Product Management Career Conversation XLRI

1. Product Management as a
career
Harshit Kumar
Representing:
Me, Myself & I

2. Agenda
• What is Product & product lifecycle?
• What does a Product Mgr.(PM) do?
• PM responsibilities, Avatars
• Growth path
• Other roles: Product owner
• IT vs Non-IT PM roles
• JDs
• Getting ready for PM interviews
• Typical PM interviews
• MBA Courses that can help
• Recommended resources

3. What is a Product?1
• Product: “A term used to describe all goods, services, and knowledge
sold. Products are bundles of attributes (features, functions, benefits,
and uses) and can either be tangible, as in the case of physical goods;
intangible as in the case of those associated with service benefits; or
can be a combination of the two.”
• Products are created by businesses to sell to other businesses
(business-to-business, or B2B) or to consumers (business-to-
consumer, or B2C).
• Product can be IT, non-IT

4. Hierarchy of Products & services1
• Product line: Collection of related
products
• Solution: Related products &
services
• Portfolio: Collection of product
lines

5. Who is a Product Manager?
• Product Management is business management at the product,
product line, or product portfolio level
• The product manager is a person appointed to be a product or
product line “mini-CEO” or general manager.
• The product manager leads a cross-functional product team.
• The product team’s responsibility is to optimize the product’s market
position and financial returns, consistent with corporate, business
unit, or division strategies
• Product manager converts “good ideas” into successful products
• Applies to IT and Non-IT both

6. • P

7. Understanding customer problem

8. PM responsibilities
• Inbound vs Outbound responsibilities
• P: Product: Why, Who & What to build
• Business case
• Personas
• Define UX: Wireframes
• Work with design (mocks) & development to explain
requirements
• Feature prioritization
• Vision/Roadmap
• P: Price: What to Price
• Based on STP
• P: Promotion, P: Place (When, Where)
• Launch planning and management (GTM)
• Partner management: training, branding

9. 10 avatars of PMs

10. Growth path in PM
PM track
• Junior: PM, PM2 (Fresh MBA thru 5-6 years)
• Senior: Sr. PM (>7-8 years), Principal (> 10-12 years)
• PM People manager, Director, VP, Head of Product, CPO
• Other growth options
• PMs have experience managing cross-functional teams by influence
• Heading a BU, GM, CEO
• Examples: Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, Shantanu Narayen (Adobe), Marissa Mayer (Yahoo)
• Sales/Marketing roles
• Product consulting

11. PM vs PO

12. IT product management
• IT Software, hardware & services
• App on Android, ios, Windows
• Database, ERP, CRM, OS
• Standalone or as Cloud SaaS
• Phone, PC, Router
• Train booking, Bus booking services, Cloud PaaS/SaaS/IaaS
• IT for Non-IT companies
• Digital business, marketing
• Big Recruiters
• MNCs
• Amazon, Adobe, PayPal, Google, Microsoft, Cisco, Juniper, Intuit, Expedia, Uber, Walmart labs
• Indian
• Flipkart, Snapdeal, Myntra, Jabong, Cardekho, Yatra, Makemytrip, Ola, Practo, naukri.com

13. IT PM
sample jobs
from
iimjobs.com

14. Typical roles at big IT firms*
Inbound
Defining features and requirements
Building roadmaps
Release management
Project management
Sales & support training
Building roadmaps
Go To Market
Competitive study
Positioning and messaging
Naming and branding
Customer communication
Product launches
Press and analyst relations
Outbound
Amazon
TPM
Amazon
Product
Mgr.
Microsoft
PM
Microsoft
PMM
Cisco/FK/
Google/
Intuit Program Mgr.Cisco/FK/
Google/
Intuit/Yatra/Expedia/
Adobe/Practo
Product Mgr.
Microsoft
EM
Solutions
HCL/Accenture
/TCS/TechM
Product Mgr.
*Subject to change

15. Non-IT product management
• Banking/Finance
• Credit-card PM: Managing rewards program, partner tie-ups, merchant tie-ups etc.
• Fintech: Managing partners, marketing: Paytm, Western Union
• PM: Retail and SME General Insurance products e.g. IndusInd Bank
• Investments: PMS, Mortgage
• Retail
• Responsible for product(s) e.g.
• Supply-chain, Back-end/SCM
• Analytics
• Data Analytics & Insights e.g. AMEX
• Research & deal sourcing e.g. Tracxn
• Analytics Products
• Others
• Building materials PM: Interact with contractors and customers so as to understand
product needs
• Healthcare, Pharma: Manage the brand portfolio

16. Non-IT PM sample jobs from iimjobs.com
(links might expire)
• PM: General insurance
• PM: Two wheeler
• PM: Building material industry
• PM: Healthcare
• PM: Small finance
• PM: FMCG
• PM: Insurance
• PM: Automotive tech
• PM: Auto
• PM: Fintech
• PM: Mutual Funds

