Main takeaways: -What is Product Management and why is it possible to get your foot in the door -Landing the first PM job -After bagging the first job

1. www.productschool.com
What is Product Management and
How to Break Into It by Google PM

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. What is Product Management and
How to Break Into It?
by Pratik Thaker
PM@Google

6. Disclaimer
All views expressed are my own, and do not reflect those of my
employer or any other organization or group of individuals

7. Agenda
● Who am I?
● What is Product Management?
● PM Skills
● Breaking In!
● I got the job! Now what?

8. Who am I?

9. Pre-Product Career

10. Product Career

11. What is Product Management?

12. What is Product Management?
Product managers are responsible for guiding the success of a product and leading the
cross-functional teamthat is responsible for improving it. It is an important organizational role
that sets the strategy, roadmap, and feature definitionfor a product or product line. The
position may also include marketing, forecasting, and profit and loss (P&L) responsibilities. Product
managers provide the deep product expertise needed to lead the organization and make strategic
product decisions. They often analyze market and competitive conditions,
laying out a product visionthat is differentiated and delivers unique value based
on customer demands.The role spans many activities from strategic to tactical and provides
important cross-functional leadership — most notably between engineering,
marketing, sales, and support teams.The product manager is the person responsible for
defining the why, when, and whatof the product that the engineering team builds.
https://www.aha.io/roadmapping/guide/product-management/what-is-the-role-of-a-product-manager

13. What is Product Management?
“The Product
Manager is the CEO
of the product”
https://a16z.com/2012/06/15/good-product-m
anagerbad-product-manager/

14. What is Product Management?
“The Product
Manager is the CEO;
the CEO of a young,
struggling startup”

15. What is Product Management?

16. What is Product Management?
The Product Manager
does anything and
everything, as a true
generalist to ensure
the success of the
product

17. What is Product Management?

18. Product Management Skills

19. What skills does a Product Manager need?
Hard Skills
● Business /
Management
● Engineering
● UI / UX
● Data Analysis
Soft Skills
● People Skills
● Empathy
● Communication
● Intelligence

20. Business & Management
● Business
○ Strategy
○ Competitive Analysis
○ Finance and Economics
○ Operations
● Project Management
○ Timelines
○ Capacity Estimation
○ Resource Allocation
○ Prioritization
○ Process
● Consultants
● Project / Program Managers
● Entrepreneurs

21. Engineering
● Software Architecture
○ BE / FE
○ APIs
○ Databases
● Software Engineering
○ Programming
○ Algorithms & Data Structures
○ Big-O Notation
○ AI / ML
● Software Engineers
● Other Engineering

22. UI / UX Design
● Design
○ User Interface
○ Usability
○ Wireframing
○ Aesthetics
● User Research
○ Interviewing
○ Focus Groups
○ Mockup Testing ● UI Designers
● UX Researchers
● Graphic Artists

23. Data Analysis
● Data Understanding
○ A/B Testing
○ Funnel Analysis
○ Statistics
● Data Tools
○ SQL
○ Python
○ Google Analytics (or others)
● Data Analysts
● Business Analysts

24. People Skills
● People Management
○ Leadership Soft Influence
○ Consensus Building
○ Negotiation
○ Meetings
● Likability
○ Trustworthiness
○ Respectability
○ Humility
○ Sense of humour

25. Empathy
● Customer Obsession
● Business Alignment
● Engineering Affinity
● Sales / Marketing Sense
● Operations Bent

26. Communication
● Written
○ Emails / Chats
○ Documents
● Verbal
○ Meetings
○ Presentations
● Non-verbal
○ Body language
○ Facial expressions
● Tone
○ Storytelling
○ Engagingness

27. Intelligence
● Structured Thinking
● Logical Inference
● Ability to Learn
● Curiosity

28. Breaking In!

29. ● Talk to Other PMs (LinkedIn, Cold Emails, etc.)
● Attend seminars / webinars
Step 1: Learning
Product Business People Startups

30. Step 2: Targeting Opportunities
● Internal Opportunities
● External Companies
Large Companies Small Companies
?
● Process
● Scale
(circa 2016)
● Speed
● Growth

31. ● Use resume to
highlight pertinent
skills
● Be outcome driven
● Write a customized
cover letter
Step 3: Preparing Resume
Business
Acumen
People Skills
Software
Engineering
Intelligence
Outcomes

32. Step 4: Applying
● Use multiple channels
○ Websites
○ Job Portals
○ LinkedIn
● Reach out
○ Recruiters
○ Founders
○ Other Employees

33. Step 5: Preparing for the Interview
Study
● Blogs
● Courses
Practice
● With a fellow PM if
possible
Research Company
● Products
● Mission & Vision
● Obstacles
● Competition
● Culture
● Leadership
● Story

34. Step 6: Interview day!
● Be relaxed
○ Stressing isn’t going to help
● Lean into the interview
○ Be active, dynamic - get up, walk!
● Work with the interviewer
○ It’s a discussion, not an exam.
● Don’t get flustered
○ Keep your cool, use your training
● Be nice
○ No one wants an a$$hole

35. Step 7: If you don’t get it
● Learn from it
○ You can use it to better your next
interview
● Seek feedback
○ You want to know what to improve
next time
● Stay in touch
○ Opportunities are always opening up
● Keep trying!
○ Took me 10 years + hundreds of
applications!

36. I got the job! Now what?

37. Network Internally
● Team
○ PMs
○ Engineers
○ Designers
● Other PMs
● Domain Leads
● Customer Service

38. Find a Mentor
● A mentor should be
○ Experienced
○ Influential
● Benefits
○ Different perspective
○ Discuss sensitive topics
○ Informal connection
○ Exposure

39. Do the Dirty Work
● Take the projects that no one
wants:
○ Difficult
○ Risky
○ Ambiguous
○ Boring
○ “Unimportant”
● Fill the vacuum

40. Work Hard
● Intense work
● Long hours
Nobody “ever changed the
world on 40 hours a week”
- Elon Musk

41. Fin. Grazie.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pratik-thaker-96917113/
pratikthaker@gmail.com

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