All About Product Management

JANUARY 28, 2008

Several months ago I spent a lot of time interviewing potential Product Manager and Lead Product Managers to head up a product team. Listed below are some common interview questions along with some that I hand crafted for the particular PM job s being advertised at the time. There are no right or wrong answers for most of the questions. The purpose is to find out how a person will operate under different scenarios.

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Sachin Rekhi

DECEMBER 31, 2008

As a new year's resolution this year I decided to finally start blogging to share some of my thoughts on technology, entrepreneurship, and product management. I'll be writing mainly to help collect my own ideas, but I hope that some of you may find it interesting as well. I'm also often asked similar questions about my experiences from colleagues, so I plan on using this as a public forum to answer some of them.

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All About Product Management

FEBRUARY 14, 2008

Product Management interview question: Tell me about a project you have run or a product you have managed through its life cycle? This is an interview question that gives you the opportunity to: a) Demonstrate that you have a practical experience in the product development process. b) That you have considered the user by developing a product that utilises technology to solve a problem and therefore meets the customer’s needs. c) That you are able to lead with-out-authority by matrix managing a c

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All About Product Management

DECEMBER 9, 2008

Much has been written about how product managers can get along with the engineering teams – however the converse is also just as important – engineers need to get along and deliver for product managers. Delivery should not be confined to the production of working software at the end of a sprint or project but delivery should also be expanded to day to day issues: technical, scheduling and timing, releases, scope creep and additional demand, unit testing etc… What the product manager need is solu

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Speaker: Anne Steiner and David Laribee

As a concept, Developer Experience (DX) has gained significant attention in the tech industry. It emphasizes engineers’ efficiency and satisfaction during the product development process. As product managers, we need to understand how a good DX can contribute not only to the well-being of our development teams but also to the broader objectives of product success and customer satisfaction.

Customer Experience

All About Product Management

SEPTEMBER 7, 2008

Product Management View Webinar Series – Marty Cagan, of SVPG, presents “How to Create Products Customers Love. A webinar that is well worth half an hour of your time - where Marty highlights 10 Techniques for discovering products that are: valuable, usable and feasible - taken from his book inspired. 1# Make sure you know what problem you’re trying to solve and that it’s worth solving. 2# Create a product strategy so that you know what you are trying to solve – even if you’re using agile!

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All About Product Management

JUNE 1, 2008

Graham Jones co-founder of Lane4 an international performance development consultancy gives several tips, in his recent article “ How the Best of the Best Get Better and Better ”, published in this months addition of Harvard Business Review, on improving your management performance – many of the tips are applicable to Product Managers. The article draws several parallels between successful sports and athletics personal.

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All About Product Management

MAY 13, 2008

It’s been over a year since the product management team went on a series of agile/scrum training courses. The transformation and associated challenges over the past 14 months have been quite interesting. Here’s a report on the journey, progress, issues encountered and experiences to date. Product Management Prior to Scrum Before agile working practices where adopted the Product Managers role consisted of a lot of short term tactical wins coupled with continual fire fighting.

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All About Product Management

APRIL 16, 2008

Where do you, as the Product Manager, see yourself in three years time? I always find this question challenging: the pace of product management and technology is moving so fast that it would be quite difficult to predict where or what today’s product manager would be doing in three or five years time. However here are a few thoughts that may help you answer the question and put you on track for a prolonged and fruitful career as a Product Manager Stress on seeing yourself as a successful Product

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All About Product Management

APRIL 11, 2008

Wikipedia , states that: Product lifecycle management (PLM) is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from its conception, through design and manufacture, to service and disposal. Therefore it is important that the product manager believes and supports the processes that the company has implemented. However are there ever situations when it is acceptable to break an agreed process?

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Traditional PM struggles with the complexities of platform ecosystems. B-MAP framework tackles this challenge. B-MAP goes beyond features, focusing on building, managing, adapting, and partnering to foster a thriving platform ecosystem.

