Subu Baskaran

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. During this process, a PM works closely with peers in the User Experience and Engineering teams, helping the PM understand how the team operates. Also, during interactions with customers and the sales tea ...Read More

The answer depends on the size of the company. But if I generalize, if you are a new grad or new to the function, then your first job would be Product Manager. Then, depending on whether you are in B2C or B2B companies, there are different levels with slightly different titles. In B2B tech companies, the titles progress from PM to senior PM, Principal, and Director. As a Director, you typically become a people manager responsible for an area of the business. Some companies might even have titles ...Read More

The strategy really depends on where you are in the journey. Competing with established players looks very different for a startup versus a scaled company. For startups, it’s challenging to go head-to-head with an entrenched competitor unless you’re offering something uniquely differentiated. The most effective path is often to: Identify a beachhead customer with an acute pain point. Co-develop an MVP that solves that problem exceptionally well. Iterate rapidly while staying true to the long-ter ...Read More

Stakeholders for mature products are typically large customers, experienced field teams (sales, engineering, support in B2B), and long-term product team members. Managing customer expectation: While there are many aspects to managing customer expectations, here are a few things that I have encountered working on mature products: Hundreds of users within a large customer organization use the product daily and expect it to scale and perform to their growing needs. As PMs, it's our job to ensure th ...Read More

In short, have a long-term perspective on what you are building. As a senior PM, you are more inclined to ship faster. This might look great and temporarily get you the spotlight, but what ultimately matters is the difference it makes to the customer in the long run and how it impacts the company goals/metrics. Know that if you plan to build what your customer is asking, you are too late and playing catch-up with the competitors. Having a long-term perspective, such as where the industry is head ...Read More

There is no one silver bullet for a product management candidate. If I were to look for specific traits, definitely high up on the list would be how long a PM candidate explores the “problem space.” Honestly, ideas are a dime a dozen, but understanding a customer problem and isolating the right pain point, in my opinion, differentiates an average PM from a great PM. Finally, remember that a PM's main job is to ensure we are building products for the right customer problem. So, having an explorat ...Read More

Technology can be a real competitive advantage. If your industry needs sub-second latency to monitor their systems, having a streaming architecture that delivers can make your product a no-brainer. Often, what's cutting edge today can be a drag within a decade. I have always looked at it from a customer's standpoint. For, I prioritize new product development to replace anything that is considered "legacy" when one of the following happens: The overall market is shifting. Often, when a new techno ...Read More

I evaluate the performance of the product team—IC PMs, GPMs, and product leads—across five core dimensions: customer satisfaction, quality of deliverables, clarity of strategy, engineering productivity, and product telemetry: Customer Obsession & Satisfaction For IC PMs, this is the ultimate indicator of effectiveness. The strongest PMs are maniacally customer-focused—meeting customers regularly, not just when there is an escalation or a launch. My team maintains a steady cadence of conversa ...Read More

Strategic alignment is not a one-time activity—it’s a continuous operating rhythm. In an era of AI-driven acceleration and rapidly evolving customer expectations, agility matters more than ever. I typically maintain a rolling 3-year vision document that sets the long-term direction and doesn’t change frequently. However, the Year-1 product strategy evolves much more dynamically as we learn from customer signals, shifting market conditions, and new data. This ensures we stay anchored to our North ...Read More

If you are a new PM in an organization, my advice would be the following: Be curious - learn as much as possible about the customers, users, features, and the system. Talk to as many people as possible and arrive at your point of view. Make allies - Identify engineers, UXdesigners, and sales teams (B2B) that you connect with and validate your learnings periodically. Question status quo - Once you have a particular POV, ask questions if something seems wrong. If it's new learning, admit it, but i ...Read More