AMA: Splunk Director of Product Management, Subu Baskaran on Developing your Product Management Career
February 13 @ 10:00AM PST
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Splunk Director of Product Management, Subu Baskaran on Developing your Product Management Career
Top Questions
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.
Subu Baskaran
Splunk Director of Product Management • February 13
In short, have a long-term perspective on what you are building. As a senior PM, you are more inclined to ship faster. This might look great and temporarily get you the spotlight, but what ultimately matters is the difference it makes to the customer in the long run and how it impacts the company......Read More
421 Views
1 request
Subu Baskaran
Splunk Director of Product Management • February 13
Skills vary at different levels of product management, similar to other functions. In large organizations, product management usually has two tracks: 1) the IC track - PMs can grow as individual contributors to director or even VP (depending on the company size) levels. Again, it's hard to p......Read More
397 Views
1 request
Subu Baskaran
Splunk Director of Product Management • February 13
There is no one silver bullet for a product management candidate. If I were to look for specific traits, definitely high up on the list would be how long a PM candidate explores the “problem space.” Honestly, ideas are a dime a dozen, but understanding a customer problem and isolating the right p......Read More
431 Views
1 request
Subu Baskaran
Splunk Director of Product Management • February 13
The PM-Director role can differ from company to company. Based on my experience, at the Director level, one becomes a people manager managing an area of the business. I see a good Director of PM who understands the changing landscape and has a POV about how your company should navigate the change......Read More
391 Views
1 request
Subu Baskaran
Splunk Director of Product Management • February 13
The answer depends on the size of the company. But if I generalize, if you are a new grad or new to the function, then your first job would be Product Manager. Then, depending on whether you are in B2C or B2B companies, there are different levels with slightly different titles. In B2B tech compan......Read More
418 Views
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Subu Baskaran
Splunk Director of Product Management • February 13
I have worked with PMs who do not have an engineering or CS background but have worked in other functions in a Tech company, such as Project Management, Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success, to name a few. The underlying skills for these functions overlap with the PM job, such as requirements g......Read More
388 Views
1 request
Subu Baskaran
Splunk Director of Product Management • February 13
If you are a new PM in an organization, my advice would be the following: 1. Be curious - learn as much as possible about the customers, users, features, and the system. Talk to as many people as possible and arrive at your point of view. 2. Make allies - Identify engineers, UXdesigne......Read More
402 Views
1 request
Subu Baskaran
Splunk Director of Product Management • February 13
If you are an entry-level product manager or a first-time PM switching from a different function, executing a feature end-to-end is the best place to start. During execution, one can learn system behavior and develop necessary POVs, such as user behavior and the jobs-to-be-done for the persona. D......Read More
582 Views
1 request
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