“I’m a Product Manager with ADHD. Here’s What That Actually Looks Like”
Slack notifications, roadmap reviews, hyperfocus sprints and burnout spirals — here's the real story behind building product with an ADHD brain.
I’m a Aaron, A Product Manager with Drumroll...ADHD.
I thought it might be a good ideas to details here’s what that actually looks like.
I’ve been working in product for over a decade, and I’ve had ADHD the whole time — even before I knew it.
At first, I thought I was just “messy.” Disorganised. Forgetful. Always doing too much or not enough. I joked about being allergic to documentation and addicted to new ideas. But underneath the banter was a truth I hadn’t fully owned yet: my brain works differently.
And somehow, I ended up in one of the most chaotic, fast-paced, distraction-heavy careers out there: product management.
Spoiler: it kind of works.
Also spoiler: sometimes, it really doesn’t.
My Brain on Product
Having ADHD in product management is like running your backlog in three dimensions:
- One part hyperfocus mode (didn’t blink for 6 hours, wrote a strategy doc that no one asked for)
- One part executive dysfunction (can’t send a 2-line update email)
- One part people-pleasing panic (accidentally semi - agreed to a Q3 launch before scoping)
The highs? Incredible.
I can connect dots fast. See systems. Feel empathy for the user in a way that’s borderline emotional. When I’m on, I’m unstoppable.
But the lows? Quiet. Heavy. Sometimes invisible.
I’ll stare at the same Notion page for 40 minutes. Miss simple things. Forget to update stakeholders and spiral about it for days. I’ll start five Notion documents and finish none.
And don’t get me started on time blindness. ("Sure, I can review that by EOD" — famous last words.)
🛠️ Tools I Use (and Abandon)
Thought out my career I’ve tried them all:
- Notion (beautiful and dangerous)
- Trello (a dopamine playground)
- Linear (clean but cold)
- Shortcut (the one I always come back to)
- Any countless others....
Every time I switch tools, it’s not because the old one didn’t work — it’s because I needed novelty to spark motivation again. I now build this need into my system. Seasonal tool rotation? That’s not flaky — it’s adaptive - As I say as long as it gets the job done.
🫣 Stakeholders, Slack, and Social Fatigue
ADHD doesn’t just affect how I do the work — it shapes how I show up in it.
Meetings are 'sometimes' hard.
Not because I’m not listening — but because my brain is racing through edge cases, risks, implications. I’m too focused. Then not at all. Then hyper-aware of how I look on Google Meet.
I mask a lot.
I over-prepare to avoid forgetting something simple. I make self-deprecating jokes when I miss a detail. I send long Slack messages that I edit 6 times for clarity, only to delete them.
Why I’m Writing This Blog
Because you’re not the only one with 43 tabs open.
Because maybe you’re an aspiring PM wondering why you can’t follow rigid productivity systems.
Because maybe you manage someone like me and want to support them better.
Because I wish someone had told me that being an edge case doesn’t mean you're broken — it just means you see the system from a different angle.
This blog is for all of us. The multitaskers, the perfectionists, the neurodivergent makers trying to build great things in a world that wasn’t designed for our brains.
We deserve better than burnout and band-aid fixes.
We deserve careers that work for us — not in spite of how we’re wired, but because of it.
Want to know about the process I took to becoming diagnosed - see here
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