AMA: Cisco Director of Product Management, Neil Kulkarni on Product Management Skills

Speaking from personal experience, people generally work for their managers and less so for the company itself :) Don't get me wrong, the financial aspects and the financial wellbeing of the company you are part of matters ofcourse, but the equation you have with your manager matters a lot as well. What that translates to is, the equation and alignment you have with each individual in your team, is critical to retaining talent. Generally speaking, people thrive when they feel they are learning s ...Read More

Great question ! My perspective on this is - it depends. It all depends on the expectations of the specific role and team you will be part of. Product Management as a role is far from standardized. You will find difference in how product management as a role is practiced in different companies and at different grade levels. Now, if you ask me which aspect I give more weight to when I look for PMs, I would say generally the soft skills, as those are harder to learn quickly. However, its also impo ...Read More

While I do not have context to answer what hurdles you are encountering in your interviews for the role, here are some aspects to consider that might help you:8 years is a long span to move away from a specific career path and want to switch back - are you able to articulate the rationale of why you transitioned to product marketing when you did and why you wish to switch back to the product management path? Are you able to articulate what perspective, skills and knowledge you gained during this ...Read More

Love this one, as I have experienced this myself along the journey so far. Broadly speaking, scope and responsibilities are what changes the most as you get more senior in your role. Yes, along with those comes broader context, broader influence and potential for broader impact (both good and bad) - based on the decisions you and your teams make. Specific to skills, I would say as a product manager, the north star goal is usually being able to make decisions for delivering products and solutions ...Read More

The answer to this question falls in the category of "it depends" :) Let me give a few examples where different approaches would help drive the decision making. Example 1: You are trying to build a new solution/product that has no precedent within the company In this example, you would need to use data to make the business case, however you would also need to make some assumptions around adoption, relevance to customer verticals and likely competitive analysis to guide the narrative. This is an ...Read More

While this is not meant to be an exhaustive list, here are some aspects of experience and skillset that fall between table stakes and highly desired category: Good presentation and communication skills Self driven individual Leadership skills Examples of making an impact on the business, overall business acumen Examples of decision making and rationale of making those decisions Critical and logical thinking ability Grit and resiliency Domain knowledge Examples of stakeholder management and execu ...Read More

For any career transition, it comes down to being clear in your mind and being able to articulate answers to the the following questions "Why" are you seeking this transition ? "What" skills from your previous role will prove favorable as your make this transition and what skills might prove unfavorable ? For example: On the favorable front, knowing how engineering works might help you know the process and collaborate with empathy for your engineering team. However on the unfavorable front, engi ...Read More