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Milena Krasteva

AMA: Walmart Sr Director II, Product Management - Marketing Technology, Milena Krasteva on PM Soft and Hard Skills

June 9, 2022 @ 10:00AM PT

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  1. When joining a new team as a product manager, is it better to have the right soft skills and have to learn the hard skills of the job? Or vice versa?

    Milena Krasteva
    Milena Krasteva

    Walmart Sr Director II, Product Management - Marketing Technology • 4y

    This reminds me of an interview question I got a very long time ago: "Is it better to have a bad team or a bad manager". In both cases, you'd rather not find yourself in either extreme. In both cases, there is no right or wrong answer and a lot depends on additional circumstances and assumptions. The answer will also depend on your value system and the experiences which have shaped your core beliefs about human aptitude and potential.  For the sake of argument, if I had to pick, I would first ap ...Read More

    4,095 Views
    1 request

  2. What are mistakes product managers make when trying to get buy in for their roadmap that end up damaging stakeholder relationships?

    Milena Krasteva
    Milena Krasteva

    Walmart Sr Director II, Product Management - Marketing Technology • 4y

    It seems all too easy to NOT get roadmap buy-in. Sometimes, it can feel like the default answer is always "No" at first, and despite all the work you have done, you are getting sent back to the drawing board. Some things that help, not in any particular order: Go as wide as possible early on as pre-work to understand stakeholders' motivations and identify any possible opposition Dig deep to identify the true source of the opposition. Listen a lot, ask questions. Treat this exercise as part of re ...Read More

    1,489 Views
    2 requests

  3. What is the most underrated soft skill of a high performing PM?

    Milena Krasteva
    Milena Krasteva

    Walmart Sr Director II, Product Management - Marketing Technology • 4y

    I'd love to answer this in a slightly different way: The single most important skill, that cannot be rated highly enough is Communication. Many other soft skills are fundamentally still rooted in or are dependent on communication. 

    Nuanced aspects of communication also matter:

    • adapting communication to the audience and situation
    • timing the communication
    • communication in all forms: written, verbal, non-verbal/body language.
    944 Views
    2 requests

  4. What made you decide to choose Product Management over Product Marketing?

    Milena Krasteva
    Milena Krasteva

    Walmart Sr Director II, Product Management - Marketing Technology • 4y

    The two disciplines are very different, despite some intersections on go-to-market, outbound communications, and occasional blurred lines between the roles in some companies regarding strategy and customer requirements. Early on in my career I had the opportunity to simultaneously work in both functions and experience them. Product Management has very broad scope and deals directly with technology. Ultimately, for me, building (or fixing) products felt most rewarding. :)

    979 Views
    1 request

  5. How can someone from a different field like engineering transition to product management?

    Milena Krasteva
    Milena Krasteva

    Walmart Sr Director II, Product Management - Marketing Technology • 4y

    Fairly easily potentially, compared to transitioning from other less-related fields. Product Management is as much art as it is discipline or science. Leveraging technical expertise related to the same or adjacent PM area helps. Some job descriptions will even require engineering experience or area of study. One major pitfall to avoid however, is remaining in "engineering mode" as a PM. As PMs, our focus should be on the WHAT, WHO, and the WHY, whereas Eng/Data Science's focus is more on the HOW ...Read More

    841 Views
    2 requests

  6. What should I do when I don't think that the feedback from my boss is correct and how do I approach it?

    I get a lot of critical feedback from my boss and I don't always know what to do with it or how to improve. Sometimes I don't even agree with the feedback.

    Milena Krasteva
    Milena Krasteva

    Walmart Sr Director II, Product Management - Marketing Technology • 4y

    Even when feedback seems completely unfair, there may be some small nugget to pay attention to. So, in general don't dismiss the feedback without some introspection. Giving objective feedback is actually hard to do; most people can't distinguish between whether it is their own pet peeves that are driving them to provide feedback or if they are reflecting some broader consensus on true weaknesses that need correction. Who should seek to change: the person who got annoyed or the person who is gene ...Read More

    445 Views
    1 request