As a product manager I need to track tasks/actions on multiple projects across parters, functional areas and individual assignees.

This is pretty easy to do in RTM if you use tags but it can be pretty annoying to have to set the tasks up in the furst place as they can have a lot of tags.

This is much easier to do if you use smart lists.

* Create a normal list for each project
* Create a search for that project, the partner company and functional area e.g. list:Project1 AND tag:PartnerCompanyA AND tag:Marketing
* Enter all of the marketing task associated with setting up Partner Company A on Project1. All of the tags will be automatically added.
* Repeat the project with other functional areas e.g. tag:Support, tag:Legals, tag:Development

Once you have your project tasks entered, you can then set searches for the functional areas to see all the activities required across projects e.g. marketing or searches to give you all of the activities required to bring a new Partner Company on board.

You still have the basic underlying project list if you need to see all of the activities on a particular project.