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Product Management Career Path

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

1455 Views

What framework do you use when assessing a new opportunity at a different company?

7 Answers

Anton Kravchenko

Carta Director of Product Management • February 3

To make the decision, I think of opportunity, ambitions, passion, and time: 1. Opportunity - obviously there is a matter of compensation, but there is also an opportunity for professional growth. For example, joining a startup allows you to grow much quicker -- you will be wearing diffe......Read More

306 Views

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

3 Answers

Mamuna Oyofo, MBA

Shopify VP of Product • February 9

The biggest mistake I will mention here is not getting stakeholder buy-in. A lot of times we make assumptions about what people want and do not take the time ahead of to understand needs. Speak to those needs and share any constraints. Work to bring alignment across stakeholders. In the end, stak......Read More

614 Views

What is the qualities of a Product Manager that impresses their Engineering counterparts and thereby allows the PM to build influence with the Eng team?

4 Answers

Anton Kravchenko

Carta Director of Product Management • March 14

Being a team player and sharing team responsibilities e.g. sharing scrum ceremonies with your EM, will help you be equal partners. Don't forget that while you're doing customer calls, aligning stakeholders, or writing PRDs, your EM is directly managing the engineering team. This takes energy ......Read More

371 Views

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

9 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

630 Views

Possible overlaps btw Product Managers, Business Owners and Marketing

Hi all, I was just reading an article by Marty Cagan about the scenario of Business Owners "versus" Product Managers, especially for companies using a matrix organization. Now, I'm living in a similar situation, and not only in the case of Business Owners, but it seems that depending on the side of the organization, the scope of Product Managers is divided more than expected, causing various types of issues. So, I'm curious if other companies, big or small, have also had to deal with this. Here's the link to the article: https://www.svpg.com/product-managers-vs-business-owners/

1 Answer

Casey Flinn

Realtor.com Sr. Director, Product Operations • July 26

Ah yes, I remember this article :) I think the key point Marty makes is "Things go wrong when these two roles are not clearly defined." There are two aspects of "defined" to work out here. From a management and org structure perspective, there needs to be definition of who is accountable for what......Read More

387 Views

What are the most important product management skills or perspectives that others inside an organization could benefit from that would improve their day to day?

Running a "Think Like a Product Manager" course next month and would love to hear others'

2 Answers

Anton Kravchenko

Carta Director of Product Management • March 14

Your team size, overall organization dynamic, and product maturity all shape the skills you need to improve day-to-day operations. Distilling to the basics, I'd go with the following: * Customer Focus: PMs who put the customer at the center of their decision-making process often help other d......Read More

428 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?

5 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

512 Views

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

3 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

542 Views

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. What should I do when I don't think the feedback is correct?

4 Answers

Mamuna Oyofo, MBA

Shopify VP of Product • February 9

I like to look at feedback as a gift and approach it with an open mind. How I would approach this is: 1. Do some soul searching :) understanding your own communication style. How do you communicate? How do you like to be communicated to? What things help you stay open minded? What things make yo......Read More

360 Views