Summary of Gayle Laakmann McDowell & Jackie Bavaro's Cracking the PM Interview

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 A product manager is responsible for making sure that a team ships a great product. They are highly respected at most companies, but not more so than engineers. You must learn to lead your team without authority, influencing them with your vision and research.
#2 The product life cycle is a general pattern of Research Plan, Design, Implement Test, and Release. The product manager will be responsible for Research Planning and Release, while the technical product manager will be responsible for Design and Implement Test.
#3 The product manager begins planning and researching the next product or feature. The product manager is the expert on these topics, and should think deeply about the problems they are trying to solve and the goals of the features.
#4 The product manager’s role in product design varies between teams. Some have a detailed functional specification that is inspected, reviewed, and iterated on by developers, testers, and other PMs. Others have a more rapid design process, with minimal input from the PM.

Sujets

• Recherche d'emploi
• Recherche d'emploi
• Recherche d'emploi
• Careers
• Job hunting

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 10 avril 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669383130
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Gayle Laakmann McDowell & Jackie Bavaro's Cracking the PM Interview
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10 Insights from Chapter 11 Insights from Chapter 12 Insights from Chapter 13 Insights from Chapter 14 Insights from Chapter 15
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

A product manager is responsible for making sure that a team ships a great product. They are highly respected at most companies, but not more so than engineers. You must learn to lead your team without authority, influencing them with your vision and research.

#2

The product life cycle is a general pattern of Research Plan, Design, Implement Test, and Release. The product manager will be responsible for Research Planning and Release, while the technical product manager will be responsible for Design and Implement Test.

#3

The product manager begins planning and researching the next product or feature. The product manager is the expert on these topics, and should think deeply about the problems they are trying to solve and the goals of the features.

#4

The product manager’s role in product design varies between teams. Some have a detailed functional specification that is inspected, reviewed, and iterated on by developers, testers, and other PMs. Others have a more rapid design process, with minimal input from the PM.

#5

The product manager helps the engineers work efficiently during the implementation stage. He will check in regularly with his team and learn how things are going. He will also start gathering feedback and reporting bugs on the early versions of the product.

#6

The launch process varies from team to team, but it usually involves running through a launch checklist and making sure that the teams that will support the product going forward are prepared.

#7

Shipped software refers to products that ship in the Apple App Store or on DVDs. Shipped software is difficult to update after launch, so it’s important to get it right the first time. As a result, shipped-software teams tend to have longer timelines.

#8

In online software, being scrappy is important. Product updates are easy, so things move quickly. Teams will often launch something and see how it performs before launching again.

#9

Data-driven product managers can do well working on consumer products because they are able to make a strong case for their proposals, and they are often able to come up with features that will make a difference to the company's core metrics.

#10

In business-to-business products, like online ads or productivity software, the customer is at another company. Engineers realize that they are not the target audience, and they tend to rely more on the product manager to understand the customer.

#11

The early stages of a product are when the team is focused on shipping a minimum viable product. This means cutting non-essential features to strip the product down to just the essentials. This allows the team to launch faster and begin the process of learning what customers want.

#12

Mature products are those that have been around for a long time, and are usually the market leaders. They usually have a large user base, and it is easy to make improvements that are multiplied due to the large number of users.

#13

Product managers are responsible for identifying problems and opportunities, picking which ones to go after, and then making sure the team comes up with great solutions. This is why product sense is so important for product managers.

#14

The myth that product managers are in the marketing department is false. They are in the engineering department, and they define what happens once a user is in the product. Marketing people will talk to product managers about features that would help the messaging, but they don’t define the details of those features or work with the engineers to build them.

#15

The title product manager makes many people think that you need a lot of experience to become one. In fact, many tech companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Yahoo recruit product managers directly out of college.

#16

The job of a PM is very different from that of an engineer or a designer. PMs are responsible for seeing the entire project through to a successful completion. They are not expected to deliver working code or mockups, but they are expected to deliver a spec.

#17

Product managers are able to reduce the number of meetings their teammates need to attend because they’re able to represent the team to other groups and find productive ways of communicating that don’t require meetings.

#18

Product managers look beyond what customers say to see the hidden needs and deeper goals. When Oxo, a kitchen utensil company, asked customers what was wrong with their measuring cup, they talked about the cup breaking when they dropped it or its having a slippery handle. But when they watched people use the measuring cup, they saw people pour, then bend down to read the measurements, then pour, then bend, then pour, then bend.

#19

As a PM, you can’t just tell your team to code faster; it won’t work. Instead, you must make tradeoffs and negotiate with the engineers. You either need to cut features or find a way to parallelize the work and bring on more people to help out.

#20

The role of a product manager is to influence without authority. They build credibility with the team, communicate clearly, gather data and research, and be persuasive to lead the team.

#21

It's important to take broad ideas and make them tangible and actionable. Product managers need to think about the corner cases and figure out all the little steps that need to happen to make an idea a reality.

#22

There are many roles related to product management, and the lines between them can be blurry. If you're looking to apply for a project manager or program manager position, make sure you understand the nuances of the requirements.

#23

The roles of project manager and program manager are similar, but project managers are more focused on budgeting and resource management, while program managers are more focused on product design.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The ratio of PMs to engineers can vary widely. At Microsoft, where the ratio is 1:3, there is a lot of collaborative work and many chances to learn from people with more experience. At Google and Twitter, where the ratio is 1:10, there is more independence and ownership of a large area.

#2

The role of a product manager in defining product strategy differs between companies. At some companies, the strategy is created by key decisions coming from developers and PMs. At other companies, the strategy is decided by executives and PMs.

#3

Companies such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Facebook have a lighthearted environment during the workday. While people may work long hours, they’ll always say that the quality of their work is more important than the number of hours they put in.

#4

Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google hire new college graduates for their product manager roles. Microsoft hires experienced PMs and prefers a technical background, though it doesn't have to be specifically computer science.

#5

Google’s structure reflects its startup roots. Google is passionate about innovation and values a culture where great ideas can become reality. Google’s vision comes from the bottom up, and teams are engineering driven.

#6

Google looks for entrepreneurial self-motivated people who love technology. Candidates with MBAs or more than four years of experience join as product managers, while those with fewer than four years of experience apply to be associate product managers.

#7

The Google product management role is very analytical, and they value analytical skills in their employees. They typically gather customer requirements and communicate those needs to the rest of the team.

#8

Google has a program called 20 percent time where engineers and PMs can spend 20 percent of their time on a company-related side project. Many big products at Google such as Gmail, Google News, and Orkut started in someone’s 20 percent time.

#9

The Microsoft program manager is unique in scope and influence. They serve as a business analyst, project manager, and creative force. Microsoft has one of the highest PM-to-developer ratios.

#10

Microsoft looks for program managers who are big-picture thinkers who can solve problems and get stuff done. The company has two roles related to program management that are usually filled by people with MBAs: product managers and product planners.

#11

The Microsoft strategy is developed by the top officials and worked down to the teams. The teams feel like they are working towards the same goal, and it is rare to find two teams that are working on competing features.

#12

Apple hires EPMs from all levels of experience. They typically hire people with a background in science and math, as well as good manners. They look for people who are technically fluent enough to be part of the discussion, but who won’t try to do any of the engineers’ job for them.

#13