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AMA: Chainguard Senior Director of Product Management, Julian Dunn on Product Management Career Path

November 6 @ 9:00AM PT

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How do I shape my job title for a pivot into product?

I'm on the partnerships team at a big tech company and am hoping to move towards product roles. I have some flexibility in shaping my job title (early career). While of course a job title isn't the core thing that will help my pivot to product, what partnerships job titles would be most helpful in making that pivot?

Julian Dunn•

Chainguard Senior Director of Product Management • 1y

To pivot into product management from partnerships/bizdev, you first want to think about performing a role in partnerships that requires you to work closely with product ...

536 Views

1 request

As you look at upcoming trends, what key areas or focuses do you think PMs should focus on to help them stay marketable?

I'm on a career break and am looking to expand my skill set! Would love to know areas you think I should study before I return back to the field

Julian Dunn•

Chainguard Senior Director of Product Management • 1y

After the many rounds of layoffs in both big and small tech over the last few years, PMs are being asked to become more well-rounded business leaders -- not just be the i...

580 Views

1 request

While there's a lot of PM roles available now, there's also a lot of candidates applying. How would you suggest optimizing your resume or application process to stand out and get an interview?

Julian Dunn•

Chainguard Senior Director of Product Management • 1y

I'll be blunt: because of the huge number of PMs on the market right now, you need to either have or find a connection into the company where you want to work. Simply opt...

636 Views

1 request

How do you suggest transitioning into a different PM field? (E.g. if you're an internal PM, and you want to be a B2C PM, or growth PM, or B2B PM, how do you go about gaining the needed skills/making yourself more marketable?)

Julian Dunn•

Chainguard Senior Director of Product Management • 1y

Congratulations -- you are already a PM, so you're starting from a position of strength. Regardless of whether you are an internal PM, platform PM, B2B PM, B2C PM, etc. t...

532 Views

1 request

How do you measure your own success in your role and how much have those performance indicators evolved as you grew within your role?

Julian Dunn•

Chainguard Senior Director of Product Management • 1y

Being a manager of PMs is a completely different job, with substantially different performance indicators than being an IC PM. For example, there is no way I can be the d...

399 Views

1 request

There are different frameworks to prioritize the product backlog. How practical is the use of such frameworks? How to manage top management expectations?

Julian Dunn•

Chainguard Senior Director of Product Management • 1y

Hopefully you have a senior/executive management team that believes in data-informed decision making. Data, by the way, is not just quantitative data (e.g. # of customers...

423 Views

1 request

What are differences between PM and Sr. PM? What are clear indicators that someone is ready to take on Sr. PM role and responsibilities that come with it? And, when in the Sr. PM role, what are key stages that distinguish different levels of Sr. PMs?

Julian Dunn•

Chainguard Senior Director of Product Management • 1y

PM I/II/III is primarily about execution. Someone else comes up with an idea/initiative and a PM at this level largely takes direction, writes briefs/PRDs assuming that t...

420 Views

1 request