Product Management Career Path

What's something that you didn't know it took to become a Director back when you were a senior product manager?

Something that you didn't know you would need to do that you only realized later.

5 Answers

Carta Sr. Director of Product Management • 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, so both you and your product area need to grow. PM Directors are also people managers who hire ......Read More

659 Views

How do the skills you need differ across the different levels of product management?

4 Answers

Anton Kravchenko

Carta Sr. Director of Product Management • February 3

Let me break it down by covering 3 different levels of PMs: 1. Associate PM -- the bar here is that you have great critical thinking, clear communication, energy, and a mix of CS and business degree. 2. Senior PM -- in addition to the above, you must have a track record of previously ......Read More

635 Views

What do you think is top 3 skills a PM should have acquired to move to director level?

6 Answers

Natalia Baryshnikova

Atlassian Head of Product, Enterprise Agility • 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, compelling narrative. A director can fill in the blanks in the following sentences with ease: "......Read More

765 Views

What's a typical product manager career path?

5 Answers

Anton Kravchenko

Carta Sr. Director of Product Management • February 4

There are different paths that each product manager takes, but the common ones I've seen are: 1. Joining a tech company as an Associate PM or an intern straight from college. For college grads, I suggest starting by connecting with other product managers (e.g. via LinkedIn) to better understand......Read More

1826 Views

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

12 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

1238 Views

What pointed recommendations do you have on gaining influence as a new member of an organization or as a junior product management team member?

3 Answers

Natalia Baryshnikova

Atlassian Head of Product, Enterprise Agility • November 10

Your ability to create value quickly will depend on how quickly you can identify the problems and gaps in ways your organization operates today, and demonstrate progress towrds fixing them. Here's how you can do that: 1. When you join an organization, schedule introductory 1-1s with a wide ......Read More

2453 Views

What ideas or projects would you try to take on and lead after landing your first product management role?

1 Answer

Subu Baskaran

Splunk Director of Product Management • February 14

If you are an entry-level product manager or a first-time PM switching from a different function, executing a feature end-to-end is the best place to start. During execution, one can learn system behavior and develop necessary POVs, such as user behavior and the jobs-to-be-done for the persona. D......Read More

555 Views

What do you see as the most important hard/soft skills to be a successful product management professional?

3 Answers

Natalia Baryshnikova

Atlassian Head of Product, Enterprise Agility • November 10

My personal acronym for the skills that make product managers succesfull is H.A.C.K. H for Humility. There are two particularly important benefits of humility. First, humble people better navigate the emotional roller coaster of being wrong and having to admit it. They quickly recover from sit......Read More

2833 Views

What's the best way to break into the tech industry as a product manager?

7 Answers

Anton Kravchenko

Carta Sr. Director of Product Management • February 3

There are different paths that each product manager takes, but the common ones I've seen are: 1. Joining a tech company as an Associate PM or an intern straight from college. For college grads, I suggest starting by connecting with other product managers (e.g. via LinkedIn) to better understand......Read More

687 Views

How do you sell 'no, not now' to stakeholders?

2 Answers

Natalia Baryshnikova

Atlassian Head of Product, Enterprise Agility • February 17

There are three aspects to selling this well: 1. Empathy. You have to start with acknowledging the validity of a need or ask. Folks often skip that step and go straight to rebuttal. Don't do that - you need to empathize with the stakeholder, understand where they are coming from and really pond......Read More

890 Views