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How to break into Product Management?

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So, you think you can manage product? Product management is one of the fastest growing professions right now with ~32% growth from 2017 to 2019. And just like it is with anything in the growth phase, everybody wants to get in on the action. 

However, product management has still not gone mainstream yet. A lot of us (including myself) are not even aware of this profession until we come across a product manager. And by the time we get to know, understand and fall in love with product management, it might already have been too late. We might have taken a different course during graduation or already started our career in a different domain. And thus, many of us are left wondering “How to break into Product Management?”

Get into Product Management

Why Product Management?

If you are here reading about breaking into product management, then I can safely assume that you have a good idea of what product management is, what does a product manager do, and you are excited about pursuing product management as a career. However, I have seen a lot of people get fancied by wrong stereotypes or myths and thus deciding to get into product management. So, just a quick heads up before we start – 

1. “You are not going to be the CEO of your product”

You are not going to be the sole decision maker (especially in MNCs) and will have to take inputs from probably 10 different teams. It’s not gonna be like whatever you think of gets build.

2. You will be held accountable for anything that goes wrong

Though you are not the sole decision maker of your product, you will have to take responsibility (directly or indirectly, fully or partially) of your product’s failure. Also, you may not always get recognized (or at least will have to share credit) when your product delivers successfully. 

3. You will have to multitask

You’ll be making long term strategic decisions and at the same time firefighting 10 different day to day issues. So, don’t ever think of giving excuses like “I am not able to focus because of context switch”. 

Note – Getting into any profession mainly has 2 key steps – 
1. Getting shortlisted for the interview 
2. Acing the interview
Here we try to focus more on the “getting shortlisted for the interview” part of breaking into product management. To learn more about what skills you may need to actually ace the interview refer to our post on Top 10 product management skills.

Who are you?

Now, there is no one size fits all guide for breaking into product management. Depending on where you are right now in your professional journey you may have a different path to product management. 

Fresher (Recent college graduate) 

You have just recently finished college and have no (or very less) work experience.

1. Practise Practise Practise

This holds true for almost any profession. The more you practise the better you’ll get at the product management.

a. Try to think from multiple point of views 

  • User (How does the product adds value to the user),
  • Business (How does the product helps generate revenue), 
  • Technology (Tech feasibility, complexity and scale of your product)

b. Pick your most frequently used apps (or websites). Assume that you are a product manager there and try to come up with –

  • 10 things you would like to improve about that app
  • 10 things you really like about that app which you think are unique about it

2. Awareness of basic Product Management concepts 

Familiarize yourself with the basic product management concepts like PRD, MVP, Sprint, Wireframes, User stories etc. May be do an online course related to product management. However, don’t yet go too deep into the theoretical concepts. The idea is just that you are able to understand and follow the discussion if these terms come up in a discussion somewhere and don’t end up feeling totally lost.

3. Build something 

Showcase your passion and, in a way, prove yourself.

a. Make your own website

This is a highly underrated exercise. Don’t worry too much about the content to begin with. Just think of it as your online CV (curriculum vitae). Put whatever information is in you CV on your website. The simple process of designing the website, structuring the site directory would give you (as a fresher) immense clarity on what lies ahead on the road to product management. You’ll realize that there is a thought process behind even the simplest of the things like font, font size, button color etc.

b. Make your own app

Since we are living in a mobile world, this is the need of the hour. There is an app for almost everything nowadays. There are many platforms like Appy Pie, Andromo etc. which let you create your own app quickly without much technical (or coding) knowledge. This would again give you clarity of thought and structure in terms of what the user flow should be, how to arrange information, should you show all information on one page or split it into multiple steps etc. And besides everything else, this is actually quite fun.

4. Communication skills 

Though there are a lot of skills required for product management, communication skills stand out for a fresher as you probably don’t have many projects to showcase your skills yet. And thus, your communication skills are your biggest ally to convey your ideas and thoughts to the interviewer. For other important product management skills, refer to the “Top 10 skills that every product manager must be good at”.

5. Internship

If you can get a few months internship in a product management role, go for it. You can easily find out internship opportunities on almost every job search platform. Although I’m not a big fan of unpaid internships, but if it’s a good role (or a brand), then I would suggest not to make stipend (salary) as a big mental roadblock and just go for it. Think of these few months as a long-term investment in your future.

