1. Turbocharge Your PM Career:
Unleashing 5 Game-Changing Tactics
by Meta VP of Product
productschool.com

2. Accelerate your Product Management Career
Certifications
Product Manager
Certification™
Product Leader
Certification™
productschool.com/online

3. Team Training
Level Up Your Team’s
Product Management Skills
productschool.com

4. Resources
Free Product Management Resources
Events Courses Podcasts
Newsletters Communities eBooks and
Reports
productschool.com/resources

5. Five rules that will
unlock your PM career

6. About Nikhyl
Stanford BS/MS 1990-96 (CompSci)
Co-founder & CEO
● Cast Iron Systems (acquired by IBM)
● SayNow (acquired by Google)
Product Executive
● Google (Director for Hangouts, Photos)
● Credit Karma (Chief Product Officer)
● Meta (Facebook VP, Home & Groups)
Career coaching & Mentorship
● 100+ leaders, mostly in PM
● Focus on diversity, future executives
● Skip Podcast and newsletter
(http://skip.show)

7. Rule #1: Product manage your career like a product
◉ Avoid: short term optimizations when careers are decades long
◉ Products have a roadmap that connect to a vision
Consider your “skip job”, then “stay vs. go” or “is this the right offer”
◉ Product phases = Product-Market fit, (Hyper)growth, Market leader
Career phases = Act I: Learning, Act II: Leading, Act III: Giving
◉ Data, user research, customer feedback drives growth
Feedback, coaching and self-awareness required to advance
7

8. Rule #2: Ensure each transition is career additive
◉ Promotions advance you at the company, stories advance in career
”What you build, what you overcame?” > “What was your level?”
◉ Growth rate > level of current responsibility
Faster you learn new things and add impact, more effective you will be
◉ Culture & learning > company mission, product
Avoid eliminating “boring” companies, products you don’t love or use
8

9. Rule #3: Whom you know will matter as much as what you know
◉ Phase I of career: what you know, Phase II: who you know
Yet biggest regret on departure is person didn’t meet enough people
◉ Avoid: networking → too transactional, inauthentic
Instead: build meaningful relationships with the best you encounter:
Peers, leaders, up-and-comers, cross-functional teammates, customers
◉ Find 30 mins each week to offer help or gain perspective on a challenge
(easy for extroverts, actionable for introverts)
◉ This generates luck, creates opportunities, wisdom, gives back
9

10. Rule #4: Find a strength area, then make it a superpower
◉ Areas of expertise:
Product crafting, growth, domain, market, organization, team
◉ Elite careers require world-class skills in 1 or 2 of these areas
◉ No matter what, ensure you are not deficient in any of these areas
◉ Avoid just fixating on managing people (team skills)
Market today requires ICs and builders more than managers
10

11. Rule #5: Bet on yourself
◉ Avoid: outsourcing your career to your manager or your company
◉ Managers focus on what they require and value, not your needs
◉ Promotion ladders inexact science, based on company needs
◉ Instead, focus on:
○ Superpowers you’ve built, Stories you can tell
○ Feedback you receive, Soft skills like empathy and self-awareness
○ Mentors who can help in specific development areas
11

12. Maximize your career
Follow the Skip Podcast, newsletter, communities (http://skip.show)
@nikhyl on Twitter and LinkedIn
12

13. Part-time Product Management
Training Courses
and Team Training
productschool.com