Favourite learnings from 19 people in Product Management [Part 2]
Nat's learning expedition uncovering what Product Managers do and specific insights on where and how you can start to be a successful PM.
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Welcome to part two of learnings from 19 people in Product Management!
In part one, we covered what Product Managers do and advice on where to start.
In part two, we’ll look at:
Is it important to be technical as a PM?
How does decision-making actually work for PMs?
Six other tips shared
This post also ends with a few things that helped me with coordinating these coffee chats. Let’s get right into it.
3️⃣ Being Technical as a PM
Some PMs spent their first few years in software engineering before moving into Product, while others had a background in design, program/project management or marketing instead.
Most PM teams would have a mix of technical and non-technical PMs, where each person would play to their strengths. For example, some bring a background in design or customer service, some are incredibly strong storytellers and some have a background in the industry itself. One PM shared:
“I declare to developers that I’m non-technical so I won’t tell you what the specs should be, but because of my strong background in business I bring a strong understanding of the problem and leave them to the solution making.”
It becomes important to have an engineering partner that understands the value of the customer/problem and is able to translate that to the engineering world.
Regardless, all agree that you should at least understand the technical requirements for the product - this is something to work on with the engineers. Some added it’s good to be aware of the solution architecture and how different systems intertwine. In other words, knowing what happens when you want to add a feature or click a button - would it affect anything else technically? Even learning and building a web app on your own is valuable for communication and building street cred with the engineers.
For PMs that do bring a technical background, other than being able to discuss and understand things the way engineers would e.g. testing, expected behaviour, potential technical problems and their costs, they also mention it helps with calling out any BS from the engineering team. For example, if they don’t know what they’re talking about or “you’re optimising for scale too much.”
Overall, being technical has its benefits, but being non-technical is not a deal breaker.
It’s more important that you are able to empathise with the customer/problem and communicate that to your stakeholders. I received advice to think through questions like:
4️⃣ Decision Making
Often I read articles about PMs make decisions about the, product vision and what to prioritise, but this doesn’t come in entry-level roles. You have the capacity to make decisions within your guardrails and within your part of the product - and this would be narrower as a junior in a big company. This was echoed by two senior-level Product Managers, who shared that prioritisation is more at the executive level. For Product Managers that joined early-stage teams as their first Product hire, it would take months to understand what is happening and start making their own decisions too.
When it comes to decision-making itself, everyone agreed product decisions should not be made on your own.
“Always have a team around you, collaborate to make decisions… you de-risk and avoid tunnel vision by getting other people’s inputs.”
Regardless, being a good storyteller and being clear in communicating ‘why’ the team should do xyz has a strong influence when convincing others about your decision.
Overall I’ve learnt that decision-making is not as straightforward as I’d expect, it’s actually slightly messy - no one controls all of it.
5️⃣ More tips
Product Management can take on the form of different job titles. There is overlap between a Product Owner, Business Analyst, and Product Manager especially, and different companies have different interpretations of what falls under the scope of each. The titles are all messy, and it comes down to what you actually do.
Product is a broad role, and Product Managers are often generalists. PMs will need to be comfortable with being ‘good enough’ in many things without specialising in one specific skill (at least, not as deep as the way engineers and technical roles can become highly specialised).
Fail early and fail fast. Not all product decisions will succeed (most won’t), so you have to be okay with letting ideas go and restarting. Discovery mode could be quite tricky for engineers, they may struggle with low motivation and fatigue when things keep changing. It is important to make it clear that when things change, it is for a reason.
A lot of companies in New Zealand focus their Product function on the customer but not so much on the business context. A big chunk of the product equation is solving customer problems in a way that brings the business forward and solves a business goal. Having this commercial aspect is extremely important too.
Another key skill is having an understanding of the stakeholders in the company i.e. the different parties that you’ll need buy-in from. This is a quick guide to stakeholder mapping.
A majority of the PMs in these conversations did not start their career in Product, but eventually built a path to it over 5-10 years after graduating from university. How they found the role was a mix of internal opportunities, luck, and having a generalist role that eventually morphed into Product Management. Instead of a formal job application process, 7 created the role for themselves - by networking and reaching out to the company’s leadership team - while another 5 transitioned into Product from another discipline in the company.
[Extra] Have a career chat with someone soon? Here are some things that helped me:
Have an agenda on hand - if this is my very first call with them, I’d aim to mention in the first 5 minutes:
Why I reached out (even if I’ve already mentioned it in a message beforehand)
My goals from this chat
If they’re okay with me taking notes during this call
Whether they have a meeting right after this to get a sense of how strictly I should wrap up within 30 minutes (sometimes they say they’re happy to stay for another 5-10 minutes after). If they have a packed day ahead, you wouldn’t want them to be anxiously checking the time in the last 1-2 minutes of the call, wondering whether they should remind you they have to go soon.
Give yourself a proper introduction before you start. Don’t forget they don’t know much about you! Usually, my intro would cover the following three points:
I am in my fourth year of a degree in Computer Science, Finance and Marketing at the University of Auckland
I found out about Product Management last year when I was the Community Associate at Phase One Ventures, where I learnt about the startup scene and listened to our community’s mentors talk about Product
Now, my career goal is to work in Product Management or Product Design once I graduate
Give them the space to introduce themselves and their career journey! Even though you’ve done your research, you would learn new details that you can’t find online. It’s also a great way for the person you’re speaking with to warm up to share about themselves
Thank them for their time after the call. I love giving my top 3-5 key learnings in my thank you message, it’s also great way to give feedback on what you found really helpful
A big thank-you to the people that said yes to a conversation about Product Management, and for generously sharing their stories.
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