Main Takeaways: - Be really intentional with how you spend your time - Expanding your scope and becoming more strategic is key - Invest in mentorship and self-development

1. Growing Early in Your Career as a PM
by Microsoft Product Leader
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5. Growing as an
Early in Career PM

6. Hello!
I’m Marissa
I’ve been at Microsoft for just
over 3 years and have been a 2x
intern. I currently work on video
creation experiences!
6

7. So you’ve scored the PM
job, now what?
➔ Today we’ll talk about the journey of
progressing as a fresh new grad PM/APM, to
becoming a strong product leader
➔ I’ll share my tips and lessons learned
7

8. PM Career Growth
8
1 3 5
6
4
2
Learning how to do
your job and execute
Learning to delegate
and prioritize
Empowering and
mentoring other PMs
Growing your scope of
ownership
Spending your time
more on strategy than
execution
Solving bigger and
bigger challenges

9. Learning how to do
your job

10. You don’t need to hit the
ground running
➔ No one is expecting you to be productive
instantly
➔ It’s especially important that you take the
time to onboard and become an expert in
your area
➔ Rushing doesn’t result in good product
10

11. Soak in the data
➔ Gain a deep understanding of your area
➔ What are the top user jobs to be done?
➔ What are our quantitative insights telling us?
11

12. Watch others
➔ Take stock of the rockstar PMs on your team
and learn
➔ See how they pitch ideas, deliver spec
reviews, and how they prioritize
12

13. Break down problems
➔ PM problems are really big and intimidating
if you don’t break them down
➔ Start each project with by splitting the
problem into atomic units and creating a
workback plan for yourself
13

14. Be bold
➔ My biggest lesson was to not hold back
➔ Speak your mind, ask for opportunties, try
not to be shy
➔ Its going to be uncomfortable, but often
times disomfort means growth
14

15. Picking your battles

16. “Scope”
➔ Scope = what you’re responsbile for as a PM
➔ The more senior you get, the larger the
scope
➔ Always be thinking about how you can
expand your scope
16

17. Prioritization is everything
➔ This is not just a key PM skill for designing a
roadmap, but a key skill for growing your
career
➔ There’s an unlimited amount of things that
you can chase down
➔ Know what to own, delegate, and even drop
the ball on
17

18. Empowering others
➔ As you grow in scope, delegation is a
necessity
➔ Don’t think of delegation as dumping work
on others, but giving others a chance to
shine
➔ E.g giving a workstream to a new PM,
passing off team planning to engineering
18

19. Advocating for yourself

20. Define your PM path
➔ PM is a really broad field, there’s a lot of
directions of focus
➔ As you learn what you’re interested in, work
closely with your manager on designing the
right path for you
➔ It’s not just about growing, but growing in
the right dierction
20

21. The worst you’ll get is a “no”
➔ This is one of the best tips of advice I’ve
gotten
➔ Ask for what you need – whether its
mentorship, help, or a promotion
➔ A “no” hurts a lot less than the potential
opporunity that you’re missing out on
21

22. Honest manager conversations
➔ It’s not weird to talk about promotions and
your career goals
➔ Be as direct as you can with your manager
and tell them what your promo targets are
➔ I like setting aside monthly dedicated career
growth specific checkins
22

23. Uplevelling yourself

24. Mentorship
➔ Mentorship is one of the most useful tools in
your career
➔ Seek out PM mentors in a variety of areas to
learn from, and prioritize mentorship time
➔ You can also learn a lot from your mentees
24

25. Learning
➔ Prioritize learning as a part of your job
➔ E.g Dale Carnegie classes on leadership,
keeping tabs on product news to stay sharp
on product sense
25

26. Iterating
➔ Its also helpful to regularly check in on how
you work and see if you can improve it
➔ Is it a slow work process that’s getting in the
way, are you finding that its hard to deliver
high stakes presentations
➔ Keep analyzing your weaknesses and finding
ways to improve
26

27. Key skills to PM growth
➔ Become an expert in your domain
➔ Don’t be afraid to offer insights and speak your mind
➔ Be an expert at prioritizing and delegating
➔ Advocate for your career and know your direction of
growth
➔ Always be learning and improving 27
In Summary

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Thanks!
Any questions? Reach out on
LinkedIn!

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