Product Management presentation given during #ProductCon Online in July 2020 by Facebook VP of Product

1. www.productschool.com
The Skills to Become a Director, VP, or
CPO by Facebook VP of Product

2. CERTIFICATES
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3. Corporate
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Management skills

4. Free Product Management Resources
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5. The skills it takes to become
Director, VP and CPO
Nikhyl Singhal • July 9, 2020

6. How to advance in your PM career?
● Path to Manager is clear & consistent
● Path to Director, VP and CPO is unique
for each person and company
Goal for this presentation
● Explain what boss does and their boss
● Describe skills at different exec levels
● Important input in 10 year career plan
(article available on my Medium)

7. About Nikhyl
Co-founder & CEO
● Cast Iron Systems (acquired by IBM)
● SayNow (acquired by Google)
Product Executive
● Google (Director for Hangouts, Photos)
● Credit Karma (Chief Product Officer)
● Facebook (VP for News Feed)
Career coaching & Mentorship
● 50+ leaders, mostly in PM
● Focus on diversity, future executives

8. Comparing titles
1. PM function gets more complex
with more products, people
2. Director at ‘Drunken Walk’ ≠
Director at Scale
3. VP at hypergrowth ==
Director at Scale
4. For simplicity, we’ll stick with
Scale for titles going forward

9. How Director, VP
and CPO roles
are different
1. Product scope
2. Trust & collaboration
3. Team building
4. Strategic skills

10. Product Scope
Director
Well-defined product area
Ex: Google Hangouts, Google Photos
VP
Suite of products or complete product line
Ex: Facebook News Feed
CPO
Complete set of company’s products
Ex: Credit Karma app
Challenge: more breadth means less depth

11. Trust & Collaboration
Director
Trust your own product team
Skill: make decisions with less information
VP
Trust other product leaders across company
Skill: learn & influence different product cultures
CPO
Trust other C-level execs (incl. biz teams & CEO)
Skill: set accurate expectations with execs with
product opinion but little background, training

12. Team
Director
Influence your PMs
Skill: teach your managers to manage
VP
Influence your Directors
Skill: recruit execs, diversify team, fix process
CPO
Influence complete PM team & product culture
Skill: introduce new products, process, skills
while scaling what’s working

13. Strategy
Director
Avoid pure focus on execution
Skill: which features & resources, what sequence
VP
Avoid silos – product that looks like org chart
Skill: directors and your peers need to work
together to produce blended product
CPO
Avoid focusing on today instead of tomorrow
Skill: storytelling how products fit into company
vision, signaling how product team will get there

14. Conclusion
1. Directors, VPs and CPOs require
very different skills to succeed
2. Not everyone is capable or will
enjoy becoming an executive
3. Build a long term career plan

15. www.productschool.com
Part-time Product Management Training Courses
and
Corporate Training