17. Typical PM interviews
• Product Case study questions
• Test of structured thinking
• Favorite product: Why? What will you improve in that?
• Build a new product to solve a problem
• Add a new feature in existing product
• Uber for senior citizens
• Mobile app for restaurant chain
• Enter a new market for an existing product
• Guesstimate questions
• Estimate the number of autos near IIM
• How much money does Google make form Gmail?
• Analytical skills
• Making sense out of huge data
• Given the Google search terms for a certain period

18. PM Case questions approach
• Ask Clarifying Questions & scope the problem
• Remember, there is no point continuing with an answer if you haven’t fully grasped the
situation
• Communicate Your Answer Outline
• There is nothing worse for an interviewer than trying to follow a candidate’s unstructured
train of thought when responding to a product question
• Identify the Users / Customers and their Use Cases
• Although you might have lightly touched upon this while asking some clarifying questions,
this step is crucial to locking down exactly who the product’s customers and users are and
their use cases.
• Identify Gaps in the Use Cases
• Start thinking about how current products/solutions in the market address these use cases
and whether or not there are any gaps or room for improvement
• Brainstorm Features / Improvements
• Prioritize and Identify Trade-offs
• Based on the most important variable
• Summarize your Recommendation
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19. Getting ready
IT
• Your resume should showcase experience: product, analytics & domain
• IT services people: If they have worked on product for a client or domain expertise
• Technical: prep on things on your resume: architecture
Non-IT
• Domain expertise
• Stakeholder management
IT/Non-IT
• Read a lot of stuff
• Techcrunch, Quora, ET, Podcasts: TechNews
• Write a blog at least once a month
• Sharpen product thinking, Play with products, form opinions
• Apps, websites
• Observe user experience
• Products you liked, disliked
• Build on domain
• Keep facts in memory
• Revenues, # downloads
• Discuss, debate, share thoughts with peers
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20. MBA Courses that can help
• Marketing
• 4P, 5Cs, STP, Laddering
• B2B marketing
• Brand management
• Marketing research
• Surveys, Segmentation etc.
• UX/Design, Design thinking
• Business analytics
• Regression, Factor analysis etc.
• New product development or Product management
• Ideation to GTM
• Finance
• NPV, projections
• Some strategy
• Competition, M&A, GTM/Market-entry

21. Case questions
• Amazon wants to do drone delivery in India. How would you go about doing that?
• How much money does gmail make for Google?
• How will you launch a credit card loyalty program in India? (Fin)
• How would you make mobile app for tracking weight and calorie consumption?
• How would you design a mobile app to find a good & reliable maid or cook or
driver?
• Flipkart wants to add 2 hours delivery service in India. How would you approach
that?
• You are HUL what product will you build to counter Patanjali products? (FMCG)
• How will you compete with Jio’s product offering? (Telecom)
• How can Maggi rebuild its brand in India, new product launch? (FMCG)
• What is your favorite product? Why do you like it? What one feature will you add
to it and why?
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22. Resources
• Books:
• Product management handbook
• Product management desk reference
• Lean start-up: Eric Ries
• Lean analytics
• UX for Lean Startups
• Inspired: How To Create Products Customers Love
• Cracking PM interview
• Videos
• The Art of Product Management with Sachin Rekhi, Wharton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huTSPanUlQM
• 16 Killer videos on Product Mgmt. essentials
• https://userbrain.net/blog/12-killer-product-management-videos
• Design thinking by Tim Brown, IDEO
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-hzefHdAMk&t=152s
• Others
• KPIs for apps
• Guestimate Q’s
• Wireframe vs mock-ups
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23. More Online resources
• www.productmanagerhq.com
• The Top 12 Product Management Mistakes
• The Product Manager’s Essential Reading List of 2016
• The Famous PM Reading List on Medium
• The Past and Future of Product Management
• http://www.crackingthepminterview.com/
• The Art of Product Management (author Jackie Bavaro’s blog)
• What distinguishes the top 1% of product manager’s from the top 10%?
• Good Product Manager, Bad Product Manager (Ben Horowitz)
• How to Hire a Product Manager (Ken Norton)
• The Art of Decision Making as a Product Manager (Sachin Rekhi)
• 3 Reasons Better Products Don’t Always Win (Sachin Rekhi)
• What I Look For in a Product Manager (David Lifson)
• Be a Great Product Leader (Adam Nash)
• Getting Hired: How to Get a Job in Product Management
• The Product Manager Handbook (Carl Shan, Brittany Cheng)
• The Art of Delivery (Ibrahim Bashir)
• The PM Interview (Raphael Korach)
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24. Bright Wheel
• https://youtu.be/5iKitGJeAZ4