JJ Miclat

AMA: Zendesk Director of Product Management, JJ Miclat on Product Management Career Path

December 11 @ 9:00AM PT
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Would you advise non-technical PM’s joining a coding bootcamp?
I’m currently looking for new opportunities and I find that when it comes to the final stages of the recruiting process, PMs with more technical skills get the role.
JJ Miclat
Zendesk Director of Product Management1y
As a PM, you should know the architecture of your product's tech-stack, so that you could have meaningful conversations with your engineers about tradeoffs, capabilities,...
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2312 Views
1 request
JJ Miclat
Zendesk Director of Product Management1y
I have a Notion board with three swimlanes - to-do, doing, and done. I groom my to-do list about 3 times a day to ensure the highest prio stuff is next on the queue.I to ...
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1131 Views
1 request
JJ Miclat
Zendesk Director of Product Management1y
in product reviews, when an exec/lead asks you something about your product decision, don’t table it and say “idk, we’ll assess and circle back with you in xx days”, rath...
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2699 Views
1 request
JJ Miclat
Zendesk Director of Product Management1y
Focus on how you drove engagement/retention for your B2B product, and how it ultimately lead to improving renewals and/or increasing upsells to higher tiers, if you made ...
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2778 Views
1 request
JJ Miclat
Zendesk Director of Product Management1y
PMs are able to help engineers with: talking to all different types of customers and prospects, so that we constantly have informed/holistic insights into most impactful...
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2148 Views
1 request
JJ Miclat
Zendesk Director of Product Management1y
get some quick wins under your belt: shepherd a small product/feature/enhancement that’s currently in development out to market launch jump into user research calls to...
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1344 Views
1 request
What's the career path for a 5yr experienced Product Manager to become a leader? What are the steps to prepare oneself for the next step, i.e., becoming a Sr./Director/VP of Product or CEO?
I have worked as Product Manager for the last 5 years collaborating closely with Eng, Design, and Business in both startup and corporate environments.
JJ Miclat
Zendesk Director of Product Management1y
File a request to get a PM intern (if there’s such a program at your company) for direct people management experience Sign up through your company’s mentorship program (...
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1772 Views
1 request
JJ Miclat
Zendesk Director of Product Management1y
the ability to ask questions and synthesize - customers often tell you what they want to see happen in the product, but that may not be the most scalable solution for al...
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1984 Views
1 request
JJ Miclat
Zendesk Director of Product Management1y
Different types of PMs - Core Product Managers, Platform Product Managers, Infra/Internal Product Managers, Data Product Managers, Growth Product Managers, AI Product Man...
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3712 Views
2 requests
JJ Miclat
Zendesk Director of Product Management1y
Coaching my PMs takes priority, people management is a force-multiplier if done correctly/effectively.I make individual contributions only if truly needed - a PM backfill...
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993 Views
1 request