AMA: Shopify VP of Product, Mamuna (Oyofo) Oladipo on PM Soft and Hard Skills

The biggest mistake I will mention here is not getting stakeholder buy-in. A lot of times we make assumptions about what people want and do not take the time ahead of to ...

There is definitely a fine line here. Every decision cannot be data driven and will likely be informed to some extent BUT part of the excitment of product management is l...

It likely depends on the type of role you are entering into, the focus and phase of the product. It also will likely depend on whether the company has invested a lot in b...

I personally believe this to be communication. Often times, we as PMs dive heads down into a problem with understanding that we need to have a time with us to do the work...

The hard skills that come to mind for me are: 1. Technical - This is going to vary depending on the type of career you want to have and the company you want to work for....

To be a strong product manager, you will have to learn to balance your art in the science. That is your hard and soft skills. When you are new to a team, naturally you w...

I'm a fan of pairing. Often times Engineering works so closely with product, it is easy enough to sit more closely with your product partner and work through problems tog...

I like to look at feedback as a gift and approach it with an open mind. How I would approach this is: 1. Do some soul searching :) understanding your own communication st...

I am very much a systems thinker and like to understand the whole. I started my product career focusing on product management but quickly was exposed to the different fac...

1. Understand what about product management is interesting to you 2. Research roles and opportunities that speak to what you find interesting 3. Identify the gaps in your...

My personal take is that when I am speaking with strong product candidates, I can see a few qualities shine through in their story. For me, those are: 1. They are consta...

I personally have been teaching at The Product School and have seen benefits/value from those coming out of the course. It is really going to come down to your own learni...

It's hard for me to think anyone is 'doomed' per se but I would make this a focus area if you are truly trying to get into product management. Making smart decisions quic...

Answered another question about hard skills. I don't think its generally necessary for PMs to read code but I do think it is important for you to understand the concept/p...