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Anton Kravchenko

AMA: Carta Director of Product Management, Anton Kravchenko on Developing Your Product Management Career


February 3, 2022 @ 10:00AM PT

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  1. What is your favorite product management interview question and the best answer you've heard?

    Anton Kravchenko
    Anton Kravchenko

    Carta Sr. Director of Product Management | Formerly Salesforce, MuleSoft, Apple • 4y

    My favorite interview question was asked by a hiring manager ~8 years ago when I interviewed for an Associate PM position at MuleSoft. I was asked the following: "Imagine humans decided to take the moon and put it through a giant chopper/grinder. The mass that comes out of the chopper is being dumped on the surface of the earth. The question was - do you need an oxygen mask to climb on the top of this mass" This is a quantitative question that is typically asked in the PM interviews, but more fu ...Read More

    2,328 Views
    2 requests
  2. What's the best way to break into the tech industry as a product manager?

    Anton Kravchenko
    Anton Kravchenko

    Carta Sr. Director of Product Management | Formerly Salesforce, MuleSoft, Apple • 4y

    There are different paths that each product manager takes, but the common ones I've seen are: 1. Joining a tech company as an Associate PM or an intern straight from college. For college grads, I suggest starting by connecting with other product managers (e.g. via LinkedIn) to better understand what we do. There are great books available on this topic as well -- "Cracking PM Interview" is among my favorites. I also created a series of videos explaining tech jobs and what do I do in more detail - ...Read More

    1,581 Views
    3 requests
  3. What are the biggest frustrations you have as a product manager?

    Anton Kravchenko
    Anton Kravchenko

    Carta Sr. Director of Product Management | Formerly Salesforce, MuleSoft, Apple • 4y

    My biggest frustration is that I let people down. Currently, I work with teams of 50+ people, which means I need to be available all the time. The more senior as a PM you become the more folks you need to work with. Time becomes the most valuable thing and I'm still learning how to manage it effectively.

    1,442 Views
    3 requests
  4. What framework do you use when assessing a new opportunity at a different company?

    Anton Kravchenko
    Anton Kravchenko

    Carta Sr. Director of Product Management | Formerly Salesforce, MuleSoft, Apple • 4y

    To make the decision, I think of opportunity, ambitions, passion, and time: Opportunity - obviously there is a matter of compensation, but there is also an opportunity for professional growth. For example, joining a startup allows you to grow much quicker -- you will be wearing different hats and working much closer to the company leadership. You will make a lot of mistakes, but the learnings will be much greater. Ambitions - depending on where you at in life, different things might take a prior ...Read More

    1,026 Views
    2 requests
  5. What's a typical product manager career path?

    Anton Kravchenko
    Anton Kravchenko

    Carta Sr. Director of Product Management | Formerly Salesforce, MuleSoft, Apple • 4y

    There are different paths that each product manager takes, but the common ones I've seen are: 1. Joining a tech company as an Associate PM or an intern straight from college. For college grads, I suggest starting by connecting with other product managers (e.g. via LinkedIn) to better understand what we do. There are great books available on this topic as well -- "Cracking PM Interview" is among my favorites. I also created a series of videos explaining tech jobs and what do I do in more detail - ...Read More

    3,615 Views
    2 requests
  6. What are the different types of product managers, and how do you figure out which type you're the best fit for?

    Anton Kravchenko
    Anton Kravchenko

    Carta Sr. Director of Product Management | Formerly Salesforce, MuleSoft, Apple • 4y

    There are different ways you can think about it, but I like to think about PMs as those that build new products (0-->1) and PMs that come in to manage an existing product (1-->N). 0-->1: Product Managers who build a new product or service from scratch often need to innovate, which means building something that no one else has built before.  1-->N: Joining a company to own an existing product, also means that product-market fit has been already established. As a PM you will focus on s ...Read More

    1,265 Views
    2 requests
  7. How do the skills you need differ across the different levels of product management?

