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How To Break Into Product Management

This document provides strategies for breaking into product management as a career. It first introduces the speaker, Richa Pareek, who has 13 years of experience in product management at Google. The document then discusses that product management requires a combination of technical and soft skills and can be approached from various backgrounds. It also outlines a process for self-evaluation to determine if product management is a good fit. Finally, it provides strategic and tactical recommendations for pursuing product management opportunities, including networking, taking on stretch projects, preparing for interviews, and developing key skills.

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Zafar
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
265 views

How To Break Into Product Management

This document provides strategies for breaking into product management as a career. It first introduces the speaker, Richa Pareek, who has 13 years of experience in product management at Google. The document then discusses that product management requires a combination of technical and soft skills and can be approached from various backgrounds. It also outlines a process for self-evaluation to determine if product management is a good fit. Finally, it provides strategic and tactical recommendations for pursuing product management opportunities, including networking, taking on stretch projects, preparing for interviews, and developing key skills.

Uploaded by

Zafar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How to break into

Product Management
Agenda

● About me
● Choosing Product Management as a career
● My Journey to Product Management
● Strategies to break into Product Management
● QnA
Who?

● Richa Pareek
● Mom, Daughter, Wife, Traveler, Writer, Speaker,
Theatre Artist, Photographer, Dog lover

● Product Manager at Google


● 13+ years of industry experience- Consulting, QA
and Testing, Program Management, Product
Management
● Fintech, Ads, SMB, Retail, Non Profit
Who?

● Richa Pareek
● Mom, daughter, wife, traveler, speaker, writer,
photographer, tinkerer, Theatre artist, Dog lover

● Product Manager at Google

● 13 years of industry experience- Consulting, Start


Ups, QA and Testing, Program Management, Product
Management

● Fintech, Ads, SMB, Retail, Non Profits


Product Management as a Career

● A combination of Technical and Soft


Skills
● Varied backgrounds-Engineering,
Program Management, Sales,
Marketing,Design
● Different types of Product
Managers- Technical, Growth,
Analytical, Consumer/Enterprise
● CUSTOMER FIRST!
Is Product Management for you?

Get
Introspect Understand Evaluate
Feedback

The 5 Why’s What and When? How am I


How? Opportunities doing?
and Constraints
Connect the Dots..
Strategize..Prepare...Succeed
● Strategic

○ Look back at your career and connect the dots


○ Build your story
○ Expand your network
○ Find mentors, earn sponsors
○ Take on more stretch projects

● Tactical

○ Start at your existing company/team- limit


variables to 2
○ Look at rotation programs, 20% PM
opportunities,non structured opportunities
○ Pick small projects and deliver on them
○ Talk to engineers and XFN partners
○ Audit your skills and work on the skills you are
missing Source: The T-shaped individual. Made popular by IDEO’s Tim Brown. Artwork by Zhiyong Li’s “Lost
Hometown”. Typeface: Luna by Amanda Leeson.
○ Find your hip pocket skill and build on it
○ Prepare- Interviews matter ...a LOT!
Resources

● Terrific books that provide an overview of the product manager role:


○ Inspired by Marty Cagan
○ Shipping Greatness by Chris Vander Mey
● Great books on customer interviews (terribly biased title unfortunately)
○ The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
● PM Interview Preparation
○ Cracking the PM Interview
○ Decode and Conquer
○ Stellar Peers- a brilliant site for case questions and mock interviews
○ Harvard cs50- the basic course is free!
○ For scalability and system design/architecture recommend this Harvard video , this blog here, the blog
High Scalability, or Interview Cake
● So many valuable Podcasts, Medium blogs, articles on linkedin have the information you need

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