Turn This Year’s Achievements Into Career Gold

Here we are at the end of the year—a perfect time to reflect on your achievements and think ahead.

This isn’t just about self-reflection; it’s about uncovering your value, telling your career story, and setting yourself up for success in the future.

In this newsletter, I’ll show you how to analyze your signature achievements and turn them into powerful tools for demonstrating your value—both inside your organization and on your resume.

Step 1: Capture Your Signature Achievements

First, let’s talk about what to reflect on.

Your “signature achievements” aren’t just tasks you completed. They’re the big wins—the projects, initiatives, or solutions that made a meaningful impact. These are the stories worth capturing.

You might only have one to four of these for the year, and that’s perfectly fine. Most of what we do daily isn’t storyworthy—it’s just us doing our job. But those standout moments? They’re gold.

To start, ask yourself:

What projects made the biggest difference for your team or company?
Why were they worth doing?

Step 2: Analyze the Problems You Solved

Most significant achievements solve a problem. So, the next step is to dig into why your project mattered. What symptoms were you addressing?

Many of the initiatives product managers tackle have multiples of these symptoms. And don’t start with just the first answer that comes to mind. This is a discovery process – so keep drilling down.

Was customer satisfaction going down?
Was churn increasing?
Was communication incoherent or chaotic?
Were expectations unmet?
Was quality below par?

Understanding the “why” behind your work is the foundation for telling a compelling story about your achievement.

Bonus: If you have numbers for any of these issues, like “Churn was growing, from 8% to 9%,” they can be used to make the story even better.

Step 3: Highlight the Results

Once you’ve captured the problems you solved, focus on the meaningful results of your work.

In many cases, the results mirror the original problems. For example:

Customer satisfaction started going up.
Churn decreased.
Communication became clearer and more aligned.
Deliveries became more timely and higher quality.

But some results go beyond fixing the problem. Ask yourself:

Did you or your team receive recognition? (A “Good job!” from your boss? A mention in an all-hands meeting? An award?)
Did someone get promoted or receive a raise because of the success? I talked to one woman who, due to her massive success on one project, gained a reputation as someone who got both her boss and her team promoted.
Is there other social proof, like better reviews or higher ratings on platforms like G2?

Again, if you have numbers for some of these changes, they are great additions.

If you can say “churn was going up, and then I did something, and now churn is going down,” that’s amazing in itself. A significant achievement. But if you can say, “Churn had increased from 8% to 9%, then I did some something, and now churn has dropped to 7%,” that’s even better. (And there are ways to make those numbers sound even better, using what I call “resume math” – or just expressing those ratios in different ways that might sound better.)

Step 4: Why This Matters

Why should you do this exercise? Two big reasons:

Internal Value: These stories show the value of product management to the organization—and, of course, your own personal value. They can help justify your contributions during performance reviews, team discussions, or even casual conversations.
Career Growth: These stories become the foundation for excellent resume bullet points when you’re ready to move on or move up. A strong resume doesn’t just list what you’ve done; it tells a story of impact and transformation.

Step 5: Build Your Personal Repository

Now that you’ve identified your achievements, make sure you don’t lose track of them. While you can capture this information in a corporate repository, I strongly recommend keeping a personal copy as well.

This information isn’t proprietary or secret—it’s your career narrative. A personal system to store these stories will become highly valuable when it’s time to get a new job, create a resume, or prepare for interviews.

How Many Achievements Should You Expect?

Most of your day-to-day work won’t make the cut, and that’s okay. Over the course of a year, expect to identify one to four signature achievements—projects or initiatives that truly made a difference.

These are the moments where you took on something important, addressed a critical need, and made a meaningful impact.

Your End-of-Year Assignment

For the rest of the year, take some time to reflect on your achievements:

Note down your successes.
Analyze why they were worth doing.
Capture the meaningful transformations they achieved.

This process isn’t just about self-reflection—it’s about preparing yourself to articulate your value and take the next step in your career.

It might feel challenging, but it’s worth it. Reflection is how you uncover the unique value you bring to every role.

Let me know if you have questions on any of this. Some of the steps can be tricky the first time.