So you want to be a product manager? Part 2
Earlier this summer I wrote a post about misconceptions about product management, and with every great part 1, I’m back with an even better part 2. This time, I wanted to share a few questions that are important to ask as you’re courting your next prospective employer.
Why does this matter?
Before I actually get into the questions, let’s set some context. Product management is still a relatively new field that can vary in responsibilities. As I have mentioned before, product managers own both product and project management responsibilities. To be completely honest, there are a lot of organizations that don’t understand how to leverage a well-skilled product manager. And that lack of knowledge could mean that a product manager will not be well-leveraged, and could potentially lead to frustration for not only the organization, but also the product person. It’s important to ask the right questions as it will be very telling of what your experience will be like on the job.
Format will be simple below, I’ll list the question, the answer you should expect, the scary answer that should be a little red flag, and the amber answer that may make you think. And a debrief for each response, as always I am purely speaking from experience, and everyone should find an opportunity that suits their needs at that time.
Question 1: How does quarterly planning take place?
What we’re looking for here is to understand what kind of planning autonomy does the product team have. Where does the work come from. Who has the final say. The only perfect answer is the one that suits you and your needs, but you need to ask this for yourself to avoid burnout and to manage your expectations.
The Green Answer: Product managers are responsible for developing the roadmap based on user insights, internal stakeholders, company vision and the maturity and landscape of the business (at a high level). An answer like this
The Alarming Answer: Quarterly planning doesn’t usually happen. Things change way too often for a quarterly plan to make sense, and the ideas generally come from the top. An answer like this would mean that the business isn’t quite stable, and it won’t be easy to wrangle the team to think critically about achieving business goals. This also won’t allow for the thoughtful time and energy it takes to develop great product.
The Less-Alarming Answer: Product management receives a quarterly plan from management. This answer essentially means that the organization looks at product managers as project managers.
Question 2: What is the company vision?
Everyone in the organization should be able to articulate and understand the product and company vision. As a product manager, you’re responsible to deliver on that vision, and regularly deliver against that vision. If everyone explains the vision differently, then that’d not only mean information disparity within the organization, but it’d more importantly mean that your job is as clear as mud.
The Green Answer: Everyone can articulate the vision clearly and concisely. This shows that everyone is on the same page, the vision is clear and that you have a clear path to start with as a product leader.
The Alarming Answer: No one knows what a vision is, or what the vision is. This would mean that you’d need to spend time with leadership to understand the vision and communicate widely.
The Less Alarming Answer: There are similar answers, but they’re distinctly different. This would mean that you would need to spend time gaining the trust of the team, and aligning them across the company vision that comes from leadership.
Question 3: Why is now a good time to hire a PM?
Product managers can make or break a project, and when you find the right PM, it could make the project that much easier and more smooth. Excellent product people are expected to do the homework to make the tough decisions, and own the outcome and credit their teams. But the hard part is finding the right fit that works with what the team needs at that time.
The Green Answer: We’re beginning to expand our product offering and products, and we need a domain expert to own the lifecycle of that product. We need to be less occupied with making large and small decision, and need a trusted product leader to own that.
The Alarming Answer: We have a big project coming up that is expected to really impact our team, and we need them to carry it out. This shows that the product manager is responsible for project management responsibilities, and they’re not clear on the differences between the two roles. Great product development teams co-own their project management responsibilities.
The Less Alarming Answer: We’re scaling our product and our engineering teams, and we need to divide up the platform as there is too much work. This doesn’t really promise distinct product ownership which could mean confusion in the future. Not only will you potentially be confused by what you own, but the product development teams wouldn’t know who to listen to.
