How Great PMs Can Come From Anywhere by ICX Media CPO

www.productschool.com
How Great PMs Can Come From
Anywhere by ICX Media CPO

Join 35,000+Product
Managers on
Free Resources
Discover great job
opportunities
Job Portal
prdct.school/PSJobPortalprdct.school/events-slack

C O U R S E S
Product
Management
Learn the skills you need to land
a Product Manager job

C O U R S E S
Coding
for Managers
Build a website and gain the
technical knowledge to lead
software engineers

C O U R S E S
Data Analytics
for Managers
Learn the skills to understand web
analytics, SQL and machine learning
concepts

C O U R S E S
Learn how to acquire more users
and convert them into clients
Digital Marketing
for Managers

C O U R S E S
UX Design
for Managers
Gain a deeper understanding of your
users and deliver an exceptional end-to-
end experience

C O U R S E S
For experienced Product Managers
looking to gain strategic skills needed
for top leadership roles
Product
Leadership

C O U R S E S
Corporate
Training
Level up your team’s Product
Management skills

Alex Mitchell
T O N I G H T ’ S S P E A K E R

“How Do I Become
a (Great) Product
Manager?”

But before that -
A very important
question

How much is a PM involved in shaping the business strategy of the
company? What, if any, business qualifications do you need? MBA?
What skill sets do you think are mandatory for Product Managers in technology?
Should they know programming languages and be hands on programmers?
I’m looking to move away from a technical background (Software Quality Analyst for 9
years) into Product Management. How should I model my resume and overall
experiences?
I’m a Computer Engineering with a PMP certificate who is struggling to land a Product
Management job. Which strategy would you recommend for somebody like me?
What advice do you have to people with no technical background that want to get
into Product Management?

How much is a PM involved in shaping the business strategy of the company? What, if
any, business qualifications do you need? MBA?
What skill sets do you think are mandatory for Product Managers in
technology? Should they know programming languages and be hands on
programmers?
experiences?

experiences?
I’m a Computer Engineer with a PMP certificate who is struggling to land a
Product Management job. Which strategy would you recommend for
somebody like me?

I’m looking to move away from a technical background (Software Quality
Analyst for 9 years) into Product Management. How should I model my
resume and overall experiences?

experiences?
What advice do you have to people with no technical background that
want to get into Product Management?

Case: You’re Hiring a
Product Manager

3 years as a Developer
Has a side-hustle business
generating $3k MRR
1 year as a PM at a big
company
4 years in Data Science
Speaks at Data Science
Conferences
2 years as Product lead at
Startup
3 years in Marketing
Writes a blog on Marketing
for Tech Companies
3 years as a PM at a scaling
startup
A B C

experiences?
What advice do you have to people with no technical background that want to get into
Product Management?
“How Do I Become
a (Great) Product
Manager?”

We’ll Answer It Together
● 5 Different
Personas of PMs
● Shared Traits of
Great PMs
● Building the Right
Product Team

5 Different Personas of PMs
Technical
Product
Manager
Analytic
Product
Manager
Marketing
Product
Manager
GSD
Product
Manager
Visionary
Product
Manager

Why So Many Different Types of PMs?

Selling physical and digital
products in small $$$
purchases at scale

Selling business travel and services
for a “Better Business Trip”

“Data Inspired
Storytelling”

Companies and
industries are
very, very different

Technical Product Manager (TPM)
An Introduction
1. Almost always a developer before they moved to
Product
2. Not just a developer, one of your best developers
3. Understood what could be shipped quick and dirty
and what was worth investing significantly more
dev. time on
4. Had Product Manager’s instinct before moving to
Product

Says things like...
“There are 3 technical approaches to build this feature:
1. We can layer on debt to our current architecture that
will bite us in about 3 months (cost: 2 sprints)
1. We can build an MVP separate from our current app
in X language/framework that we’ll have to throw
out after testing our hypothesis (cost: 1 sprint)
1. We can pay down debt now and build a more
scalable feature (cost: 3 sprints)”

Found at...

Pros/Cons
Pros
● Deep and rapid understanding
of technical tradeoffs that
other PMs take days to grasp
● Existing (or fast-built)
relationships and empathy
with the development team
Cons
● Generally lower level of
business intelligence
● Marketing is viewed as either
necessary evil or not valuable
at all
● With technical disagreements,
lines can get crossed between
Engineering and Product

Analytic/DS Product Manager (APM)
An Introduction
1. Close cousin of Technical Product Manager (TPM)
2. APM was almost always an analyst or data scientist
before moving to Product
3. Again, not just an analyst, but the strongest analyst
your company had
4. Not only an expert at SQL, Python or Multivariate Testing,
but understood power of recommendations on
business decisions

Says things like...
“The data shows that no one can find this
feature and the ones that actually do find it
purchase at a lower rate, have lower AOV, and
higher churn.
We have it all right here, live, on our Looker
board.”