Product Management

All About Product Management

MARCH 31, 2008

Many ask the question “How do I get into Product Management” well here are a few links to Q&As, on the topic, on Jeff Lash’s new website ‘Ask a Good Product Manager’ How can a software engineer become a product manager? View my answer to this question - hopefully it will help not just the asker but many more software engineers who want to make the transition from software engineering to product management.

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All About Product Management

MARCH 25, 2008

In general Product Management and/or Technical Product Management is about orientating between business and markets trends and needs and being able utilise technology to define product features and enhancements. Marty Cagan, in his article Are You Technical Enough? States that: "When I interview product management candidates, I’m looking hard at these two points.

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All About Product Management

MARCH 13, 2008

In the world of web development online product managers have two choices big bang (probably using waterfall) Vs incremental redesign (and empower product development ) of the websites their responsible for. The world of online moves at such a fast pace that by the time you carry out your research, then work with an analyst to document your findings in the form user requirements and then design and build your website (or online product) and then launch/re-launch it, the original research is in da

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All About Product Management

MARCH 10, 2008

What would you do if your boss called you to a meeting and informed you that your team has been complaining about your lack of leadership and management? You would or course be surprised even shocked because you would have put things in place to ensure that you where leading and managing the team well. Once you express that you would be surprised you could then: 1.

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Speaker: Margaret-Ann Seger, Head of Product, Statsig

Experimentation is often seen as an aspirational practice, especially at smaller, fast-moving companies who are strapped for time and resources. So, how can you get your team making decisions in a more data-driven way while continuing to remain lean and maintaining ship velocity? In this webinar, Margaret-Ann Seger, Head of Product at Statsig, will teach you how to build an experimentation culture from the ground-up, graduating from just getting started with data-driven development to operating

Data Visualization

All About Product Management

MARCH 9, 2008

Mark Barnes has extensive experience in facing customers, initially as a customer support engineer and then later in his career as a product manager. Continue reading to learn more about his transition and views about product management. 1. What’s your academic background/training? BEng in Electronics Engineering from Sussex University. Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing from Chartered Institute of Marketing. 2.

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All About Product Management

MARCH 5, 2008

The interviewer poses the folloing question: "You, and your team, were involved in a successful launch of a new product that exceeded business expectations during its first phase - what would you do?" First I would Celebrate [with the team of course] and then…. Follow Brian Lawley’s advice which is stay humble and give credit to the team. Following that it would be critical to analyse all the activities that led to the success launch of the product.

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All About Product Management

MARCH 4, 2008

Looking into the future and knowing what the competition, the market and your product will be like is probably one of the most challenging tasks that any product manager has to undertake. This can be a tricky question to answer at a job interview. “ Where do you see product x in y years time ”? How a product manager answers this question gives the interviewer an insight as to how much of a visionary they are and whether or not they keep a keen eye on technology as it progresses.

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All About Product Management

MARCH 3, 2008

How do I become a product manager? There is no one right answer to this question however one thing we do know is that very few if any people enter the realms of technical product management immediately. I have interviewed a number of Product Managers who have shared their background, experiences, likes, dislikes and given tips on how to succeed. 1. From Marketing to Product Management Ivan Chalif studied psychology and counselling at university as opposed to business studies or technology – howe

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Analytic Tools

All About Product Management

MARCH 2, 2008

Ivan Chalif is author of th eblog The Productologist. He is also a founding member of the Silicon Valley Product Management Association ( SVPMA ). In addition to creating the original logo, and managing the website and forums, Ivan was instrumental in organizing early SVPMA events and establishing the organization’s charter. 1. What’s your academic background/training?

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All About Product Management

FEBRUARY 27, 2008

We recently finished a scrum sprint; during the sprint review the technical team gave a demonstration, to senior business owners, of the newly developed functionality and bug fixes they had done during the sprint. It was noted at the sprint retrospective and subsequent discussions, that followed, that the demonstration gave equal weighting in terms of the time spent demonstrating each user story.

