Priyanka Kumar, Product Manager at Salesforce, talked about how to prepare for PM interviews, what top companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft really look for, and how to tackle the toughest problems. She discussed how the ambiguously-named "PM" (product manager / program manager) role varies across companies, what experience you need, how to make your existing experience translate and what a great PM resume and cover letter look like.
12. Role of a Product Manager
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Voice of the Customer
Executes & Delivers the
product
Bridges & Shields the team
Evangelizes the Product
Communication & Stakeholder
Management
13. PM: Big Company vs Startups
Source: Drew Dillon on Quota
Startups Big Companies
Biggest Challenge: Resources Biggest Challenge: Organization
Impact - Build for growth Impact - Build for Scale
Access to Customers/Users Limited access to Customers
Ad-hoc requirements Defined product process
Influence on Product Vision Business driven Product vision
17. Selling your Resume
Bring out prior communication, leadership
and coordination work.
Focus on Customers
Think about Strategic Initiatives
Display prioritization skills
Importantly, Quantify
everything!
18. Examples:
“Built and maintained web payment interfaces using Java, XML, XSL,
AJAX, and JWS.”
VS
“Led successful integration of payment flow with checkout
and increased user conversion by X%.”
“Coordinated with Product team to define, track & measure
release metrics”
VS
“Led green light meetings for Product buy-in on key product
metrics. Increased MoM user growth by X%.”
23. Estimation Questions
Framework
Clarify
Think about what you know
Make an equation
Consider edge cases
Solve components
Sanity Check
Source: Gayle Laakmaan Books
How many airplanes
are in the airspace?
26. Product Questions
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Improve a Product
Favorite Product
Product Design
What’s your favorite
product?
“Start with WHY?”
33. Resources
Books
Gayle Laakmann - Cracking the PM interview
Decode & Conquer
Rise above the noise
Interview Math
Geoffrey Moore: Escape Velocity, Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado
Chip Heath: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
Marty Cagan: Inspired: How to Create Products Customers Love
Blogs
https://www.lewis-lin.com/
https://growthhackers.com/posts
http://www.sachinrekhi.com/how-to-ace-your-product-management-interview
Podcast
http://www.thisisproductmanagement.com/episodes/