Are you trying to break into Product Management, or looking to stay on-top of your Product Management game? In this event, VP at Product School, Fernando González de Villaumbrosia, gave insights on how to be a successful PM. He also covered how to grow your career once you're a product manager. Fernando also talked about how to understand the role and importance of product managers in today's tech industry, and gave tactical tips on how to transition to product management and grow your career.

1. Part-time Product Management Courses in
San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles,
New York, Austin, Boston, Seattle, Chicago,
Denver, London, Toronto
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2. FREE INVITE
Join 20,000+ Product Managers on
productschool.com/slack-community

3. San Francisco
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Santa Monica
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Orange County
4,000+
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Alumni
Austin
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London
Boston
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Denver

4. Product
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2-month part-time Courses

5. Coding
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6. Data Analytics
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7. Include @productschool and #prodmgmt at the
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8. Software Engineer ->
Product Manager ->
CEO
The Product Book

9. Fernando Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia
VP of Product at Product School
Tonight’s Speaker

10. How to Become a
Great Product Manager

11. Marketing -> Learnt how to Code -> Growth Hacker -> Product
Manager -> VP of Product
My Path

12. What’s PM?

13. 1- Listen/Research (Customers/Market/Team/Competitors, etc.)
2- Prioritize (and justify) what to build next
3- Communicate internally what the Designers need to design and
what Engineers need to code
4- Keep track of time/cost/quality
5- Communicate externally to Customers what was built (so they can
use/buy it more)
6- Analyze impact on the business of what was built
DON’T READ
IT
Product Development Cycle

14. Design Engineering
Business

15. Design Engineering
Business
PM

16. Paths to PM

17. 1- Software Engineering
2- Entrepreneurship
3- Consulting
4- Project/Program Management
5- Marketing
5 Most Common Paths to PM

18. What else?

19. 1- Other Types of Engineering
2- Finance/Operations
3- Support/QA
4- Sales
5- Design
5 Alternative Paths to PM

20. Other PM Roles

21. 1- Business Analyst
2- Project/Program Manager
3- Product Marketing Manager
4- Product Designer
5- Product “X”
Stepping Stones

22. Design Engineering
Business
PM
PRODUCT
DESIGNER
PROJECT
MANAGER
PRODUCT
MARKETING

23. The PM Career Path

24. CEO -> $$$$ or $ if you are the Founder
VP of Product / CPO -> $$$
Head of Product -> $$$
Director of Product -> $$$
Senior Product Manager -> $$
Product Manager -> $$
APM -> $

25. Types of PMs

26. B2B vs B2C
Startups vs Large Companies
Technical vs Customer-Facing
Marketplaces vs SaaS
Web vs Mobile

27. The Perfect PM

28. 1- Technical Background
2- Domain Expertise
3- Communication Skills
Top 3 Skills

29. Technical Background

30. 1- You DON’T need a CS Degree
2- You DON’T need to code like a pro
3- You NEED to understand the Product at every level and have the
ability to earn the respect of your engineering team

31. 1- Online (Udacity, CodeAcademy, iTunesU)
2- Offline (Product School, HackReactor, CodePath)
3- Find a mentor (CodeMentor, Thinkful, Bloc)
4- Ask your engineering team or friends
5- DIY
How you can get it

32. 1- Build your own website or mobile app
2- Contribute to an open-source project
3- Finish a course and do all the homework assignments
4- Ask your engineering team to let you fix some easy bugs
5- Ask your engineering team to give you access to run SQL queries
How you can prove it

33. Domain Expertise

34. 1- You DON’T need an MBA
2- You DON’T need to sell like a pro
3- You NEED to know everything about your industry, competitors and
customers in order to build something that they love (and makes you
money)

35. 1- Use industry-related products
2- Read or study industry-related content
3- Attend industry-related events
4- Meet industry-related people
5- Join LinkedIn/Slack/Facebook Groups and Follow Twitter Influencers
How you can get it

36. 1- Build experience in the same industry, or find a way to relate your
experience to the product
2- Use those products and be ready to give feedback and elaborated
suggestions about how to improve them
3- Find a smart way to connect with hiring managers, product
managers and other domain experts
How you can prove it

37. Communication Skills

38. 1- You DON’T need to be a Public Speaker or Book Author
2- You NEED to help your team
3- You NEED to create value for your customers and capture part of
that value

39. 1- When possible, choose in-person or phone interactions over emails
2- Read your emails twice before you send them
3- Document what you do and keep track of the next steps
4- Create accounts on Medium, Quora, Twitter and other relevant
forums where you want to have a voice
5- Have an active role in events, hackathons, nonprofits, and other
group activities that require team communication
How you can get it

40. 1- Write consistently. Done is better than perfect
2- Take notes and use technology to keep track your work
3- Take care of your online presence
4- Highlight additional activities or side projects
How you can prove it

41. The PM Job Process

42. Resume Sent
Phone Interview Scheduled
1st In-person Meeting Scheduled
Challenge Sent
2nd In-person Interview Scheduled
Offer Received
30-50
10-15
5-10
3-5
1-3
1-2
Treat your job search as a job itself

43. Questions?

44. Upcoming Product Management Courses
Saturdays
9:30am - 3:30pm
March 3 - April 21
Tuesdays & Thursdays
6:30pm - 9:00pm
3 Spots Left
March 6 - April 26
Weekends Weeknights
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45. Coming soon...
Upcoming Data & Coding Courses

46. Part-time Product Management Courses in
San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles,
New York, Austin, Boston, Seattle, Chicago,
Denver, London, Toronto
www.productschool.com