Breaking In – Finding Your First Role in Product Management

First shared with the ProductTank Phoenix community on November 29, 2018.

Short presentation with three goals:
(1) define the role and some of the unique characteristics,
(2) walk through a framework for thinking about how to work toward this role if it appeals to you, and
(3) share a collection of resources which I have found to be excellent and should help you get off to a strong start

1. Breaking In
ProductTank Phoenix
November 2018Paul Parent

2. Briefly—who am I?

3. WARNINGS
Not giving any advice
Must find your own way—others’
stories are only clear looking back
Be careful about over-committing
to a “destination”
Everyone pays their dues
Big shifts often require
uncomfortable sacrifice

4. The job of the product
manager is to discover a
product that is valuable,
usable, and feasible.
–Marty Cagan“
Product
Manager
UXTech
Business
Sources: https://svpg.com, https://medium.com/@bfgmartin/what-is-a-product-manager-ce0efdcf114c

5. •one-to-many
•generalist among specialists
•mid-career role
•mostly without people
management responsibilities
•not project or program
management
ENG
PM
CS
BA
A
DES
MKT
FIN
S
R

6. Domain ExpertEntrepreneurEngineering
+ MBA
Paths to Product Manager
Comp Sci
to Associate PM
Adjacent Role
Source: http://www.sachinrekhi.com/5-paths-to-your-first-product-manager-role
Engineering
Business Analyst
User Research
Design
Analytics
Support
Marketing
…

7. There is no one, reliable path.
PM!!
Doctor,
Architect,
CPA…

8. Let’s invert.*
What do people look for when hiring a
product manager?
“Invert, always invert.” –Charlie Munger / Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi •More reading: https://fs.blog/2013/10/inversion/, https://25iq.com/2015/09/12/a-dozen-things-
ive-learned-from-charlie-munger-about-inversion-including-the-importance-of-being-consistently-not-stupid-2/

9. Searching for Great Product Managers
•Product passion
•Customer empathy
•Intelligence
•Work ethic
•Integrity
•Confidence
•Attitude
•Skills*
Source: Inspired by Marty Cagan, https://svpg.com/inspired-how-to-create-products-customers-love/

11. We must make our own luck.
•Self-study
•Training
•Practice
Preparation*
•Proximity, adjacent roles
•Special projects at work
•Community activities
•Side projects outside work
Opportunity
* The appendix to this presentation can be a starter kit for your prep work.

12. Be ready—
Be great at your current role,
develop additional skills,
demonstrate curiosity and passion,
and build relationships with fellow product people.
—good things will happen.

13. Simple, but hard.
(like so many things in life)

14. Starter Kit

15. Running Leanby Ash Maurya
Positioningby Al Ries
Just Enough Researchby Erika
Hall
The Mom Testby Rob Fitzpatrick
Business Model Generationby
Alex Osterwalder
Made to Stickby Chip Heath
Influenceby Robert Cialdini
Hookedby Nir Eyal
Don’t Make Me Thinkby Steve
Krug
The Inmates Are Running the
Asylumby Alan Cooper
The Innovator’s Dilemmaby
Clayton Christensen
The Lean Startupby Eric Ries
Agile Product Managementwith
Scrum by Roman Pichler
The Hard Thing About Hard
Thingsby Ben Horowitz
Creativity, Inc.by Ed Catmull
Books
Inspiredby Marty Cagan
The Design of Everyday Things
by Donald Norman
Badassby Kathy Sierra
User Story Mappingby Jeff
Patton
Crossing the Chasmby Geoffrey
Moore
Must Reads*Frequently Recommended
* Okay, personal favorites.

16. Email Newsletters & Articles
Marty Cagan’s Insights
Mind the Product Prioritised
Hiten Shah’s Product Habits
Nielsen Norman Group
Theresa Torres’s Product Talk
Benedict Evans’s Newsletter
Hacker Newsletter
Ken Norton’s Bring the Donuts
NewslettersIntroductory Articles with Staying Power
Let’s Talk About Product Managementby Josh Elman
How to Hire a Product Managerby Ken Norton
Good Product Manager, Bad Product Managerby Ben Horowitz
Behind Every Great Productby Marty Cagan
The Evolving Role of Product Managementby Martin Eriksson, et al.
Evolution of the Product Managerby Ellen Chisa
How to Learn Product Senseby Jackie Bavaro
Product Successby Marty Cagan(and the rest of SVPG.com)
29 Indicators of a Product Manager’s Talentby Pivotal Labs
Top Resources for Product Managersby SachinRekhi
* Dig in the archives for the newsletters. Click the links in blog posts. Follow your curiosity!

17. Communities, Courses, and Conferences
ProductTank
IxDA
UX in Arizona
AIGA Arizona
Product Hunt
… there are more! Find the
community that’s a fit for you.
Communities
Mind the Product Workshops
Certified Scrum Product Owner
Pragmatic Marketing
General Assembly
Udemy, Lynda, etc.
Courses
Mind the Product
Industry
Product Camp
Agile Arizona
Phoenix Startup Week
Startup Weekend
… there are so many. Theresa
Torres has published a list, which
grows.
Conferences / Events

18. Models & Methods
User Research
Product Discovery
Design Thinking
Customer Journey Map
Jobs To Be Done
Iterative Development
Outcome Orientation
A/B Testing
Validated Learning
User Experience Design
Interaction Design
Visual Design
Lean Principles
Minimum Viable Product
Product / Market Fit
Customer Acquisition
Conversion
User Activation
User Onboarding
Customer Lifetime Value
Churn
Product Marketing
Positioning
Pricing
Prioritization
OKRs
Roadmap
Backlog
Wireframe
Flow Diagram
Business Models
Business Model Canvas
Personas
Competitive Analysis
Distribution
Unit Economics
User Testing
DevOps
Go-to-Market Strategy
Prototypes
User Stories
Systems Thinking
Splitting / Decomposition
Data Analysis
Statistics
Product Metrics
Business Metrics
Business Case
Estimation
Cohort Analysis
Bug / Defect
SEO / SEM
Scenario Analysis
Copywriting
Agile Scrum
Release Planning
* This is incomplete and influenced by my experience. Approach this in the spirit of the rest of this starter kit, as a jumping off point for your own process.

19. Thank You!
Acknowledgments
Linda Adams • Sean McKeever •Jordan Meyerowitz•Dima Bazhko•
Jonathan Cottrell • Choice Hotels• ProductTankPhoenix Community
Contact me
[email protected]•@paulp