AMA: Upwork VP Product and GM, Talent Marketplace, Apurva Garware on Consumer Product Management

Ability to communicate well - Someone told me early in my career: The single most important PM skill he looks for when hiring a PM is communication. Communication is really a proxy for building trust, driving alignment, having healthy debates when there’s conflict and committing to a path forward. That’s all under the hood of good communication, and is instrumental in driving product teams forward. Data driven mindset - relevant to qual as much as to quant. Ask yourself and teams the right quest ...Read More

Obviously this looks different at varying levels of tenure and experience, but key themes are: Customer focus Business impact People / relationships Customer focus speaks to if this person is able to put themselves in the shoes of the customer, whether b2b or b2c, and experience the product the way our end users do. Can they empathize with the user we are building for and their unmet needs? But this needs to tie back to results and impact. Is this person able to understand what success looks lik ...Read More

B2B and B2C PM’s bring very different strong suits. It’s not to say one is better than the other, but they come with different competencies. I’ve observed that B2B PMs are systems thinkers. They think end to end and consider what it takes to build a robust business at scale. This runs the full spectrum from security to payments to tools for administration and operations. This is a great skill set in a world where many businesses are moving online and there’s a high impetus for trusted and safe e ...Read More

This ends up being a function of what company you work for and what industry/domain your company is in. As a general principle, your organizational chart should always reflect the vision and strategy that your company is working on, not the other way around. Otherwise, you risk shipping your org chart. I’d recommend that you don’t figure out resourcing and organization until you know what you are solving and why. Once you have that, then you can determine what structure sets your teams up for su ...Read More

Early in your career, focus on absorbing and learning as much as you can -- what product management is, what plays naturally to your strengths and interests. Explore, be hungry, be curious. Tap into what really excites you and you’ll discover what you really enjoy. Lean into opportunities to gather different skills and gain exposure to different industries and domains. By the time you hit mid-career and know you want to do consumer product management, you’ll also get a sense for what you enjoy a ...Read More