AMA: GitLab Group Manager, Product Management, Melissa Ushakov on Product Management Career Path

One question I love to ask is: "Tell me about a time when a conversation with a customer made you realize that your product direction was wrong." I have heard so many great stories about dispelling assumptions by talking to customers. One of my favorite stories was when a PM did generative research about the biggest problems their users faced with their product. They found that the feature that they were planning to spend the greater part of their upcoming capacity on was not mentioned at all! W ...Read More

One very common frustration is not being able to make everyone happy. As a product manager, your job is to hear many perspectives, which may be at odds with each other, and you don't have infinite time or people to get everything done. It's so tempting to invest a little in many areas in an attempt to move them all forward. When PMs (myself included) feel this way, it's critical to remember that the most important thing a product manager can provide is focus and space to solve the problems that ...Read More

Before gaining influence, you have to gain your team's trust. One question I love to ask when I join a team is: "What are the biggest challenges the team experiences? How can I help?". Gather this information from many members of your team and people the team collaborates with. Usually, I can derive a list of action items based on their answers, and I can suggest a few more things that I can do to help. In this initial conversation, focus on what you can do and not what you think they could chan ...Read More

Working at GitLab for the last three years has shown me that fully remote teams can work and be highly effective. Teams at GitLab are remote and highly distributed and work asynchronously first. For example, we run all the typical agile ceremonies (refinement, spring planning, sprint retrospective, standups, etc.) asynchronously. This way of working provides a high degree of documentation for all decisions, allows for greater collaboration, and more thought to be put behind critical decisions.  ...Read More

It's important to be transparent with your manager about your career aspirations and then align on the criteria for a promotion. Create an actionable plan to close any gaps and track progress against it. I have had these conversations with my manager several times over the years to prepare for my own promotions, and conversations I've had with my team now as a manager.  At GitLab, we have a career development framework that outlines competencies and levels https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/produ ...Read More

Contributing myself and supporting my team can be at odds with each other. Coaching and supporting my team is always my number one priority. There are times when I simply need to say no and deprioritize things to ensure I have enough time to support my team.  It's important to have open communication with my team about what I am working on, and it's something we talk about during our weekly one on ones. Sometimes someone on my team is interested in something that's on my plate, and they voluntee ...Read More

The answer here is extremely nuanced and will vary from situation to situation. There's a phrase from Graham Weston that has stuck with me from my time at Rackspace: “What we all want from work is to be valued members of a winning team on an inspiring mission.” When that phrase no longer rings true for me, and I see no way to achieve that in my current role, it's time to look for opportunities within the company. If there is no way to achieve this within the company, then it is time to look for ...Read More

There are a couple of things that make some candidates stand out from the rest: User-focused: The most successful product managers are those that think deeply about people and want to understand them to build great products. Product managers should have contact with end users in some capacity at least once a week, and that's what I prefer to see in candidates for roles in my team. What user contact means will depend on whether they are experienced product managers or new to the role. Almost ever ...Read More

TL;DR - Be clear about what you want to learn and then ask for help. You'll find most people are eager to help others grow. Before finding a mentor, it's critical to think about what you are hoping to accomplish with mentorship. I think of it almost like writing the job description and measures of success :). Based on that job description, you can now determine who would be the best people to fill that role. Who is an example of the traits you want to have, or who has accomplished what you want ...Read More

Domain experience is not at the top of the list of things I look for in a candidate. I have changed domains a couple of times in my career and it has helped me get a richer perspective. For this reason, I prefer to see some variety in product management candidates.  Domain experience can be a challenge in some scenarios and I have faced this problem in the past when interviewing for roles. There are a couple of techniques I have applied: Do enough research to learn the fundamentals. It is import ...Read More