Ashka Vakil

The product manager's job is to identify the most impactful problems to solve, enable their team to build and ship solutions that delight users, learn, and iterate. Product managers need a multitude of skills to be successful. The two most important skills that I view as must-haves no matter the seniority or product they will work on are owner mentality and leadership and influence. The reason for these two things being make-or-break things for me is because one has it or does not have it. It is ...Read More

Given platform product managers are not directly building an application or a tool or a solution for a single use case, the most challenging aspect of being a platform product manager is multiple stakeholder management. This multiple-stakeholder management requires platform PMs to have certain skills to be successful. Platform PM has to juggle individual stakeholders' product needs with platform-level goals. Platform PMs need to maintain a delicate balance between enabling individual product suc ...Read More

The product manager's primary responsibility is to ensure that the right product is delivered to the market at the right time. In order to do this effectively, you will need to establish a framework for prioritizing needs and deliverables. This framework should take into account the company's overall goals and objectives, as well as the needs and wants of your customers and stakeholders.  There are a number of prioritization frameworks available with RICE, Value versus Effort, and Kano Model bei ...Read More

When joining a small company with no or little structure or joining a small but growing product team, it is essential to understand the current state of the product management process before establishing new processes. Rushing to make changes and establish processes that have worked for you in the past is not ideal. What worked in one company may not work here due to differences in the culture and how teams have been set up.   In your first few days, you should set up a meet and greet meeting wi ...Read More

Validating problem statements requires a user-centered approach that involves collecting data through user research, defining the problem statement, prioritizing the problem statement, developing a hypothesis, creating a prototype, testing the prototype, and iterating based on user feedback. Let's talk about each of them in a little more detail. Conduct user research: The first step in validating problem statements is to conduct user research. This can involve talking to users, observing their b ...Read More

Platform PM is a specialized role that requires technical chops and soft skills to work with external and internal customers and stakeholders while being able to go deep in the weeds but also think about the big picture of what the platform can do. As a result, there are a lot of dimensions on which success can be measured. The two main dimensions for measuring success are adoption and technical excellence. Adoption - how is the platform being adopted, how many teams are utilizing the platform, ...Read More

Building a 0 to 1 product is challenging even for experienced product managers. Here are a few things that can make it challenging to successfully build a 0 to 1 product. Ignoring market research: It's important to conduct market research to understand the needs and preferences of your target audience. Ignoring this research can lead to building a product that doesn't meet the needs of your target audience. Focusing on features, and not customer problems: Product managers can get caught up in bu ...Read More

Product managers juggle multiple priorities and have to work with stakeholders whose needs vary. The most successful product managers understand customer's needs and market dynamics and use data to make informed decisions while keeping all stakeholders aligned and informed. They are adaptable and prioritize based on the current context while keeping the long-term vision in mind. Here are a few guidelines that can help you determine what's most important: Understanding Big Picture: What are the c ...Read More

Prioritizing validated problems ensures you are focusing on the most pressing problem that will have the largest impact. It is finding out what will give you the biggest bang for your buck. Prioritization requires a thoughtful and strategic approach. Here are some ways to prioritize various validated problems: Assess the impact: Evaluate the impact of each problem on the user and the business. This can include factors such as how many users are affected, how much time or money is lost due to the ...Read More