6. Referrals

You are much more likely to get an interview call if you are referred by an existing employee vs if you applied online. Also, as a fresher, chances are that your CV would most likely get filtered by bots (due to lack of experience) if you just apply online on the company website. So, reach out to your network of friends, family, school / college alumni and just shamelessly ask for a referral. It’s not a big deal.

Working professional in Engineering, Design, QA or Analytics 

You are at an advantage here as most probably you already know how product management works. Being part of Engineering, Design, QA or Analytics, you must have already spent a good amount of time with product managers in your company and thus have a much better and realistic understanding of the role.

It’s much much easier for you to transition into product management within your current org. Even if you don’t like the PM org in your current company or don’t plan to stay at your current company for long, just stick around and transition into product management first. Take whatever project you are getting as a product manager. Just get stamped as a product manager once. Because there is a basic flaw in how the recruitment happens in majority of the companies – your most recent designation matters the most during recruitment.

Just be very open and transparent with your manager that you want to get into product management. A lot of employers (or managers) appreciate it when employees are clear and honest about their career aspirations. If you have stayed a few years in your current company (in any of the above roles) then transitioning to product management is more of a question of relationship management rather than skills.

Give it time. My view is to give it around 6-12 months. If your manager can’t get you a full-time PM role in this time, then it’s clear that you are being taken for a ride and it makes more sense to start exploring outside your current company. But hey, hopefully by now you have got at least one product management gig and can mention yourself as a product manager in your CV (We all exaggerate in our CV. That’s a fact. Don’t judge me).

Working professional in some other domain

You are probably working in a profile which has no (or very little) overlap with product management, let say Accounting, Sales or HR.  Now, this is a career shift we are talking about. First of all, kudos to you for at least acknowledging it to yourself that you want to make this shift. You may have to let go of the work experience and seniority that comes with it. It may involve a pay cut as well.

Please me mentally prepared that it is going to be relatively tough for you to get into product management (due to the basic flow in recruitment practices we talked about earlier). Once you have made up your mind about getting into product management, then the steps for you are pretty much similar to what we discussed for a fresher above (because like it or not, you are a fresher when it comes to product management).

Please note that these were just some of the non-conventional practices to break into product management. You still have a lot more to do with respect to actually honing your product management skills and acing that interview once you get a call. Let us know in the comments your thoughts on the above steps or if you have any more ideas about breaking into product management that may help aspiring product managers in future.

Slack – The $28 billion worth User Experience (UX)?

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Slack has recently been all over the news for being acquired by Salesforce for $28Bn. Slack came out as a messiah in the world of workplace communications which was dominated for decades by the giants like Microsoft (Lync, Skype, Outlook, Teams) and Google (Hangout, Meet). Slack’s simpler user experience has had a very important role to play in the exponential growth that it had seen over the years. But, was it really the great user experience of Slack or really bad user experience of competitor products that drove this growth. Now, with the Salesforce acquisition, Slack has entered the big boys club and it is expected to explode in scale. And, with great scale comes great scrutiny and criticism. So, let’s dig deep and tear down the Slack user experience (UX) design.

Slack User Experience

What doesn’t work for Slack UX design?

1. Poor “thread” experience

While replying to a message in Slack, the reply goes out as a thread to that specific message. I guess the product intention here is to keep the channel clean and the conversation limited to only concerned stakeholders. And theoretically, this is the right design. In an ideal world, all the conversation related to that topic should have been part of that thread and it would have been great. But do we live in an ideal world? The product is expecting the users to behave in an organized fashion which is not really the case. The whole design falls apart when – 

  • Sometimes you miss out on the replies because the replies are not visible upfront in the channel. Though there is an option of “share in channel” but that’s unchecked by default. 
  • Often the thread ends up as a mini channel in itself.
  • People would discuss other non-related topics as well in a thread. Thus, defeating the whole purpose of a thread.
  • 2 of the 5 people would reply in threads and 3 of them would reply as a separate message in the channel. Thus, messing up the whole information flow. 

