Meta

Expanding the team from 1 to multiple people comes with a set of pitfalls that I’ve learned the hard way. And many other factors such as Org culture, line of business, product lifecycle etc, have a telling effect on the type of pitfalls you’ll encounter, so take this with a grain of salt. Here ar...more

Prioritization is key. I don’t believe in dividing ‘all’ available work across my team. I believe in ensuring my team focuses on the top business priorities and are having the most impact. I typically encourage my team to do a few things but do those really well and not ‘peanut butter’ themselves...more

I talked a lot about evaluating the success of a program, measuring the success of a Technical PM etc in my last AMA on the topic of "Technical Product Management".  https://sharebird.com/h/product-management/ama/meta-head-of-technical-program-management-vasanth-arunachalam-on-technical-produc...more

Building with intent is key. As a first PM or TPM, you are often running a one-person show. You wear multiple hats and you tend to be scrappy, flexing to what the business needs you to do. That approach works wonders up to a certain scale but soon exposes its flaws. When you think about scaling o...more

I love this question. Typically one does not boot strap their career as a Technical PM, at least not until recently (Some companies including Meta are hiring Technical PM interns now who start their career as a TPMs which is great). So the most common TPM career progression stems from Engineering...more

I’ll try to answer this question to the best extent possible because I havent worked at a company that had formal SCRUM master roles. My understanding is that the SCRUM master focuses on ensuring the team and the individual team members are set up for success (via daily stand ups, educating on be...more

“Change is the only constant” is a cliched phrase in the industry but the reality is not far off in many lines of businesses. At Meta we often get to work with the best available information in hand and not afraid of pivoting when that information changes. That comes with a degree of ambiguity, c...more

For the first part of the question - * I stared my career as an Individual contributor IC) and as you know that is all about specific product/platform strategy and top notch execution. I talked about the day to day of an IC in my previous AMA. * When I transitioned to a manager role with...more

My current product team has about 40 PMs (And we are hiring!). I would not dive into what each of the team does, but maybe talk about how we went about structuring it, which may be a more transferable skill. When I first joined Meta my VP asked me if the current team structure is the right one...more

I love this question! It happens a lot and working through it is part of our role as PMs. There are a few layers to my approach here: First, start with building the relationship. (I hope this theme is clear by now ;-). While your goals may conflict, at a higher level you are playing for the sa...more