PM roles

At Blueprint, our PM role is divided into two sections - the Project Manager, and the Product Manager:

Project Manager

Purpose: EnsureProject managers ensure smooth execution of the project by coordinating between teams,team members, managing timelines, and removingcommunicating roadblockswith —the withoutNPO becoming overbearing or overly deferential.(nonprofit).

Core Responsibilities

• Liaison Betweenbetween Teams:teams: Maintainmaintain a wide view of the project across engineering, design,engineering and product.design

• Liaison for NPO: communicate with NPO to provide updates and gather feedback

• Timeline Ownership:ownership: Create and manage the project timeline; set clear deliverables and ensure deadlines are met.

• AnticipateMeeting Bottlenecks:facilitation: Proactively spot potential delays or misalignmentsOrganize and worklead tostandups, resolve them early.

• Communication Optimization: Ensure the right people are talking to each other at the right time.

• Realism & Scope Awareness: Know what’s realisticcheck-ins, and whatretrospectives features are being developed; flag misalignments.

• Feature Evaluation: Occasionally evaluate or pressure-test new features by asking team members to defend their value or feasibility.

• Leadership Style: Maintain balanced authority — not too passive, not controlling. Facilitate, don’t dictate.

Product Manager

Purpose: Define the direction and intent of the final product, making strategic decisions on what features are prioritized and what value they bringprovide to users.

Core Responsibilities

• Define Productproduct Direction:direction: Set the vision of what the final product should look like and do.

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• Feature Ownership:ownership: Decide on the high-level features needed to fulfillfor the product vision.

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• Write

  Collaboratetickets/tasks: toBreak Scope:down features into tasks for developers. Work with the tech lead to gauge feasibility and design teams to break features down into achievable subfeatures.

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• Make Finalall Calls:final Owncalls: feature-level decisions —Decide what stays,stays and what goes, what ships now vs. later.

• Partner with Tech Lead: Tech leads define how to build features and what’s technically possible; PMs decide what to build.

• User-Centered Thinking: Ensure all development is driven by real user needs — what’s useful, usable, and wanted.

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Tips

• Be Realistic: Super important! Don’t overpromise or ignore limitations.

• Grace Under Pressure: Trust that team members are doing their best; lead with empathy.

• Schedule Obsessed: Always know where things stand and where time is slipping.

• Expect Delays: Super important! Bake in buffers to absorb slippage without panic.

• Detached from Features: Don’t get too emotionally invested —- be willing to cut or change features quickly.

• Decisive in Tradeoffs: Make clear decisions when timelines force prioritization.

What we call a product manager at Blueprint is really a combination of the two roles above - you'll be the ones driving the product vision while also keeping the team on track.