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Jacqueline Porter

AMA: GitLab Director of Product Management, Jacqueline Porter on Product Management Skills

October 2, 2024 @ 10:00AM PT

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  1. How do you retain good talent, especially when PM roles are in such high demand across the industry?

    Jacqueline Porter
    Jacqueline Porter

    IBM Product Management • 1y

    Product managers are ambitious, goal-oriented, and passionate people (generally). When managing, growing, and retaining these types of individuals I like to keep in mind the following: Tie personal goals to business goals Identify side projects to help create opportunities for future growth Revisit long-term career aspirations every 12 weeks and see what they are doing to get skills toward that Connect them to people that will help them grow skills that they want to grow in Approaching each PM a ...Read More

    840 Views
    1 request

  2. As a hiring manager, what do the best product management candidates have in common?

    Jacqueline Porter
    Jacqueline Porter

    IBM Product Management • 1y

    The most memorable product manager candidates have a track record of

    • delivering customer value

    • proactively thinking about problems

    • a growth mindset

    In reflection, be prepared to represent your best outcomes and results. Also, show how you want to keep reaching for more. Ambition is impressive in a PM - personally and for the company results. Anticipating risking and edge cases is a great signal that the PM is proactive in planning as well.

    1,115 Views
    1 request

  3. Is an aspiring PM who struggles with decision making absolutely doomed as they consider pursuing PM?

    Jacqueline Porter
    Jacqueline Porter

    IBM Product Management • 1y

    Product managers are important for a number of reasons: Prioritization to ensure business deliverables are done in the highest value order possible A single point of reference for the business to make trade-offs Consistency of customer voice in the product portfolio Decision making is not always the task at hand. Sometimes the Product Manager needs to assemble the right people, SMEs, customer context, market information, and present that to the business leaders for a decision. Then the product m ...Read More

    660 Views
    1 request

  4. How can someone from a different field like engineering transition to product management?

    Jacqueline Porter
    Jacqueline Porter

    IBM Product Management • 1y

    Product management is not a field that someone usually formally studies for and gets into. This is typically a field where someone gains domain expertise and transitions into the product role to represent the customer and value for a business. Transitioning from any role into another role usually means having translatable skills. Between engineering and product there is a lot of context that is shared: Processes for building software User expectations and behaviors when interacting with software ...Read More

    495 Views
    1 request

  5. When joining a new team, is it better to have the right soft skills and have to learn the hard skills of the job? Or vice versa?

    Jacqueline Porter
    Jacqueline Porter

    IBM Product Management • 1y

    As with most things - the answer really depends! Although, I have found that being a product manager boils down to 4 main skills: Customer empathy Setting expectations Growth mindset Action bias In many cases, deeply understanding the customer's problems and needs helps you build the proper technical acumen over time. Market sizing, competitive analysis, prioritization, and opportunity assessments can have a spectrum of accountability by role in different organizations. TL;DR - soft skills offer ...Read More

    710 Views
    1 request