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The PM is the CEO of the product

Be the voice of the customer

Take ultimate accountability for outcomes

Lead by influence without authority

Set the vision and roadmap

Own the “What” and the “Why”

Work with Eng and Design

Quarterback of the team

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There’s truth in all of that!

Sort of…

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Agenda

What is Product Management?
Product Sense
Product Execution
Building Your Career

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Your goals as a PM…

Grow business impact

Create �value for customers

Assemble and align the team

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Building products is a team sport

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Every function has its specialty

But we’re one team. We win together. We lose together.

Product owns the “What” and “Why”
Engineering & Design own the “How” and “When”
Everyone must push each other to make best decisions
But ultimately the “Decide” should be owned by the specialist

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Influence but not control

Trust is earned; never gifted.

Customer

Product

Exec

Eng

Design

Marketing

Sales

Support

Legal

Finance

Ops

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First to take accountability.

�Last to take credit.

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What is product mgmt?

Additional resources.

Further reading on the PM career and interview process

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Product Sense

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Product development lifecycle: product sense

Product sense involves figuring out the “What” and the “Why” of the build.

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How to figure out what to build?

Always comes back to these two things.

Talking to Customers

Analyzing �Data

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How to talk to customers

The goal is to gather primary data, straight for the horse’s mouth.

Email and ask them
User interviews (“customer discovery” interviews)
User research studies (co-led with UXR function)
Talking with Sales
Reports from Customer Support with aggregate findings
App store reviews
In-app surveys
Social media, including direct engagement
VIP chatrooms / Slack channel / Discord servers
Et cetera…

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How to analyze data

Know your business inside and out. Identify the biggest levers.

Define your “North Star” metric(s). Every teammate should know it.

Revenue (when available) should be included
Understand the biggest drivers into each metric

Build a “HQ” dashboard page. Treat it as a product — the “customer” is Exec.

Can a leader with 2 free mins extract the right takeaway?

Every product launch should have success & guardrail metrics

Success metrics show if the product is having the intended effect.
Guardrail metrics show if it’s having unintended consequences elsewhere.

Competitor data can also lead to insights

Market share and competitive strengths drive product strategy
Caution: stay customer-obsessed; never competitor-obsessed

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Product strategy precedes PRDs

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Product strategy tells the end-state vision

All that you will build, and why it will work. Launches iterate toward the goal.

PRD

Learn

Launch

PRD

Launch

Learn

Product strategy

End-state vision

PRD

Launch

Learn

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Build a multi-quarter roadmap

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The roadmap is constantly evolving

And your team needs to be bought-in.

Google Sheets can be more nimble than Jira
Keep it in rank-sort order, with P0/P1/P2/P3 priority tags
Have an impact estimate for each entry
At quarterly/annual planning, draw a cutline based on current resourcing

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Become excellent at saying “no.”

Graciously…

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Build design sense by being an observant user

Study the products you love. What makes them incredible?

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Product sense

Additional resources.

Further reading to develop your product and design sense

Zero to One
Working backwards
The Innovator’s Dilemma
Marc Andreessen’s blog archive
Paul Graham (“PG”) essays
Fred Wilson’s MBA Mondays posts
Chris Dixon’s blog highlights
Design sense:

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Product Execution

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Product development lifecycle: product execution

Product execution turns vision into shipped product.

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Order of operations

There is a repeatable process for executing the product lifecycle.

Your strategy informs what to build next
Write a PRD. Host a kick-off call with XFNs
Eng drafts a TDD. Design leads mockups. PM iterates and locks the PRD.
Eng begins implementation. PM focus shifts to GTM with PMM & Sales.
Dogfooding is the responsibility of every teammate
Launch the product. Kick off the marketing campaign.
Measure your metrics. Proactively report-back to Exec & the team.

Research

Plan

Design

Implement

Test

Release

Measure

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Principles for working with others

“To go fast, go alone. To go far, go together.”

Colleagues want the same thing, but we have different lenses of the world

Legal is biased toward protection. Product toward growth. Eng toward hardness.

When you disagree, the first step is to listen and get curious

Distill and recite their point before making yours

Give positive feedback in public; constructive feedback in private

Feedback is a gift. It shows you care about their growth.

Put decisions and agreements in writing

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How to communicate

Communication is the job.

Concision is key. Write in a brief, structured, and precise way.
Start with a “TLDR” (“Executive Summary”) for any doc >2 pages
Communicate the good and the bad
Write down decisions, action items, and notes. You’ll thank yourself later.
Your documents are your artifacts. They will reflect on you for years later.

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How to clean escalate

Escalation is a good thing, but not when done dirty.

It’s time to escalate when you and a disagreeing team reach a stalemate.
Write down the steelman argument for both POVs.
Bring in both side’s manager and discuss together, objectively. Get a decision.
“Disagree and commit”-ing to the final decision is important
Don’t talk negatively about colleagues behind their back.

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How to take Exec feedback

Optics and managing upward are important.

Exec feedback is directional, not literal, unless you’re told explicitly
Take a “yes, and” approach to leaders in meetings. Never a “no.”
Follow-up privately and directly if you disagree with their POV
Know the levels of feedback…

Level 1

Just another person in the room

Level 2

Think you should do this

Level 3

Not a choice

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Product execution

Additional resources.

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Building Your Career

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Avoid the elite road to nowhere

Credentials won’t lead to satisfaction.

Graduate! 🎓
Banking / consulting
“Private equity”
MBA
Now what???

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Choose thoughtfully where to focus

Use the Japanese framework of Ikigai.

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Where you live matters

Serendipity and talent density will improve your odds of success.

Seek a high density of smart people who are interested in the same things
Every city has a culture; don’t force a bad fit
For some industries, only 1 city matters
For a tech career, generally:

Tier 1: San Francisco & NYC
Tier 2: Austin, Los Angeles, Seattle
Tier 3: Boston, Miami, Denver/Boulder, Atlanta

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Manifestation is real

Have a clear vision. Never think small. Work your ass off.

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“Work backwards” with your career

Set long-term goals. What must be true in year (n–1)?

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Optimism is a choice

Optimists tend to be successful and pessimists tend to be right.

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How to make a lot of money in tech

Think like an investor. Join a pre-IPO company that is scaling rapidly and could be #1 in their market.

market cap

time

IPO

PMF

High compensation

Limited upside

Steady learning

Good compensation

Life-changing upside

Fast, functional learning

Low compensation

Unlikely upside

Fast, generalized learning

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Building your career

Additional resources.

Further musings on careers & life

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Thank you!

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