AMA: ActiveCampaign Director of Product Management, Veronica Hudson on SMB Product Management

There is always going to be some nuance to individual features or problem sets based on a company being SMB, MM or Enterprise. However, I do believe that many features can still be used across business types, it really comes down to pricing, positioning and packaging. For example, you might have a feature that is intially only available via API. In many cases, an enterprise customer will likely be best-equipped resource-wise to take that on, given that they have in-house engineering resources. O ...Read More

This varies by organization. Regardless of the size of your product team, you should have the expectations for each level of product well defined and socialized throughout the organization (typically APM, PM, SPM, Group or Principle PM, Director etc). Even if you are only a team of one, it helps to have these levels defined, especially if you hope to hire new team members in the future or you want to make a case for yourself down the road for a promotion. That being said, I take a number of fact ...Read More

Everyone is going to make new mistakes coming into a PM role depending on where they are starting from. For me, my biggest mistake was letting my own imposter syndrome take over. I had worked so hard to move from a CSM role into product and once it finally happened, I couldn't get rid of the voice in my head saying, "Wow you are so lucky they *let* you move into product, don't screw it up, because you definitely have no idea what you are doing!" While this was kind of true (I really didn't know ...Read More

The biggest change is the importance product plays in customer acquisition via trials and retaining customers past the 90-day onboarding period. When a product is self-serve, a PM should be paying attention to how their features drive trial conversion and the role they play in the customer onboarding process. This is often determined by identifying the drivers of PQLs (product qualified leads). So, for example, if we know customers that convert always use some combination of X, Y, and Z features ...Read More

As someone who moved from a CSM role into product management, I get asked this question frequently. While my answers are specific to my own experience, I've seen them work for others that have moved into product roles as well: The most straightforward way to break into product management is to make an internal move. However, this does not mean you should take whatever job is open as a means to an end. If you come into a role with a clear objective to leverage that into a PM job, it won't be rece ...Read More

I think of product management skill sets in three major buckets: technical, business, and customer understanding. When I talk to aspiring product managers, I like to gauge the maturity of their skills sets in each of these buckets. Ideally a candidate would be strong in one bucket, have some basic understanding in another, and be actively working to hone a third (although I wouldn't expect any sort of proficiency). A good example of this would be a CSM. They likely have a very strong understandi ...Read More

Any time I've accepted or considered accepting an offer from another organization, there are a few things I take into consideration: Why am I interested in this opportunity? What new challenges or opportunities does it present me that I am not getting in my current role? For example, am I wanting to step into an opportunity that is within my comfort zone so I can lean into honing my product and leadership chops? Or do I want to enter a new vertical/industry so I can diversify my skill set? Am I ...Read More