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Product Management Skills

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?

1 Answer

Milena Krasteva

Walmart Sr Director II, Product Management - Marketing Technology • June 9

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.......Read More

972 Views

Should product management decisions be data-driven or more so data-informed? Should Product Managers lead with intuition and use data to back up their assumptions?

4 Answers

Mamuna Oyofo, MBA

Shopify VP of Product • February 9

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 leaning on that intuition. In some cases, you will have data to back up your assumptions and in others you will not. Every situa......Read More

521 Views

What are your thoughts on fully remote product teams? Can they work long-term?

3 Answers

Aleks Bass

Momentive (SurveyMonkey) Vice President Product Management • February 27

There are very few hills from a professional perspective that I would be willing to die on, but this is definitely one of them. I absolutely believe that fully remote product teams can work in the long term. I currently lead a fully remote team and I've seen some of the best product management wo......Read More

518 Views

What real world experience and skillset do your product org look for in potential candidates?

2 Answers

Melissa Ushakov

GitLab Group Manager, Product Management • March 7

There are a couple of things that make some candidates stand out from the rest: * User-focused: The most successful product managers are those that think deeply about people and want to understand them to build great products. Product managers should have contact with end users in some ca......Read More

490 Views

As a hiring manager, what do the best product management candidates have in common?

8 Answers

Mamuna Oyofo, MBA

Shopify VP of Product • February 9

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 constant Learners/curious They are constantly asking questions and actively listening. They are readers and constant consumers of i......Read More

512 Views

What are the most important soft and hard skills PMs can build to become successful in their field going forward?

2 Answers

Apurva Garware

Upwork VP Product and GM • April 28

1. 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 t......Read More

1797 Views

What is your process of setting a vision when you join a new company?

3 Answers

Vasanth Arunachalam

Meta Director, Technical Program Management • August 10

I’m assuming the question is about setting a ‘team’ vision/mission and one doesn’t exist yet. The mission statement is the “What” and the vision statement is an ambitious future state of what the world might look like when you accomplish your mission. A crisp vision/mission statement serves as a......Read More

738 Views

There is often a huge emphasis on analytical skills, instead of UX skills, when it comes to product management job descriptions. What role does UX play in product management?

4 Answers

Mamuna Oyofo, MBA

Shopify VP of Product • February 9

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 building out an existing UX team. I am biased because I have built out product design teams and therefore see true value in anyo......Read More

461 Views

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

3 Answers

Mamuna Oyofo, MBA

Shopify VP of Product • February 9

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 facets of product management incl product design, engineering and product marketing. I wanted to do a bit of a deep dive in each o......Read More

499 Views

What advice do you have for recent graduates that want to go straight into product management?

2 Answers

Mamuna Oyofo, MBA

Shopify VP of Product • February 9

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 skills or experience 4. Fill those gaps :) Take a course, read, volunteer to build something. 5. Network and build a grou......Read More

505 Views