Season 2 - Newsletter 07 --> Micro-edition | Where to start your PM Journey
Friends,
In this edition we try to answer one of the most basic questions about Product Management, which is where do I start if I am new in the field or want to learn about it. I’ve been getting a lot of folks asking that question as of late, whether its on the product management subreddit or colleagues and friends looking for a change in career.
As always we appreciate you sharing this newsletter if you think it could help a peer of yours improve their product skillset.
Q: I’m applying for an associate product management program, where should I start in Product Management?
Great question and while this answer will evolve over time, I would attack it in the following manner:
Understand what product management is
Get an idea of what good product management looks like
Follow people and resources that will help
Point 1: Let’s start with the definition of product management. And thanks to Mario Lenz and his most excellent learning resource, we have the following statements to help us define it.
What we all think at first:
As Product Managers, it is our core responsibility to build winning products that deliver great value to customers.
But Marty Cagan really nails it with:
As Product Managers, our job is to build products that our customers love, yet work for our business.
The intersection between customer love and works for your business is the key. And in case its not clear, here is a graphic to help illustrate what life without a good product manager means
Point 2: It’s important when first starting out to understand what does good product management actually look like. This helps us understand both what our opportunities are and perhaps as important what the opportunities of the organization we work for lay. To get an idea of good, you cannot go wrong by reading the following:
Inspired by Marty Sagan - is the Bible for product managers. In it, Marty collates the best practices from the top Big Tech and Silicon Valley startups and organization where product market fit is the only way to survival. He covers people, teams, vision, roadmaps, processes, techniques, and culture at the best product companies.
Escaping the Build Trap by Melissa Perri - is a great book to both make sure you don’t fall into the trap of feature factory and if you are in it, recognizing it and understanding how to get out of it. Escaping… is a great explainer of how to move from a feature factory to a product-led organization
Competing Against Luck by Clay Christensen - is a duh classic. I usually say anything by the late Clay Christensen is worth your time but if you had to pick up only one book, I would select this one. Clay is the father of Jobs To Be Done and really helps you frame what needs your strategy should be going after.
Point 3: Let’s end this with following people and resources that will help. As mentioned numerous times, product management best practices are continuously evolving. Many more voices are joining our ranks and I’ve found the best way to stay current is to follow people and subject matter experts. They are:
Shreyas Doshi - ex-Big Tech, Shreyas Doshi is our current favorite Product Manager SME on Twitter. Both his normal and Super follower levels are incredibly valuable but we do recommend the super follower level if you don’t mind paying for it.
Gibson Biddle - ex-Netflix Gibson not only has great insight into his time at Netflix but also on how to manage your PM career like a product,
John Cutler - Amplitude Product Evangelist, John is a prolific writer who brings a much needed not-big-tech point of view to discussions on product management
Let me know if you have come across authors, books or other resources you think should be added.
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