Main takeaways: -Strategy for personal growth in a large organization -Being a Product Manager for enterprise tech and cloud computing -Growing from an engineering role to a product role -Learning on the job in an unpredictable and fast-moving environment

1. www.productschool.com
Webinar: How to Shift into Product
Management by Google PM

2. Join 55,000+
Product Managers on
Free Resources
Discover great job
opportunities
Job Portal
prdct.school/PSJobPortalprdct.school/events-slack

3. CERTIFICATES
Your Product Management Certificate Path
Product Leadership
Certificate™
Full Stack Product
Management Certificate™
Product Management
Certificate™
20 HOURS40 HOURS40 HOURS

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

6. The
adventures
of una
movida

7. 1
Prologue
Before it all started.

8. Growing Up
New Delhi

9. Software
Engineer,
Google
Mountain View

10. PRESENTATION DESIGN
This presentation uses the following typographies and
colors:
▫ Titles: Montserrat
▫ Body copy: Raleway
You can download the fonts on these pages:
https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/montserrat
https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/raleway
▫ Gray #576574
▫ Dark gray #1d1d1b
You don’t need to keep this slide in your presentation. It’s only
here to serve you as a design guide if you need to create new
slides or download the fonts to edit the presentation in
PowerPoint®

11. Software
Engineer for
Google
Photos!

12. Confidential & Proprietary
Product Manager at Google Cloud

13. 2
Learnings
Alfred to Bruce Wayne, “Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick
ourselves up.”

14. WARNING!
Cliches ahead. No such thing as a new idea.

15. LIVE BY LEARNING
Living a life where you’re constantly learning. A
good student learns from every place and
person. At work, in your leisure time, subject
matter applicable to your job or not. Books,
subscriptions, Coursera are your friends. Read,
take notes and repeat. VUCA world.

16. The everyday matters. Push yourself out of your
comfort zone. Growth occurs in the sweet spot
between some knowledge and some
discomfort. Don’t remain in your local maxima.
Find out when you’re not growing as fast as you
possibly could. Introspect on which direction
you want to be going in in 5 years.
BE UNCOMFORTABLY
EXCITED

17. As Time passes you will realize how little you
have of it. You are the best judge of your
schedule. Manage your personal time as well.
Don’t please people. Lists are your friends. Take
control of your calendar. Don’t have more than
4 important events in your day on any day.
Calendar management.
SAVE YOUR MOST
EXPENSIVE
RESOURCE: TIME

18. DECISION MAKING
TECHNIQUES
Divide choices into reversible and irreversible
ones. Take time for irreversible ones. Don’t
second guess yourself. If you’re unsure, say no.
Make the choice that will leave you calmer and
more satisfied. Happiness is a choice. Have
expected outcomes.

19. Be proactive in finding mentors. Understand
the difference between the two. Sponsors will
make a huge difference to the growth of your
career. Pass it forward, be a mentor to others.
FIND SPONSORS

20. INVEST IN
YOURSELF
Do things outside of work that help you
rejuvenate and be disciplined about it. Learn to
manage stress. Eat well. Exercise. Meditate.

21. Focus is good as long as it’s on the right things.
Have a life strategy. Know where you want to
be. Know your life’s priorities. Obsess with the
user and trust your intuition. Data is important
but not a substitute for product leadership.
FOCUS, BUT AIM
FIRST

22. PEOPLE x VALUES =
CULTURE
Culture eats strategy for breakfast. You don’t
create a culture. You define values, find
like-minded people who live those values, and
together a culture is born.

23. Define a clear product mission. Make sure
everyone knows it by heart, and they believe in
it. Rally around that mission. Repeat, repeat,
repeat.
EVERYONE POINT
NORTH

24. Be technical enough to be respected by
engineering. Learn a lot of different skills, you
need to channel multiple points of view. You
will represent the person who is not present in
the room, engineering, UX, marketing, legal,
sales and many others. Understand the kind of
PM you are.
DO YOUR
HOMEWORK

25. Build beautiful, reliable, intuitive products.
Don’t build technology for the sake of it. Solve
real user problems using technology. Fire
bullets not cannons. Once you know the bullet,
deliver a polished product that you’re proud of.
CRAFTSPERSONSHIP

26. INFLUENCE
WITHOUT
AUTHORITY
Understand the difference between
management and leadership. Have experience
with conflict resolution. Different people are
influenced differently. Build relationships for
developing currency of trust. You’re not the
CEO.

27. You can never make everyone
happy, period. You should know your
priorities and just try to do the best
you can with that information in
mind. Also remember your job is to
make the product a success at the
end of the day.
WORK WITH
ALIGNMENT NOT
CONSENSUS

28. Main Takeaways.
3
Epilogue

29. Is MBA the
right option
for me?

30. Advice to myself 10 years
ago
1.
Think long term
2.
Get a broader
perspective
3.
Don’t be as serious :)

31. Main Takeaways
1. Take charge of your life.
2. Prioritize your life. Time is expensive.
3. In the end, it’s all about the people.
manjotpahwa@

32. Fin.

33. Confidential & Proprietary
Google Photos launched¹ 28-May-2015
#4 on the Play Store w/ rating of 4.5
100M 30D actives (by Oct 2015)
Positive press on The Verge, Wired,
The New York Times and more.
¹ A launch without outages, incidents or production heroics

34. TAKE CONTROL
OF YOUR
CALENDAR
Don’t have more than 4 important
events in your day on any day. You
should be always be able to make
time for important things but be
busy for random coffees with no
purpose.

35. Be a mentor and a sponsor for
others. Reach out to people you feel
have a lot of potential and need
some basic direction.
PASS IT FORWARD

36. Advice to myself 10 years
ago

37. Advice to myself 10 years
ago
1.
Dance!

38. Advice to myself 10 years
ago
1.
Dance!
2.
Talk!

39. Reach out
manjotpahwa@

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