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All About Product Management

FEBRUARY 27, 2008

I have recently been interviewing Product Managers about their jobs and writing interview Q&As for those who may be going for a job in Product Management. ( Refer to 'Your Career' for a list of articles). The aim is to provide individuals who want to get into Product Management with ideas, insight, inspiration and encouragement – one common thread that spreads across all the interviews is that everyone had a different role before they entered the world of Product Management.

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All About Product Management

FEBRUARY 19, 2008

People often ask the question – How do I to get into Product Management [from being a software engineer, project manager, business analyst etc…]. Patrick Jolley is a case in point of a web developer who recognised an opportunity to move into Product Management and took it. 1. What’s your academic background/training? I studied Business Information Technology at University.

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Generative AI

All About Product Management

FEBRUARY 12, 2008

Francois Abbe has had many years experience designing world beating hi tech equipment. He has had the opportunity to travel the globe both as an engineer and product manager representing the products he has designed and ( later on in his career ) that he product managed. 1. What's your academic background/training? After graduating in France, I followed a B.Eng in Electronics and Communication Engineering. 2.

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All About Product Management

FEBRUARY 11, 2008

The function and role of product management will become crucial as businesses expand and become more dependent on technology departments to asist them in gaining the competitive advantage. But what is 'Technical Product Management'? When asked to describe Product Management in one sentence Marty Cagan said: "This is the person responsible for discovering and defining a product that is useful, usable and feasible.

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All About Product Management

FEBRUARY 6, 2008

What type of situations cause you stress? How do you handle stress? Stress can be a killer and every Product Manager and Project Mangers would have experienced during the course of their career. I was asked the question “How do you handle stress?” when I was being interviewed for a Product Mangers job at my current company and I have made it a point to ask the question of every Product Manager that I interview.

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All About Product Management

FEBRUARY 5, 2008

How would handle a senior business stakeholder that demands more than you can deliver with in a certain timeframe? If you have had experience in managing projects and products using scrum (or some other agile management frame work) then this would be your opportunity to demonstrate that you understand the benefits of scrum to manage stakeholders at all levels (see - Part #6 How Everyone Can Get Involved in Agile ).

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Speaker: Robert Webber, Author and Innovation Leader

Agile was a grassroots engineering movement that caught most software leaders unprepared. The Agile community was confident that management would recognize the benefits of Agile and adopt its servant-leadership style. Unfortunately, management in larger organizations maintained the directing and controlling management style that had been reinforced throughout their careers, violating the Agile tenet of trusted, self-motivated Agile teams.

Agile

All About Product Management

FEBRUARY 4, 2008

Bikram Gupta has been been in Product Management for over 3 years he has worked in various markets and technologies such as: Telecom/Wireless, Data Networking, and Security domains. Bikram describes himself as a “knowledge worker” at heart; he’s passionate about exploring different lateral business roles outside the sales funnel. Bikram used to authors a blog entitle "Thoughts on Product Management" #1.

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All About Product Management

FEBRUARY 3, 2008

By the time you read this blog post the announcement that Microsoft has put in a $44b bid for yahoo will be yesterday’s news. But have you taken a minute to think what this takeover means for the Group Product managers of MSN and Microsoft, the Product Strategist at Yahoo. It goes with out saying that. this bid is either a strategic step aimed to ensure that Microsoft has a long term future in the internet world and the ability to deliver world class search technology as part of their product of

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All About Product Management

JANUARY 30, 2008

Interviews are about persuading the interviewer(s) that you are the right person for the job. That you will be able to deliver the goods even when the going gets tough. A question that I like to pose to perspective Product Managers to determine if they can deliver in the face of adversity is: OK here's the question - followed by a possible answer: "What would you do if you were invited to a high level business meeting with the Sales Director, Head of Business Development, Director of Product Mar

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