, a research readout, a full PRD, a rewritten resume, a story bank, and interview reps. Progress is saved in your browser.
Day 1: Define the job
Write, in your own words, what a PM does in one paragraph. No buzzwords allowed.
Day 2: Pick your target
Choose the PM flavor you're aiming for (growth, platform, B2B, consumer) based on your background's edge.
Day 3: Teardown: pick apart an app
Choose one app you use daily. Write its target user, core job-to-be-done, and business model.
Day 4: Map a journey
Screenshot the app's core flow. Mark every point of friction you can find.
Day 5: Propose one fix
Write a half-page proposal: problem → solution → metric it moves. Congratulations, you've drafted your first mini-PRD.
Day 6: Learn CIRCLES
Read the CIRCLES framework in Practice → Product Sense. Apply it to: 'Design an app for street food discovery'.
Day 7: Week 1 review
Publish your teardown from days 3–5 on LinkedIn. Yes, publish it. Done beats perfect.
Day 8: Metrics vocabulary
Define DAU/MAU, retention, churn, conversion, ARPU, LTV, CAC — one sentence each, with an example product.
Day 9: North star hunt
For 3 products (a social app, an e-commerce app, a SaaS tool) write their likely north-star metric and why.
Day 10: Funnel thinking
Draw the funnel for an app of your choice from install to habit. Where do you think the biggest drop is? Why?
Day 11: First SQL reps
Complete the 3 Easy exercises in the SQL Playground.
Day 12: SQL joins
Complete 2 Medium SQL exercises. If stuck, read the hint before the solution.
Day 13: Metric investigation drill
Practice aloud: 'Your DAU dropped 15% overnight — investigate.' Structure: data validity → internal → external → segments.
Day 14: Week 2 review
Do one full guesstimate from the Practice section, out loud, in under 15 minutes.
Day 15: Find 5 humans
Pick a problem space and list 10 people you could interview about it. Message 5 of them today.
Day 16: Write a discussion guide
Draft 8 questions using Mom Test rules: past behavior only, no pitching, no hypotheticals.
Day 17: Interview #1
Run your first user interview. Record it (with permission). Note 3 surprises.
Day 18: Interview #2–3
Two more interviews. Start clustering pains into themes.
Day 19: Synthesize
Write your top 3 pain themes with a verbatim quote for each.
Day 20: Opportunity brief
One page: which pain is worth solving, for whom, why now, and how you'd know you succeeded.
Day 21: Week 3 review
Share your research readout with one person who'll give honest feedback.
Day 22: PRD skeleton
Start the PRD for your chosen opportunity: problem, evidence, goals, non-goals.
Day 23: User stories & scope
Write 5 user stories. Then cut two. Write down why you cut them — that reasoning IS product management.
Day 24: Sketch the flow
Wireframe the core flow in Figma or on paper. Boxes and arrows, not pixels.
Day 25: Define the experiment
Design the A/B test or success criteria for your feature: hypothesis, primary metric, guardrail, duration.
Day 26: Finish the PRD
Complete risks and open questions. Get one technical friend to poke holes in it.
Day 27: Resume rewrite
Rewrite your top 5 resume bullets as action → scope → measurable outcome.
Day 28: Story bank
Write STAR stories for: influence without authority, failure, conflict, ambiguous decision. Half a page each.
Day 29: Mock interview
Do a full product sense + behavioral session with the AI Interview Coach. Then book one live mock with a human.
Day 30: Ship your portfolio
Assemble teardown + research brief + PRD into a simple portfolio (Notion works). Share the link in your LinkedIn featured section. You now have more evidence than 90% of career-change candidates.