Milena Krasteva
Sr Director II, Product Management - Marketing Technology, Walmart
Content
Milena Krasteva
Walmart Sr Director II, Product Management - Marketing Technology • June 10
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
1521 Views
Milena Krasteva
Walmart Sr Director II, Product Management - Marketing Technology • June 10
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 ......Read More
580 Views
Milena Krasteva
Walmart Sr Director II, Product Management - Marketing Technology • October 8
A CEO once told me that he would only hire a person if he thought that he would enjoy the time spent with that person despite being stuck at an airport with them waiting to board an indefinitely delayed flight. Despite the exaggeration, I've always imagined the equivalent scenario as whether engi......Read More
510 Views
Milena Krasteva
Walmart Sr Director II, Product Management - Marketing Technology • June 10
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......Read More
478 Views
Milena Krasteva
Walmart Sr Director II, Product Management - Marketing Technology • October 7
In my experience, the learning curve happens in the current role, as a prerequisite to transitioning into the next. You have to be operating at the next level already and there really isn't an easing of the transition beyond that. For example, managing wider scope, solving harder problems, naviga......Read More
466 Views
Milena Krasteva
Walmart Sr Director II, Product Management - Marketing Technology • October 7
Many promotions happen because the person was already performing and showing up as being at the next level. Depending on the company, the Director role marks a clearer line between individual contributor roles and management roles. However, unless the promotion is accompanied by a significant cha......Read More
431 Views
Milena Krasteva
Walmart Sr Director II, Product Management - Marketing Technology • June 10
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......Read More
413 Views
Milena Krasteva
Walmart Sr Director II, Product Management - Marketing Technology • October 7
One area of frustration is when everybody wants to play the role of product manager informally but very few have any formal training or experience in product management. This manifests as all kinds of well-meaning (and sometime not so benign) solutioning, which actually attempts to bypass the pro......Read More
407 Views
Milena Krasteva
Walmart Sr Director II, Product Management - Marketing Technology • June 10
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......Read More
402 Views
Milena Krasteva
Walmart Sr Director II, Product Management - Marketing Technology • June 9
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......Read More
359 Views
Credentials & Highlights
Sr Director II, Product Management - Marketing Technology at Walmart
Top Product Management Mentor List
Knows About Building a Product Management Team, Establishing Product Management, Influencing the ......more