I personally think a WhatsApp like conversation flow would have been much simpler where every message is a message to the entire channel, but you have the ability to quote a message to indicate a continuous conversation. 

2. Super complex way of managing conversations

To manage my conversations in Slack, I have to keep track of 4 different sections – 

1. DMs
These are direct 1:1 message to me. This is fine.

2. Mentions & Reactions 
Messages addressed to me in different channels. If you think about it, this is not very different from DMs.

3. Threads
For threaded replies in any of the channels I am a part of. Why do I need this? First you created a problem by making your threads super complex to use (as mentioned in above point) and then you try to create a solution to that problem by having a separate section for threads.

4. Channels and Direct messages list in Sidebar
For messages in my channels which are not directly addressed to me. This is also fine.

Here is what I think Slack can do to simplify the user experience (UX) –

  • “DMs” and “Mentions & Reactions” can be clubbed together as these are the messages which require an immediate response from me. The only difference between them is that one is 1:1 conversation and another one is a channel but my action to both of them is gonna be pretty much similar. That is, to respond to the message i am tagged in. 
  • “Threads” section can be removed as it doesn’t really serve any purpose. Fix the thread experience and you won’t need it anymore
  • “Channels and Direct messages list in Sidebar” should remain as is.

So, I’ll have just 2 sections for my messages – one for messages which are addressed directly to me and another for messages sent to the channel. Simple.

3. Poor “Search” experience 

Slack’s search experience is poor, very poor. By default, the search is always global search (and includes results from even the channels that I’m not part of). There is no easy way for me to search through a channel or DM history. The only way to do a refined search is to manually enter those command like “in:@xyz”, “from:@abc” etc.

Just give me a simple search box and if I am in a DM then search through that DM and if I’m in a channel then search through that channel.

Why do I have to explicitly call this out? It’s pretty much the standard search behavior in all the platforms. Again, learn something from WhatsApp. Please.

4. Ability to edit a message 

This is a tricky one and I know that many people view it as an advantage of Slack that you can go back and edit your messages. Though it has its advantages in case of spelling, grammatical errors, accidental messages to wrong channel, there is one big problem with edit functionality in Slack. 

The primary use case for Slack right now (and possibly for the foreseeable future) is “workplace communication”. If I have sent a message to a colleague regarding some important work-related thing, then I should be accountable for it. Believe it or not, people are not very organized, and strategies are made on the fly in Slack channels, client pricing is discussed on these channels etc. And often, these Slack messages are the only documentation (or logs) of such conversations. I should have no option to go back and edit / delete my response. 

With edit as an option, what it effectively means is that, I can’t rely on the authenticity or credibility of Slack messages and have to end up taking screenshots from time to time. Nobody likes that. 

Again, I think the UX should be simple and similar to WhatsApp – you send a message and it’s done, you can’t undo it. The best you can do is delete it within few minutes while it is fresh in everyone’s memory. For Slack, since we are in an official setup, I think even the time bound delete should not be there at all. 

Now, if at all, Slack and the users strongly believe that edit feature should be there, then there has to be a good UX to see the history of the edited messages. I think Atlassian does a pretty good job in this respect with JIRA. Even a single character change in the description of a ticket has a log.

5. Poor “Sections” experience in the mobile app

Slack has this really cool feature creating “Sections” in channels so that I can put all the similar or related channels in one place. However, there are a few gaps when it comes to using sections in the mobile app.

a. Can’t create sections in the mobile app

For some weird reason I just can’t create a new section using Slack Android mobile app (assuming it’s the same in iOS app as well). We had a similar observation about Gmail not allowing to create “labels” through their mobile app when we did Gmail UX review. 

What is it with grouping things in the mobile apps that is so difficult? Are we missing anything here? Please do let us know in the comments if there is any logic behind this. 

b. Can’t collapse sections in the mobile app

We can’t collapse a section in Slack’s mobile App. The collapse works perfectly fine in their desktop app. 

c. Broken sections in the mobile app

The whole point of sections was that I want to keep similar or related channels together. But, in their mobile app, Slack breaks down the sections depending upon read/unread messages.

  • It first shows all the channels with unread messages grouped by their section and then
  • It has a section of “Everything else” which show the channels with no unread messages again grouped by sections.

