4 Untold strategies for your first stint as a Product Manager
You’ve been trying for a while to shift your career into Product Management but seeing yourself going nowhere? You may be highly familiar with various frameworks and PM techniques. However, sometimes it is highly impossible to squeeze all your learnings in an hour-long interview since there are no pre-defined standards to interview for a PM position. Here am going to stuff you with some strategies which might help in crafting your mindset or change the way you think about a PM role before stepping into the mud.
Once you stepped up in the ladder, you should give back to the society. This story is written with that in mind. This story is solely for people who are passionate about thinking and building products. I have segmented each of the 4 strategies below into 2 or 3 sub-sections each focusing on a specific area:
- Crafting mindset for the role
- Crafting mindset for the company
- Crafting mindset for the interview
- Crafting the after-offer mindset
1. Crafting mindset for the role
So you want to build wealth!!
Some people want to get into a PM role in the thought that they can make more money. During the first pre-screening call with a hiring manager, I was asked about the salary expectations. I replied stating that I was more focused on the role than the money. That’s a thing to be discussed later maybe during the offer negotiation. So I told him gently that we can discuss it if I clear the Interview. After all, my focus is on developing wealth. Yeah! By developing skills which will be a huge investment of knowledge for the future. Money is important. I agree! But you should cross the ocean (clear the interview) before negotiating the deal. If your notion of building wealth is different than mine, that’s absolutely fine. But this story may not quench your thirst.
Clear the air in your mind
“Are you going to volunteer like an NGO? Going to build niche features? You don’t want money?”
This was the question asked by one of a senior PM when I told him about the new job offer I got. It didn’t stop there. I heard from people like “You’re too young to decide”, “you will feel handicapped without being in development!”, “It would be a boring job”, “It won’t be challenging” and so on. Nevertheless, I was firm in my mission to become a PM. As a result, Today I feel the decision I took is the best and the statements that I heard are totally untrue. Also, the work is challenging in its own way. You shouldn’t be carried away by what others say. You should always clear the air and stick to your mission.
2. Crafting mindset for the company
Have the hots for the role
So your current company gives you a myriad of attractive perks and benefits which makes you think to stay there forever? Or you are employed in a company which is the best in the industry? Or obsessed with brand tags like Google, Facebook or SAP?
If those things mattered, I would have stayed at SAP forever doing a job which doesn’t excite me anymore.
At the end of the day, Job satisfaction or passion is the thing which is going to drive you and not the brand tag or company.
Think of internal mobility
If you still feel you should have hots for your employer or their perks, then think of an internal transition within your current company. Nowadays most of the companies started caring about their employee's career interests. It is not just about that. The hiring costs associated with replacing you would be higher (extremely high in case if you are a high performer). And most importantly employee retention rate is one of the key factors in determining your boss’s performance/appraisal rating. So talk to your boss to build up a plan to step up in the ladder. The crux is, it is important to get out of your comfort zone and start feeding your dreams instead of staying as a career sleep-walker in the same role.
Cross-sell the domain skills
Skills are the only assets which don’t depreciate over time. Whether you are a developer, designer, tester, marketer (or any other role), The domain or product experience you gained can be highly transferable for a PM role. Before you start searching for a job, Jot down the list of companies building a product in the current domain or area of expertise and target them. Say you are an employee of Facebook now. You can expand your job search into other social networking companies such as Twitter, Google+ or start-up projects like OpenBook. At least this worked for me. Initially, I searched across different verticals. But later I realized and started targeting companies in HCM and ATS industries like Workday, Greenhouse, etc. The search ended with Zoho’s Zoho Recruit. On the other hand, you will be an additional asset to your future company in terms of industry knowledge, market trends and competitor analysis.
3. Crafting mindset for the interview
TMRR — Target, Measure, Review and Reflect
I prepared at a slow pace for several months through Coursera, Udemy, slack communities and many more medium blogs before I gave my first interview for a PM role. The first couple of Interviews didn’t go well. I did a retrospection on what didn’t go well after every interview. Identified my shortcomings and did a side-project for a month which helped me to gain practical experience (A month later, Uber added a part of the feature suggestions in my side project to its app). After that, I started seeing improvements. You’re not going to get better if you don’t tackle your short-comings periodically maybe after every interview. Recently, I read a book named ‘The Catalyst’ by Chandramouli Venkatesan which insisted on the principle of TMRR. Inadvertently, I realized that I applied this learning model to crack a PM role (This model is not just for cracking a PM interview. You can apply to anything in which you want to get better).
Bug the product and the interview!
Before you appear for a company or a team’s (in case of internal product) interview, It will be an added advantage if you get to use their product rather than just knowing about the company. During the course of the interview, you have a high chance to discuss the product they are building. You can pitch your thoughts or criticize the product features using this opportunity. Not just features! You can also come up with SWOT Analysis, throw out bugs, major design glitches and most importantly the solutions for whatever you throw at the interviewer. Even if you aren’t prepared, the interviewer will bounce back at you to come up with a solution.
4. Crafting the after-offer mindset
Metrics matters!
Really??? You’re worried about the lower DAU/MAU or the higher attrition rate of the product? or the turn-over it makes? or sceptic about the future direction in case of a start-up? DUDE! If everything’s well and good then why do the company even need to hire you? What difference will you bring to the table? Do you just want to float along the tide? At this point (once you got the offer), I assume that you should roll up the sleeves and take the driver seat to drive the product and make it a world-class one rather than thinking of your cash inflow or job security. Some people even told me that it was a very small company and questioned about my growth (Thanks to the flat hierarchy in Zoho which helps me to think more about the product and developing my skills rather than promotions). But in my point of view, I saw it as an emerging company having a lot of room to improve (as a product).
So, Craft your mindset before you start crafting the product. Cheers!!
Hope this story helps better in crafting your vision to become a PM. Keep clapping and do share if you find it useful. Also, Hit the follow button below to get notified on my new stories as it arrives. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn.
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