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,
Product Management Career Path
1 answer
Sr Director II, Product Management - Marketing Technology at Walmart • June 10
Something that you didn't know you would need to do that you only realized later.
4 answers
Director of Product Management at Carta | Formerly Salesforce, MuleSoft, Apple • February 3
Typically, promotions are the result of an individual's performance and business
needs. In other words, it's hard to make a case for becoming a Director if your
area can be covered by a single Sr PM,
Senior Director, Product Management at Headspace Health • August 23
This is a mix of both seniority as well as working at a high-growth private
company but clarifying R&Rs to ensure teams are built to maximize impact while
minimizing management overhead is somethi
Senior Director of Product Management at GitHub • December 2
A few of things: Know what, when and how to delegate. Delegation has such a
negative connotation in industry (being seen as letting garbage flow downhill)
but I believe this is because so many manage
Director of Product Management (Cloud Platform) at Atlassian • March 29
Leadership levels require a broad set of skills and experience, as well as a
strong commitment to leadership, team mentoring and cross-functional
collaboration. A lot of time is spent in deciding the
3 answers
Director of Product Management at Carta | Formerly Salesforce, MuleSoft, Apple • February 3
Let me break it down by covering 3 different levels of PMs: Associate PM -- the
bar here is that you have great critical thinking, clear communication, energy,
and a mix of CS and business degree. S
Head of Product, Enterprise Agility at Atlassian • November 10
Let's take a look at common milestones of a product management career, and which
skills you need the most on each level. This not an exhaustive list, but you can
see the trends of how the skillset evo
Director of Product Management (Cloud Platform) at Atlassian • March 29
For a PM or Sr. PM, the skills needed are: Strategic thinking and ability to
develop product roadmaps that align with company goals Deep understanding of
customer/user issues and product development
5 answers
Head of Product, Enterprise Agility at Atlassian • February 17
1. Storytelling. You need to be able to tie many disparate pieces of product
work - user needs, business goals, technical limitaitons, competitive landscape,
innovation opportunities - into a coherent
Senior Director, Product Management at Headspace Health • August 23
Exemplary people leadership (ability to bring people along) Strong relationships
across various functions (including non-R&D teams) - get done what's needed to
solve a problem, and get products l
Sr Director II, Product Management - Marketing Technology at Walmart • October 7
1. Communication 2. Execution 3. Domain expertise I'd add stakeholder management
as an important one but I can only do the top 3 :)
Senior Director of Product Management at GitHub • December 2
My answer to this depends a lot on whether the "director" title includes people
management or not. Personally, I believe that it should, and that the IC
(individual contributor) track should only use
Director of Product Management (Cloud Platform) at Atlassian • March 29
The 3 top areas I think are: Leadership and team management Managing a team of
product managers, as well as collaborating with cross-functional teams across
the organization is key. Provide feedback
Any tips, strategy, success stories?
3 answers
Head of Product, Enterprise Agility at Atlassian • February 17
See my answer above on breaking into tech as a PM for one of the options.
Another option, if you are a mid-to-senior career professional is to build ties
with your product team internally. Product lea
Senior Director, Product Management at Headspace Health • August 24
Generally, where I’ve seen people best succeed in transitioning is when you
change one dimension at a time. So, either change your company, role or
industry. Trying to move across several things is ha
Director of Product Management (Cloud Platform) at Atlassian • March 29
It can be challenging to break into PM space but here are a few tips: 1. Switch
roles to PM within your current organization: this is the best path as you
already have a good understanding of your com
2 answers
Director of Product Management at Carta | Formerly Salesforce, MuleSoft, Apple • February 3
There are different ways you can think about it, but I like to think about PMs
as those that build new products (0-->1) and PMs that come in to manage an
existing product (1-->N). 0-->1: Pro
Director of Product Management (Cloud Platform) at Atlassian • March 29
Some key types I have encountered are: UX/UI product managers: These product
managers are responsible for the user experience and user interface of a
product. Platform product managers: These produc
2 answers
Head of Product, Enterprise Agility at Atlassian • November 10
Check out my other answer in this AMA to a question asked by someone from a
construction industry. You can repurpose the steps I outlined in that answer to
your situation. The key parts to figure out
Director of Product Management (Cloud Platform) at Atlassian • March 29
Some key tips are: - Research the industry: what are the specific areas within
SAAS you are most interested in? Follow newsletters, influencers and
publications/conferences. Network with relevant lead
2 answers
Group Manager, Product Management at GitLab • March 8
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
Director of Product Management (Cloud Platform) at Atlassian • March 29
- Soft skills such as communication, teamwork, adaptability, and a willingness
to learn are also important for any product organization. - Work with
Engineering on a day to day basis to help build a p
8 answers
VP of Product at Shopify • 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 c
Product Management Area Lead at Asana • May 18
For me the biggest differentiator is having a growth mindset. This doesn't just
mean they want to make an impact and improve as a PM. For me it comes down to
three things: They have a sense of what t
Senior Product Lead at Shopify | Formerly Salesforce, Google, Nest, Cisco Systems • July 27
They teach you something in the interview I once interviewed a woman who had
extensive experience working for a telecommunications company. I have zero
experience in telco – aside from being a custo
Senior Director, Product Management at Headspace Health • August 24
A few things: A very deep understanding of the problems they are looking to
solve. This gets reflected in how they speak about past experiences (why did you
choose to work on a specific problem, what
Director of Product, Fulfillment at ezCater | Formerly Wayfair, Abstract, CustomMade, Sonicbids • November 8
I'll speak to commonalities in IC PMs since I have less experience hiring other
product leaders. It's really just 4 things in my view: A clear ability to break
down complex, multi-faceted problems in
Head of Product, Enterprise Agility at Atlassian • November 10
Best product management candidates craft compelling, concise and inspirational
narratives when they interview. They demonstrate clarity of thinking, knowing
both the facts and the "why" behind their a
Product Leadership - Ads, Personalization & ML/ AI at Meta | Formerly Stripe, Flipkart, Yahoo • January 18
The best Product managers combine curiosity with structured problem solving
skills. Being curious helps them look at problems as opportunities to learn &
grow. Ability to frame & structure a p
Director of Product Management (Cloud Platform) at Atlassian • March 29
The best PM's have: - Strong leadership and communication skills. To be able to
talk to customers, stakeholders, and leadership with the right context. They are
good at leading teams with ambiguous pr
2 answers
VP Product and GM at Upwork • April 28
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
Director of Product Management at Carta | Formerly Salesforce, MuleSoft, Apple • March 15
My top soft skills: Storytelling: As PMs, we must communicate complex ideas
clearly and concisely to a range of stakeholders, including developers,
designers, executives, and customers. Personally, I