    Anton Kravchenko
    Anton Kravchenko

    Carta Sr. Director of Product Management | Formerly Salesforce, MuleSoft, Apple • 4y

    Let me break it down by covering 3 different levels of PMs: Associate PM -- the bar here is that you have great critical thinking, clear communication, energy, and a mix of CS and business degree.  Senior PM -- in addition to the above, you must have a track record of previously released products and features. The experience here is what matters as you learn how to avoid mistakes. You also know what Product Management is all about e.g. market, users, technology, etc. As a Sr PM, you don't need t ...Read More

    1,029 Views
    4 requests
  8. How do you decide if you should follow the IC PM path or the people leader PM path?

    Anton Kravchenko
    Anton Kravchenko

    Carta Sr. Director of Product Management | Formerly Salesforce, MuleSoft, Apple • 4y

    Different folks would enjoy different things e.g. if you are an introvert -- the IC track might be more suitable as you will be spending a good chunk of your time creating docs, prototypes, etc. It's fun -- just a different kind of fun. If your personality craves people interactions, the people leader track might be more appropriate.  Being a good people manager is hard, you need to lead by example and support your team whenever they need you. You also need to be comfortable with confronting peo ...Read More

    1,167 Views
    3 requests
  9. How do you think about staying within a company versus looking for opportunities outside? When do you know it's time to leave?

    Anton Kravchenko
    Anton Kravchenko

    Carta Sr. Director of Product Management | Formerly Salesforce, MuleSoft, Apple • 4y

    To make this decision, I think of opportunity, ambitions, passion, and time: Opportunity - obviously there is a matter of compensation, but there is also an opportunity for professional growth. For example, joining a startup allows you to grow much quicker -- you will be wearing different hats and working much closer to the company leadership. You will make a lot of mistakes, but the learnings will be much greater. Ambitions - depending on where you at in life, different things might take a prio ...Read More

    1,019 Views
    4 requests
  10. If I don't want to be a CPO or GM, what future executive role should I be shooting for as a PM?

    Anton Kravchenko
    Anton Kravchenko

    Carta Sr. Director of Product Management | Formerly Salesforce, MuleSoft, Apple • 4y

    If you enjoy Product, a typical path is either to become a people manager, remain IC, or quit to start your own thing. In big companies like Salesforce, there are plenty of Director level individual contributors (ICs), so if you don't want to manage other PMs, you are better off in a bigger company where you can focus on one specific product. 

    1,069 Views
    2 requests
  11. What metrics do you use to justify a pay raise?

    Anton Kravchenko
    Anton Kravchenko

    Carta Sr. Director of Product Management | Formerly Salesforce, MuleSoft, Apple • 4y

    It's less about metrics and more about the outcomes you are creating for the business. For example, you might bring 10,000 new users or improve a UX for a specific feature -- but what matters at the end of the day is how you impacted the business. Has any of that made the business grow faster or made it more resilient among competitors? Depending on the company size and what you do, some outcomes might be more obvious than others -- for example, there was a time when I worked as a PM for a relat ...Read More

    1,351 Views
    2 requests
  12. What's something that you didn't know it took to become a Director back when you were a senior product manager?

    Something that you didn't know you would need to do that you only realized later.

    Anton Kravchenko
    Anton Kravchenko

    Carta Sr. Director of Product Management | Formerly Salesforce, MuleSoft, Apple • 4y

    Typically, promotions are the result of an individual's performance and business needs. In other words, it's hard to make a case for becoming a Director if your area can be covered by a single Sr PM, so both you and your product area need to grow.  PM Directors are also people managers who hire and build a team of other Product Managers. Having good people skills is important but you also need to be a great PM, so you can lead and help your team of Product Managers grow.  Finally, shifting to be ...Read More

    1,126 Views
    5 requests
  13. What has been the most surprising thing about being a Director that you only realized after you were promoted?

    Anton Kravchenko
    Anton Kravchenko

    Carta Sr. Director of Product Management | Formerly Salesforce, MuleSoft, Apple • 4y

    Leveling up to Dr level meant being a point of contact for many people at the company, which meant more inquiries from sales, customers, leadership, and other product teams. Since I got promoted, my inbox and # of slack messages doubled :) 

    My learning from this experience is that you want to document as much of the process as possible so people outside of your team can find SMEs and relevant information for your area. 

    1,113 Views
    3 requests