Milena Krasteva
Sr Director II, Product Management, Walmart
I’ve been told that my style reminds some of Radical Candor. I guess I have to
read the book now :) In the meantime I can tell you what my values are and how I
strive to be: 1) A servant leader 2) ...more
Content
Even when feedback seems completely unfair, there may be some small nugget to
pay attention to. So, in general don't dismiss the feedback without some
introspection. Giving objective feedback is actually hard to do; most people
can't distinguish between whether it is their own pet peeves that are...more
The two disciplines are very different, despite some intersections on
go-to-market, outbound communications, and occasional blurred lines between the
roles in some companies regarding strategy and customer requirements. Early on
in my career I had the opportunity to simultaneously work in both fu...more
It seems all too easy to NOT get roadmap buy-in. Sometimes, it can feel like the
default answer is always "No" at first, and despite all the work you have done,
you are getting sent back to the drawing board.
Some things that help, not in any particular order:
* Go as wide as possible early ...more
I'd love to answer this in a slightly different way: The single most important
skill, that cannot be rated highly enough is Communication. Many other soft
skills are fundamentally still rooted in or are dependent on communication.
Nuanced aspects of communication also matter:
* adapting com...more
Fairly easily potentially, compared to transitioning from other less-related
fields. Product Management is as much art as it is discipline or science.
Leveraging technical expertise related to the same or adjacent PM area helps.
Some job descriptions will even require engineering experience or ar...more
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....more
Many common mistakes stem from haste without deep knowledge and mindless GSDing.
* Not thinking through the problem statement fully or not knowing enough about
the domain and becoming married to 1 solution - often yours.
* Taking it personally when told that something is missing from your s...more
1:10 is what has been used as a rule of thumb in my experience. A PM wears many
hats. If you don't have a program manager (pgm/tpm) 30% - 40% of the PM's time
may be going into project management activities and you may need an extra PM (or
your first TPM) You may be supplementing other functions ...more
If your exec team has not articulated a credible product strategy it could be
that they don't know how or they feel that they cannot invest at this time due
to much bigger near term issues or constraints. Consider what that might be
saying about the viability of the company either way, and a pote...more
While it may be tempting to get sucked into feature by feature wars and spar
through marketing communications it will not yield much for whoever (you or the
competito) lacks sources of Sustainable Competitive Advantage. see related
answer on what those are, not to be confused with Competitive Adv...more
Credentials & Highlights
Sr Director II, Product Management at Walmart
Product Management AMA Contributor