Main Takeaways: - How do you know if you have built an effective engineering + product team? - How can you measure this? What red flags should you watch out for? - What are potential mistakes Product Managers can make that can lead to ineffective or unsuccessful teams? How can you avoid them?

1. www.productschool.com
5 Mistakes When Working w/Engineers
by TransferWise Product Leader

2. CERTIFICATES
Your Product Management Certificate Path
Product Leadership
Certificate™
Full Stack Product
Management Certificate™
Product Management
Certificate™
20 HOURS
40 HOURS
40 HOURS

3. Corporate
Training
Level up your team’s Product
Management skills

4. Free Product Management Resources
BOOKS
EVENTS
JOB PORTAL
COMMUNITIES
bit.ly/product_resources
COURSES

5. 5 mistakes PMs make while
working with engineers.
Surbhi Manurkar, Product Manager @ Wise

6. A little bit about me.

7. What are we optimising for?

8. Mistake #1

9. Hey, nice to meet
you! Which team
are you in?
Hey, I am in the
product
management
team.
Colleague PM

10. Thinking you are
not part of the
scrum team.
Mistake #1 What instead?
You are part of
the engineering
+ product scrum
team.

11. Hey, nice to meet
you! Which team
are you in?
Hey, I am in the
conversion team.
Colleague PM

12. Mistake #2

13. I see your team
missed your goals
this quarter. What
happened?
Yes, the engineering
team totally screwed
up. They didn’t deliver
the project on time.
PM Manager PM

14. Engineering
delivery is my
tech lead’s
problem not
mine.
Mistake #2 What instead?
Everything is
your problem.

15. I see your team
missed your goals
this quarter. What
happened?
Yes, one of our backend
engineers left slowing
us down. I following up
with recruitment team
to speed up hiring.
PM Manager PM

16. Mistake #3

17. Hey, why are we
building this
feature?
The CEO has asked
for it. Because of that,
we should make this
our first priority.
Engineer PM

18. Not convincing
your team about
the impact.
Mistake #3 What instead?
The only reason
to build a feature
is impact.

19. Hey, why are we
building this
feature?
I did some customer research
and found 80% customers find
this flow confusing. My
estimate suggests we should
see a 5% improvement in
conversion if we fix this.
Engineer PM

20. Mistake #4

21. Hey, what are the
main projects for
next quarter?
I have defined the list
of projects we should
pick up next. I will go
through it in quarterly
planning.
Engineer PM

22. Going to your
team with
projects.
Mistake #4 What instead?
Go to your team
with a problem.

23. Hey, what are the
main projects for
next quarter?
Our customer contacts
have been increasing. Let
me schedule a session
discuss the problem and
brainstorm solutions
Engineer PM

24. Mistake #5

25. How was your
planning with
engineering team?
No one really had
any questions. So,
pretty good!
Colleague PM

26. If you don’t get
challenged,
everyone is
aligned.
Mistake #5 What instead?
No feedback
doesn’t mean
alignment.

27. How was your
planning with
engineering team?
It was good. Got a lot of
questions. I have started
creating a google sheet
for questions as people
feel more comfortable
challenging me there.
Colleague PM

28. How do you know you are
collaborating with your
engineers effectively?

29. Metrics to track
➔ Impact
➔ Team’s velocity
➔ Motivation

31. www.productschool.com
Part-time Product Management Training Courses
and
Corporate Training