Why over design and make it complex?

6. Ability to tag non-members in a Slack channel

I am able to tag almost anyone in a message who is part of the same workgroup. Why? I should only be able to tag the members of the channel. Again, it should be like WhatsApp and typing “@” should show only the members of the channel.

Though you get a message later on saying that the recipient is not in the channel but it’s too late now and you have already embarrassed yourself by tagging the wrong person. Also, the message come too late and is not real time.

Slack Tag non member

7. Default emoji reactions of “Thumbs up” and “Smiling face” are not available upfront

I may be generalizing here a bit, but I think “Thumbs up” and “Smiling face” are the two most commonly used emoji response in an office setup. Your team completed a task on time, here’s a thumbs up. You agree with a certain message, here’s a thumbs up. You wanna nod to a casual joke by a colleague, here’s a smiling face. But, in Slack, these 2 responses are buried inside the “Find another reaction” submenu. The ones available upfront are – “Completed”, “Taking a look”, “Nicely done”. I have never used them even once on any messaging platform in my entire life. 

Slack emoji response

Here is what I think Slack can do simplify the user experience –

  • Analyze the data across all the users and figure out the 3 most commonly used emoji and show them upfront. If “Completed”, “Taking a look”, “Nicely done” are indeed the top 3 used emojis across all Slack users then my bad and what the hell is wrong with you guys?
  • Customize it at the user level and show the user’s 3 most used emojis upfront. They are in fact doing it already, but it’s still buried inside the “Find another reaction” submenu. Just bring it outside so that I can use my favorite emojis with just one click.

8. The “Return to recent” fiasco

In their mobile app, clicking on a message in “@Mentions” takes me to the respective channel but I have to click on “Return to recent” if now I want to message on this channel. Really weird. Why can’t it just be a simple redirection to that channel with a focus on the concerned message?

9. No Tabs

Slack positions itself as an alternative to email. They even have a whole page dedicated on their website to explain why Slack is better than email? Although, I think they are way beyond email already. They are competing with WhatsApp, Skype/Teams, Google Hangout etc.

However, one thing where email still beats Slack user experience is the ability to have multiple tabs open simultaneously. It would really help if I can have multiple channels / DMs open at the same time so that I can refer them together rather than continuously switch from one channel to another. It may appear counter-productive at first but that’s just how people are. We all are productive in our own messy little ways. Again, we made a similar comment about Gmail not allowing us to open emails in a new tab in our Gmail UX review. 

Okay, enough ranting. There are also some things Slack is pretty good at. Salesforce didn’t pay all that money for nothing.

What works for Slack UX design?

1. Getting all the channel history on being added to a channel.

When someone gets added to a channel, they get access to all the previous messages in that channel as well. This is extremely useful in the workplace setup as people get added to conversations on a need basis and not always at the time of channel creation. Thus, it helps you get a proper context on the conversations. 

This is a big problem with WhatsApp groups where you get added to a group, but you have no context of the previous messages in that group.

2. Doesn’t eats up your phone storage

We get thousands of messages on Slack and since all of it is maintained in cloud, our phone storage is not consumed that much. This again is one of the biggest advantages Slack has over WhatsApp, which has now earned a lot of bad rep for eating up a significant chunk of your phone storage.

Now, we understand that WhatsApp stores all the messages in your device to make it secure and fast, but that leads to the above problems. And as a user I really don’t care about the tech implementation, this is a pain point and Slack does a better job at solving it.

3. Creating quick temporary group conversation

Often, we need to have a quick discussion with multiple people. Now, we shouldn’t use channels as this is supposed to be a temporary one-time conversation. Also, we can’t use DM as DMs are 1:1.

Creating such temp discussion groups in Slack is super easy. It’s as easy as typing names in the “To” list of an email. Though the same can be done in other platforms (like WhatsApp, Skype) as well, their UX is just not that great.

4. “Remind a message” feature

This is a really cool feature. I can set reminder to individual messages so that I can be reminded to act upon it. This can act as a mini calendar / to do list. However, the reminder comes as a message from Slackbot and we tend to ignore most of the messages from Slackbot. Still, something is better than nothing.

