How to Get a Product Manager Job: January 28, 2014

How to Get a Job Product Manager

Introduction

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My new book on product management (PM) interviews

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Agenda

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Agenda Role & responsibilities Hiring process PM Interview What I’ve assumed You’re looking to transition into PM This class is not for Experienced PM professionals Resources Decode and Conquer – world’s first book on PM interviews Quicksheet.co – class videos on preparing for specific PM roles

The Role

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What Product Managers “Can” Do

Marketing PM 1 2

3

4

Product Managers “Could” Do it All

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What Product Managers “Typically” Do

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Understand the customer

Develop requirements

Prioritize resources

Serve as launch lead

Collect feedback

Understanding the customer

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1. Name and alias 2. Problem quotes 3. Age, day in the life,

thoughts & feelings 4. Goals 5. Behavioral variables

1

2

3

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Personas

Understand the customer

Develop requirements

Prioritize resources

Primary POC for launch

Collect feedback

Developing requirements

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Understand the customer

Develop requirements

Prioritize resources

Primary POC for launch

Collect feedback

As a <role>, I want <goal/desire> so that <benefit>. Examples As an administrator, I want to be able to add/delete/change

my boss’s schedule so that I don’t have to use his password. As a Facebook user, I want to see out-of-town friends who

send status messages in my hometown first, so that I can send them a note.

User stories

Prioritizing resources

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Understand the customer

Develop requirements

Prioritize resources

Primary POC for launch

Collect feedback

User Story Revenue Customer Satisfaction

Implementation Difficulty

Overall

Story A 3 3 1 9

Story B 2 2 2 6

Story C 1 1 3 3

Prioritization matrix

Serving as launch owner

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Responsibilities Manage project execution Primary exec contact Primary product contact Primary press contact

Key documents Product FAQ

Understand the customer

Develop requirements

Prioritize resources

Primary POC for launch

Collect feedback

Evaluating customer feedback

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Lift P-Value

# of users completing signup -13.21% 0.02

Profile completeness +1.65% 0.01

# of users the posted +2.11% 0.05

# posts +4.85% 0.01

# of invites sent +2.36% 0.02

1 day retention +2.12% 0.07

7 day retention +1.08% 0.20

30 day retention N/A N/A

Understand the customer

Develop requirements

Prioritize resources

Primary POC for launch

Collect feedback

A/B test: Adding “upload photo” to social network sign-up flow

Day-in-the-life of a PM

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8:15a Go through emails

8:45a Read TC; check out Nest UI

9a Review mock-ups with designer

10a Lead daily stand-up meeting

10:30a Check email

11:30a Customer call with sales team

12p Lunch meeting with market research team

1p Last minute prep for product roadmap review

2p Product roadmap preso to executives

3p Send out meeting notes to team

3:30p Lead eng. call with Google to discuss API implementation

4:30p Review A/B test results

5:30p Work on product roadmap & tweak product backlog

Hiring Process

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Most hiring managers scan resumes in 6 seconds

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Resume advice

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BE RELEVANT

If you really want the PM job…

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How one person’s design project turned into a job

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Top tier press mentions

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Good news

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Winning the Interview

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Google PM role

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Top 3 skills • Product design (& development) • Technical skills • Analytical skills

Example Google PM interview questions

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Area Example

Product design You are the PM for Google+. What killer feature would you build?

Analytical How many queries per second does Gmail get?

Strategy Why is Google Trusted Stores strategically important?

Technical Write an algorithm that detects meeting conflicts.

Behavioral Tell me a time when you influenced engineering

Warm-Up Tell me about yourself. Why Google? Why PM?

Reasons why PM candidates get dinged

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General No structure / plan Poor judgment Not composed

Product design Limited creativity

Analytical Can’t crunch numbers

CIRCLES method™

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C omprehend the Situation

I dentify the Customer

R eport the Customer’s Needs

C ut, Through Prioritization

L ist Solutions

E valuate Tradeoffs

S ummarize Your Recommendation

How to prepare

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Managing your PM Career

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The product manager career path

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Q&A

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Where to Find Me

Email

lewis@impactinterview.com

LinkedIn

http://www.linkedin.com/in/lewislin

Twitter

@lewis_lin

Class videos

QuickSheet.co

1:1 coaching

ImpactInterview.com

PM Book

Decode and Conquer

Type your questions into the chat box

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