Shipping an Internal Tool Without a Product Manager

Published 2025-12-09 by Faraz Rahimi

You still need a problem statement, a default user, and a done definition. You just cannot hide behind a Jira ritual.

Shipping an Internal Tool Without a Product Manager

Tags: Product, Internal Tools, Operations, Process, unlisted

I write a paragraph: who, what job, what we will not build. I pick one lead as the product voice. If two leads disagree, I do not average the UI. I pick a default and log the dissent.

Done means five real tasks on the floor without me narrating. Not a staging demo.

Scope is a kindness

A tool that does two jobs well beats a portal that does twelve jobs as a rumor. I keep a later list. I do not build later this week.

After launch, I am support

If I disappear, the tool dies. I schedule office hours in the warehouse, not only Slack. The feature requests that survive walking there are the real ones.

Original post: https://farazrahimi.com/posts/shipping-an-internal-tool-without-a-product-manager