Git and GitHub for Product Managers

A repository is a folder with a memory

Commits: the save points that never get overwritten

Branches: working on a copy without breaking anything

Merging, and what a conflict really is

The eight things on a repo homepage and what each tells you

The README, and what a good one should contain

Reading activity: who's working on what, right now

Finding the file you actually want

How a team's branches are usually organised

Why 'it's done' and 'it's on main' are different claims

Long-lived branches and why they hurt

The four states a piece of work can be in

What a PR is and what it's for

Reading a PR without reading code

Checks, reviews and why something is blocked

Commenting usefully as a non-engineer

Red, green and the numbers at the top

Working out the scope of a change in thirty seconds

Spotting the three things a PM should always look for

When a small diff is a big change, and vice versa

How GitHub issues differ from your ticket tracker

Writing an issue an engineer can act on

Labels, milestones and projects

Linking work so the trail survives

Merged, deployed and released are three different things

Reading a release and its notes

Version numbers and what they promise

Answering 'is it live?' without asking anyone

What a PM can safely change

Editing a file in the browser, step by step

Opening your first pull request

What happens next, and how not to annoy anyone

Five things you should never do

Force push, rewriting history, and why people get upset

Secrets, keys and the mistake that's hard to undo

Knowing when to ask instead

Part 1: Map your team's repo and branch structure

Part 2: Follow one shipped feature from issue to release

Part 3: Open and merge a small change of your own