Patrick Davis

Group Product Manager, Google

Content

What's your framework to prioritizing needs/deliverables when you're the first Product Manager at a company establishing the function?

Patrick Davis

Google Group Product Manager • August 18

Thank you for the question and I'm sure this is exactly not the answer you're looking for which is, "it depends" You're balancing building trust and relationships, understanding your users and the business, and likely an evolving company strategy. So the question you need to ask yourself is wh......Read More

2687 Views

What is an important KPI that you see product teams completely missing?

Patrick Davis

Google Group Product Manager • August 18

This is a good one. I think there are two that often get missed and largely it is because they are hard to measure and expensive to move. 1. Product excellence. How do you measure customer delight in an impactful way? CSAT and NPS have lots of opportunities to be gamed and are frankly eas......Read More

2004 Views

How do you break down responsibilities and KPIs for product launches between product management and marketing?

Patrick Davis

Google Group Product Manager • August 18

Oooohhhh, this is a good one and something I spend a lot of time balancing. Product owns the product and at the end of the day both gets unearned credit and unearned blame. It is your neck on the line for the end to end experience. Thinking through the experience that users get both in product......Read More

1435 Views

I’m the first PM hire in my company. What advice would you give to someone tasked with establishing this function in an existing business structure?

Patrick Davis

Google Group Product Manager • August 18

This is a good one; and I'll admit that I've never been the first PM hire in a company, but I have worked to establish a new PM team within an existing structure. Here are my tips: * Be humble and go on a listening tour. Things have clearly been working (to an extent) and it's your job to ......Read More

1335 Views

As a product manager, what are the make-or-break things for you when interviewing a potential next product manager for your team?

Patrick Davis

Google Group Product Manager • August 18

I'm lucky in that Google has a really rigorous interview process that I benefit from. Google is also known for taking a long time during that process but I promise you that is largely because of the rigor. Post that process though what I look for are three key signals 1. Grit is my first. Bi......Read More

1333 Views

Question about org structures - what does your PM team org structure look like?

Patrick Davis

Google Group Product Manager • August 18

Let me give some guidance here on how I think about it. 1. It's critical to have a strong vision, strategy, roadmap, and success metrics for a team 2. Your org structure should be organized to support the pillars of your strategy 3. Beyond this there optionality to organize your te......Read More

908 Views

What are the key processes you'd set up when expanding the PM team from 1 to multiple people?

Patrick Davis

Google Group Product Manager • August 18

Here's how I'd think about it: * Some planning cadence where strategy and roadmap can be reviewed at different levels of fidelity. (Annual, Quarterly etc.) * Product review with key cross functional stakeholders that isn't viewed as a gate keeping exercise but a feedback process and of......Read More

702 Views

What is the most effective way to scale a Product Management team beyond the first Product Manager?

Patrick Davis

Google Group Product Manager • August 18

I'm not sure it is the most effective because I've really only used one strategy, but it has been effective for me. 1. Grow your own scope, take on more than you can handle, do a good job of pitching the problem space and opportunity and get broad consensus that this work is critical an......Read More

675 Views

How do you think about shared KPI’s with your engineering team? And what are ones that product teams often miss?

Patrick Davis

Google Group Product Manager • August 18

I'm a huge fan of all success metrics and OKRs (objectives and key results) being shared between the core cross functional working group. Of course there will always be some that don't match up; I'm thinking about some SLAs, uptime, latency type KPI's that your engineering team tracks. But by ......Read More

574 Views

Do you have any advice for a junior PM who is a first product management hire?

Patrick Davis

Google Group Product Manager • August 18

Absolutely, welcome to the discipline, you're in for quite a ride and I'm super excited for you. 1. Optimize for learning and honing your craft. There's a balance to have the confidence to make decisions without all the data and put stakes in the ground even you actually have no clue......Read More