AMA: Carta Director of Product Management, Anton Kravchenko on Product Management Skills

Your team size, overall organization dynamic, and product maturity all shape the skills you need to improve day-to-day operations. Distilling to the basics, I'd go with t...

My top soft skills: Storytelling: As PMs, we must communicate complex ideas clearly and concisely to a range of stakeholders, including developers, designers, executives...

I like to start by understanding the historical context and how teams arrived at where they are. What decisions were made and why. What worked well and what didn't go acc...

I like to challenge those I hire with questions that don't fit the usual narrative. Below is an example of my Friday fun question: Imagine humans decided to take the moo...

I care less about specific resources and more about the iterative approach to professional growth. True learning comes from building a network of other PMs and subscribin...

Start with your passion for Product Management and DWIT attitude. Find a team who needs an extra pair of hands. Partner with them in your free time. Deliver results that ...

I don't think it's black & white. There is a broader spectrum of colors here. Leverage your superpowers to shine and learn the skills that help you do your job better...

Being a team player and sharing team responsibilities e.g. sharing scrum ceremonies with your EM, will help you be equal partners. Don't forget that while you're doing ...

Classic PM answer - it depends. The longer you are at the organization, the better intuition you will develop. The same applies to the product maturity, e.g. 0-1 vs. 1...

I usually recommend starting with the following books: Cracking the PM Interview by Gayle Laakmann McDowell On Design Thinking by Tim Brown The Lean Startup by Eric Ries...

This is a challenging one, as people's problems could be mentally draining and less exciting to deal with. Tactically, I'd advise speaking with your HR business partner...

[If available] Intern as a PM before applying for a full-time position would put you ahead of other candidates. Read Cracking the PM Interview by Gayle Laakmann McDowell...

This might not be the answer you'd expected ;) I'm a first-generation immigrant, and I didn't really have a choice early in my career. I simply needed a company to spon...

Usually, tech companies organize their teams so that there is a fully dedicated UX designer accompanying each PM. I can't say the same about data teams. Almost in every...