A presentation on a talk I gave to a group thinking about going into Product Management. Talks a little about the role, some reasons you shouldn't be a PM, and how to get into the field. I am currently a Product Manager at Facebook, formerly at TinyCo & Zynga
These are the slides from a talk I gave for Management Leadership For Tomorrow (MLT) at their Tech Bootcamp in New York (5/29/15).
1. So, You Think You Want To Be A
Product Manager?
Damien Peters
2. Who are you?
• Product Manager at Facebook
• Former PM @ TinyCo & Zynga
• Founder of SingleBlackMale.org
• Former Booz Allen Hamilton Engineer &
Consultant
• MBA – MIT Sloan
• BS in CS & Econ – University of Maryland
• From Washington, DC / Maryland
www.damienpeters.com
3. So, What is a Product Manager?
*The Caveat*
The Role and Skills
Vary Widely by Company & Product
4. So, What is a Product Manager?
The Core Skills
• Leadership
• Communication
• Analysis & Data Driven Decision Making
• Creativity & Design Sense
• Problem Solving
5. What’s The Most Important Skill?
Solve any and all problems
stopping you’re team from executing
against your product vision
6. Why Don’t I Want to Be a PM?
• You like to manage people
• You are a “big picture” person
• You like to know what to do and get it done
• You don’t like failure
• You like to sleep & stress isn’t you’re thing
• You like to work with one team
• You think engineers are weird
7. Why Do You Like Product Management?
• The joy of creating something
• Immense impact to your company
• Constant and changing set of challenges
• Building a mix set of skills that are universally applicable
• Respect
8. How do I become a PM?
• Learn the Company, Learn the Market, Learn the Product, Learn their
Interview
• Practice product case questions
• Answer the following:
– Why do you want to be a PM?
– What’s a Product you love and how can it be improved?
– What would you build for this company?
Crushing the Interview
9. How do I become a PM?
• Stop focusing on the implementation
• Work on and build you’re product sense
• Stop being anti-social
• Build something from scratch
You have a technical background
10. How do I become a PM?
• Find companies looking for your background
• Become Technical (or at least closer to it)
• Drop the ego
• Build the key PM skills
• Build Something
• Learn the lingo
• Make the lateral move
• Be realistic
You are not technical
11. How do I become a PM?
Cracking the PM Interview
By Gayle Laakmann McDowell
Decode & Conquer
By Lewis Lin