Slack reminder

5. Notification sound

The default “Knock Brush” notification sound in the Slack desktop client is just a user experience delight. It’s so unique and it just makes you want to check your messages instantly. I understand that it may just be a personal preference and others may not like it, but I am yet to meet anyone who is annoyed by that sound. 

Agree / Disagree with the above list? Have anything to add? Let us know your thoughts on the Slack user experience in the comments or through our social media.

How to explain Product Management to your parents?

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Let’s be honest, as a product manager, you find yourself in a really tough spot when your friends and family ask you that dreaded question – “So, what does a product manager do?”. Heck, people within the tech domain also can’t properly explain what Product Management is and what does a product manager do? And a lot of times, product managers themselves can’t properly explain what they do (and thus, the high level of Impostor Syndrome among product managers). Over the years, I have (or at least I think I have) been able to successfully explain my job role to my mother. So here is my 2 cents to fellow product managers trying to explain their job to the world without feeling like a total con man.

Explain Product Management to Parents

P.S. Our assumption here is that we are dealing with someone who isn’t familiar with the know-how of the tech world. And thus, at times, some of the concepts below may seem too obvious to you but try to think of it from the perspective of a complete outsider.

Step 1 – The “short and simple” explanation

Don’t overload your family with complex Product Management concepts at the beginning itself. They won’t get it in the first attempt for sure. Don’t even think of bringing up that Venn diagram where Product manager sits at the intersection of business, design and technology. Just give them a simple and short explanation to build some credibility and comfort first. For me, during the initial few years, the go-to answer has been “I make Software”. I know that it is not entirely accurate as product managers don’t code but at the same time it is not completely false as well since product managers do help create software by defining what the software should do.

Next, sooner or later, you’ll be asked some variation of “But you don’t code. So how do you make software then?”. Time for step 2.

Step 2 – Explain how Software is made

Now, without getting into too many details, you just have to communicate the concept of how a software is made. I usually explain it as –

  1. There should be someone who can define what the software should do. For e.g. – should it help you buy stuff online, book a cab or watch a movie etc. These are the product managers. 
  2. There should be someone who can actually write the code to create the software as per the requirements defined above. These are the software engineers.

To make it simple, try to use an analogy with some other profession which is more relatable to them. I usually use one of the below 2 –

Making a movie

  • There are “Actors”, who act and are the face of the movie for most of the people. And then,
  • There are “Directors”, who decides the storyline, cast the actor, guides them and works with them to make sure that everyone plays their role to perfection.

A product manager is more like a “Director” for the software.

House Construction

  • There is an architect who designs the blueprint of a building – how many floors it should have, how many rooms should each floor have, size of each room, where should the kitchen be etc. etc. And then,
  • There are contractors who, along with their team, carries out the task of actually building the house as per the architect’s design. 

A product manager is more like an architect in this example.

Feel free to use any other profession if it helps your case.

Step 3 – Time for the details 

Now that you have briefly explained your role as a product manager, it’s time to get into the finer details of product management. Now you have to try and explain your product (aka Software) to your family. There is no set framework for this. However, it would really help your case if they have already used your product (or a competitor’s product) in some capacity. If not, then try to make them use your product if possible. Next, try and explain them –

  • Who are the users of your product?
  • What problem does your product solve?
  • Most importantly, how does your company make money (or plan to make money) through this product?

However, just try to keep things at a high level without getting into too many details. Remember, you are not trying to hire them for your team. You are just trying to explain your work life (which is at least one-third of your life) to them so that you both can connect better and have much more meaningful conversations. And believe you me, when you get to a state where you can freely talk about your work with your family, it brings a totally different level of satisfaction and peace of mind.

P.S. The above steps got the job done for me in the past. They are not guaranteed to work with every individual. However, it’s worth a shot.

Did you find this helpful? Is there some other approach that has worked for you to explain product management? Let us know in the comments or through our social media. 

