Metadata
- Authors: Gayle Laakmann McDowell, Jackie Bavaro
- Full Title:: Cracking the PM Interview
- Category:: đź“šBooks
- Finished date:: 2023-02-02
Highlights
like a mini-CEO of their product. (Location 220)
the description of product manager as CEO misses the boat: product managers don’t have direct authority over the people on their team. (Location 222)
Once he’s chosen a feature set, the product manager becomes the expert on them. He’ll think deeply about the problems he’s trying to solve and the goals of the features. (Location 256)
Many companies use the model of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) (Location 259)
Ask about who you’ll be working with on your core and extended team. Find out how much of your time will be spent writing specs and how much you’ll be working with designers. Learn where the balance is between PMs, designers, and engineers in making product decisions. (Location 279)
Prioritization is one of the product manager’s most important functions at this point; (Location 308)
PMs who are good at project management and have good communication skills do well working on shipped software. Shipped software can also be great for people who want a good (Location 332)
work/life balance, since there aren’t usually urgent issues that need to be fixed within hours. (Location 333)
Often, a mature product’s biggest competitor is the last version of that same product. (Location 366)
While marketing people will talk to product managers about features that would help the messaging or branding, they don’t define the details of those features or work with the engineers to build them. (Location 386)
They’ve found that passion, intellect, a strong customer focus, and lots of energy can be a winning combination for great PMs. If you want to become a PM, don’t think that you have to take a different job first. (Location 391)
As a PM, you can tell your team what you want them to build, but then they’ll tell you how long it will take to build it. If the timeline is too long, you can’t just tell them to code faster; it won’t work. (Location 414)
Designers should be empowered to own the design of the product, and engineers should be empowered to own the technical implementation. PMs (Location 426)
Product managers need to think about the corner cases and figure out all of the little steps that need to happen to make an idea a reality. Often this involves getting your hands dirty: (Location 432)
Project managers often work in cost centers, so they focus a lot on operational efficiency and reducing costs while keeping quality up to par, unlike product managers who are often shielded from those aspects. (Location 460)
otherwise, don’t worry about it! (Location 945)
Transitioning from Engineer to Product Manager (Location 977)
allow yourself to envision a world where you’ve made the impossible happen. (Location 1000)
Write yourself a reminder to always think big. Start your feature planning by writing the press release. (Location 1010)
As an engineer, it’s better to prove things through data than charisma. As a product manager, you need to master both. (Location 1013)
Given that investment of time and money, an MBA probably isn’t worth it if you’re solely doing it to get a PM role. There are quicker and cheaper ways to make this transition. (Location 1078)
Those documents aren’t your job; they’re just the tools you use to get results. (Location 1256)
If a company sees that someone’s never been with the same company for more than 18 months, you’ll assume it will be the same for them and they won’t want to make an investment. So stay a good few years before you make those jumps. (Location 1289)
Pick a place where you can stay long enough that you’ve been on the team longer than most people. Think about how long you’re willing to stick with a product. You cannot speed up time, but you can choose a place where you’re more likely to become a senior member of the team. (Location 1327)
There’s nothing engineers hate more than subjective decisions that change from one day to another. If you develop that framework and those principles, it helps people realize that you are consistent. (Location 1343)
whoever writes things down has the power. (Location 1418)
a PM is an expert in their customer. (Location 1441)
If you’re interviewing to be a PM, it’s good to look at every problem starting with “Who is the customer?” and “What is success?” (Location 1458)
I strongly recommend to everyone who wants to become a PM that they build a network. You learn to write by reading. (Location 1484)
when I realized what really matters in product management and in any career: relationships. (Location 1596)
What to Include Your resume should obviously include your work experience and education. What about all the other little details? (Location 1954)
If your resume is sufficiently concise, it already is a summary. (Location 1963)