How to Turn “Invisible Work” into a Salary Raise (ft. AI Prompts)
It’s that time of the year again: Performance Review Season.
Are you currently staring at a blinking cursor on a blank evaluation form?
“I spent the whole year aligning stakeholders, pulling data, and putting out fires… but how do I put this into words?”
The reality of a Product Manager’s work is that it’s often invisible. That’s why so many PMs fill their year-end reviews with humble but powerless sentences like “I worked hard” or “I launched a feature.”
However, the top 1% of PMs know how to translate their “actions” into “money” (business value).
Today, to ensure your hard work doesn’t go unnoticed, I’m sharing my personal formula for converting “tasks” into “business value,” along with an AI Prompt to help you do it effortlessly.
1. Escape the “Output” Trap
The thing evaluators hate reading the most is a “diary.”
(Bad) “Created a company-wide dashboard using Appsmith.”
(Bad) “Published blog posts twice a week.”
To be brutally honest, the company doesn’t care about what you made. They care about “how much benefit it brought to the business.” We need to translate our “Outputs” into “Outcomes.”
2. The 3-Step Formula to Translate Work into Money
Whenever I organize my achievements, I pass them through this filter:
✨ The Value Translation Formula:
[Pain] What was the inefficiency?
[Solution] What system or action did I implement?
[Value] How much money/time did I save? (Include your calculation logic)
Let’s apply this formula to two of my actual cases from this year.
Case 1. Dashboard Automation → Translated to “Engineering Cost Savings”
Before (Pain): To view a single data point, I had to request it from a developer and wait half a day for them to extract and merge the raw data. (Wasted developer time + Delayed decision-making).
After (Solution): I built a “SQL Query Bot” using a custom GPT and connected it to a low-code tool (Appsmith) to create a real-time company-wide dashboard.
Value (Money): Reduced communication costs for data extraction to zero. Secured over 100 hours of engineering resources annually (assuming 30 mins/request x 4 times/week) and accelerated executive decision-making from “1 day” to “Real-time.”
Case 2. Blog Automation → Translated to “Marketing Budget Savings”
Before (Pain): I knew content marketing was crucial, but urgent tasks always pushed it aside. Result: Zero posts published. (Opportunity cost).
After (Solution): I built an automation system using Make.com that generates a draft just by inputting an idea, making bi-weekly publishing a routine.
Value (Money): Established a system to publish 8 high-quality posts per month without hiring additional staff. This equates to saving ~$1,500/month in outsourcing costs (assuming ~$200 per post) and secured permanent marketing assets for organic traffic.
The key here is “Logic” over “Exact Revenue.” You don’t need precise sales figures. Estimate using “Time Saved x Hourly Rate” or “Outsourcing Equivalent Cost.”
Management might doubt you if you say, “I earned the company $100k.” But they will nod in agreement if you say, “I saved $100k worth of resources based on this logic.”
3. [The Secret Weapon] The “Performance Translator” AI Prompt
“But I’m bad at calculating the monetary value of my work.”
For those thinking this, I’ve prepared a “Performance Description AI Prompt.” It doesn’t just pat you on the back; it constructs the “Calculation Logic” that will make your evaluator nod in agreement.
🎁 [Copy & Paste] The Logic Generator for Performance Reviews
🤖 Role: You are a strict “Performance Analyst” capable of convincing a CFO.
Mission: Convert the user’s work into “Business Value” and provide a “Logically Sound Calculation Basis” for the numbers.
[Input Info]
What I did: (e.g., Automated weekly settlement tasks using Excel macros)
Previous Situation: (e.g., 1 manager spent 4 hours every Friday. Calculation errors occurred frequently.)
[Output Format]
One-Liner Summary: (A punchy sentence for the performance review highlighting business impact)
Calculation Logic: [Time/People Saved] x [Duration] x [Avg. Hourly Cost/Opportunity Cost] = [Total Value]
(Example: 1 Manager x 4 hours/week x 52 weeks = Secured 208 hours of resources annually. Even at minimum wage, this achieves operational efficiency worth over $X,000 and eliminates financial risk by reducing human error to 0%.)
[Tip] If exact amounts are unknown, use terms like “Estimated ~$X” or “Secured ~hours annually” to maintain credibility.
Proving your performance isn’t about bragging or being shameless. It is a courtesy to the intense effort you’ve put in over the past year, and it is the qualification you need to take on bigger responsibilities next year.
Don’t just copy-paste the numbers the AI spits out. Instead, use the “Calculation Logic” it provides as a weapon to have a meaningful conversation with your manager.
You have earned the company far more than you think.