8 User Experience (UX) design LinkedIn does wrong

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With over 700 million users and monthly active users (MAU) of over 300 million, LinkedIn is one of the top social media platforms. In today’s world of social media overload, LinkedIn has been able to carve a unique niche for itself in the form of “networking for professionals”. However, LinkedIn’s user experience (UX) has not evolved much over the years and LinkedIn has been winning primarily because of lack of decent competition. If LinkedIn focus more on its UX game, will it be able to better tackle the growing competition from Indeed, Glassdoor and other similar platforms? Will it be able to drive more engagement and user growth? Let’s discuss the top 8 user experience (UX) design that LinkedIn does wrong.

User Experiene (UX) design
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Key components of a Product Requirements Document (PRD) & how to write one?

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A Product requirements document (PRD), simply put, is a document that lists out all the features of a product in as much details as possible. In product management world, a PRD is nothing less than a Bible. It is the Product, Design and Tech teams’ go to document for anything related to the product.

A Product requirements document (PRD), however, is different from a Business Requirements Document (BRD) / Market Requirements Document (MRD). A BRD/MRD focuses more on what the actual customer problem is or what the business opportunity is? The “why” part of things. A PRD, on the other hand, focuses more on the “What” and “How” part of things. What are we going to build and how are we going to build it?

So, how does one write a good Product requirements document (PRD) ? Now, there is no fixed standard template for a PRD. Every product manager has their own writing style. However, there are a few key components that every PRD must must have. Below we try to list down the same.

Writing PRD
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Top 10 Product Management Skills

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What does it take to be a good Product Manager? This is a question that has troubled mankind for decades(maybe). Product Management as a domain is still evolving and is one of the few domains which has not yet been transformed into an exact science. You think of ‘Marketing’ and immediately Philip Kotler’s name comes to mind as a marketing leader. Investment enthusiasts have got a great deal to learn from Warren Buffett and his investment principles. Core tech world has got their Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg etc. But when it comes to Product Management, there is no general consensus on a ‘leader’ of the domain. And thus, there are no role models / benchmarks for aspiring Product Managers to follow and learn from. So, let’s discuss the top 10 Product Management skills that every Product Manager must be good at (in no specific order).

Skils
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Product Delight – The journey from Good to Great Products

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We, as product managers, put in a lot of effort in terms doing market research, competitive reviews or taking user feedback to come up with the best version of our product for our customers. But, it is also true that everybody does these things and probably that’s the reason why 80% of most of the products look exactly similar to the competition (some sort of Nash equilibrium equivalent of the Product management world). For e.g. – majority of the apps in the ecommerce industry look similar. And in such a scenario, how can we expect loyalty from our customers? How can we expect them to be our brand ambassadors in their local circle of influence? The answer lies in “Product Delight”.

Product Delight
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What if the Avengers were Product Manager?

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A Product Manager has one of the most broadest and vaguest job description ever. There are product managers with completely different set of skills and still equally successful. There are companies where product managers are just a “cog in the wheel” and then there are companies where product managers are “the wheel”. We, as product managers, often like to think of ourselves as “the CEO of the Product” or “the one wearing multiple hats” and many other similar buzzwords. In our own world, we are nothing less than a superhero. So, let’s take this fantasy a step forward and figure out “What if the Avengers were Product Manager?”

Avengers - Iron man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk
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Top 9 User Experience (UX) design Twitter does wrong

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With a total user base of 1.3 billion comprising of monthly active users (MAU) of 330 million and daily active users (DAU) of 145 million, Twitter is one of the top social media platforms. Twitter became a hit soon after it’s launch because it brought a radical shift in the content game. You no more need to write 1000s words long blogs/articles to get your point across and don’t need to worry about getting decent exposure. Twitter made everybody a content creator. However, user experience (UX) is not considered to be one of Twitter’s forte and one can say that Twitter is winning the game primarily on the basis of content and engagement. What if Twitter ups its UX game? Could it drive more engagement and user growth? Let’s discuss the top 9 user experience designs that Twitter does wrong.

User Experience design
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Top 5 Product management tools every Product Manager must be good at

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In the current digital and remote working age, we are increasingly reliant on a lot of digital tools to get our job done. Companies are now migrating to digital solutions for processes that have been manual for decades. With time, these tools have evolved from just being a helping hand to an absolute must in their field. Different teams have their own unique requirements and thus their own set of favourite tools. Let’s discuss the top 5 product management tools that every Product Manager must be good at.

Multitasking manager
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