Found at...

Pros/Cons
Pros
● No fuzziness about feature
performance
● Often the most informed
person in the company about
what is working/what isn’t
Cons
● There isn’t data for every
product decision
● Often is too prescriptive in
customer interviews, treats
them like quant. surveys
● Will innovate, but within a
toolkit of available
functionality
● Seldom breaks out and creates
completely new functionality

Marketing Product Manager (MPM)
An Introduction
1. Innate understanding of the end customer/user
2. Knows their customer’s goals, their personas, and their
purchase motivations
3. Obvious which features will sell a product and which
are irrelevant to the key user populations
4. Understands power of marketing to make product
strengths appear bigger and product weaknesses seem
non-existent/not relevant

Says things like...
“The market is HUNGRY for this feature.
It’s a major point of differentiation for our
business from competitors and would let us
price our product significantly above theirs
and still grab market share.”

Found at...

Pros/Cons
Pros
● During feature tradeoffs,
leverages market need/available
solutions as a valuable input
● Essential for go-to-market
plans: pricing, positioning,
feature focus
Cons
● The least technical product
manager (most of the time)
● Viewed with skepticism by
some developers (see above)

“Get Shit Done” PM (GSD-PM)
An Introduction
1. Significantly more rare than TPM, APM, or MPM
2. Hard charger, doesn’t take no for an answer
3. Intensely focused on delivery at all costs
4. May burn bridges, make enemies, and work
their development team to the brink, but they’ll
achieve their goals

Says things like...
Why Not Now?

Found at...
Early

Pros
● Intense focus on OKRs/key
business goals
● Doesn’t miss delivery dates
● Obstacles are fun challenges
● Does the jobs of others when
they don’t perform (or perform
fast enough)
Cons
● May lose sight of tangential
opportunities because of laser-
focus
● Rubs many developers the
wrong way, although there are
GSD devs. too!
● Does the jobs of others when
they don’t perform (both a pro
+ con)
Pros/Cons

Visionary Product Manager (VPM)
An Introduction
1. Rarest variety of Product Manager
2. Positions themselves above the day to day tactical
execution that most other Product Managers are
consumed by
3. Innate understanding of their company, of the
market, of their customers, and of potential
customers
4. Timeline of thought extends beyond even quarters
to years

Says things like...
“How does feature fit into our journey to become
the undisputed leader in X?
What bigger industry trends are you seeing
right now as you develop your roadmap?
How do you think the competitive landscape will
change over the next 3 years and how will we
adapt to differentiate?”

Most often found as...
Founders of Seed Stage
Startups

Pros/Cons
Pros
● Sees over the sprint horizon
that most PMs get consumed
by
● Perfect PM to pitch the
product to new investors
● Able to see how tactical
decisions move towards a
greater vision
Cons
● Can overlook the specifics
that keep teams working
efficiently (tickets, sprint
planning, retros)
● Can dive deep into technical or
product issues but doesn’t as
often as other PMs

Regardless Of Your
PM Persona,
Great PMs Have
Major Similarities

Shared Traits of Successful PMs:
Extreme Generalist

Prioritization Machine

Say No a LOT

Passion for the Product

Adaptive Focus

Evangelist

Constant Learner

Recap: Shared Traits of Successful PMs
1. Be an “Extreme Generalist”
2. Prioritize, Prioritize, Prioritize
3. Say “No” a LOT
4. Passion for the Product
5. Adaptive Focus on the Past, the Present,
and the Future
6. Relentless Evangelist
7. Constant Learner

The best Product
teams have the
right mix of Product
Managers

How Do I Become a
(Great) Product
Manager?

Answer:
● Own the Basics
● Lean in to Your Strengths
(and your PM persona)
● Join/Build the Right Team

How Great PMs Can Come From Anywhere by ICX Media CPO

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Tendances

Tendances (20)

Similaire à How Great PMs Can Come From Anywhere by ICX Media CPO

Similaire à How Great PMs Can Come From Anywhere by ICX Media CPO (20)

Plus de Product School

Plus de Product School (20)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

How Great PMs Can Come From Anywhere by ICX Media CPO

Notes de l'éditeur