prod school mironov-interviews
TRANSCRIPT
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Interviewing like a Product Manager
/Productschool @ProdSchool /ProductmanagementSF
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Rich Mironov
- CEO of Mironov Consulting - Author of The Art of Product
Management - Founder of Product Camp
www.productschool.com
Interviewing like a Product Manager
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• Veteranproductmanager/exec/strategist• Organizingproductorganiza5ons• Businessmodels,pricing,agile/lean
• 6startups,includingasCEO/founder• “TheArtofProductManagement”• FoundedProductCamp• Interviewedmanyhundredsofproductmanagementcandidates
About Rich Mironov
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Will product manage for food,
options, and illusory
moments of self-importance
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Conversations, market information, priorities, requirements,
roadmaps, epics, user stories, backlogs, personas…
product bits
strategy, forecasts, commitments, roadmaps, competitive intelligence
budgets, staff, targets
Field input, Market feedback
Segmentation, messages, benefits/features, pricing,
qualification, demos…
Markets & Customers Development
Marketing& Sales
Executives
Product Management
What Does a Product Manager Do?
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WE CAN PRODUCT
MANAGE OURSELVES
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• Good product managers know how to • Learn about markets/customers • Segment markets, target customers • Turn features into benefits • Do basic solution selling
• In your job hunt, you are the product • Quiz: how to apply these skills to your job hunt?
Core Product Skills
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ME!
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• Segmentation: identify reasonable-fit companies • Identify where your background/skills/assets are most relevant
• Market/customer analysis • Do some homework, try my product, read up on my company
• Benefits, not features • Tell me why you’re who I need.
Highlight relevant résumé bits.
• Solution selling • Think about my pain points: what product
problems am I having? How would you help?
Demonstrate Your Product Skills (What I Expect from Candidates)
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• Quiz: best ways to learn about what’s happening inside a company?
• F2F discussion with someone who works there • Not someone on the interview roster • Ideally, a product person • LinkedIn is your friend
• Humble, thoughtful, open-ended • You would never launch a product
without understanding your target audience…
“But I Don’t Know What’s Happening Inside These Target Companies”
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“As a product management executive… I want to hire product managers who already have great product skills… So that I can unload a bunch of products problems that I currently handle myself” Non-goal: product training/mentoring responsibility Non-goal: carefully frame all problems and decisions
What Hiring Managers Really Want
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“Asaprogrammerwhoknowsnothingaboutbeingatechnologyproductmanager,whatshouldIlearnbeforeinterviewingfor/
transi=oningintoaproductrole?”-RealQuoraques5ontoRich
11
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"Asaprofessionalracecardriverwhoknowsnothingabout
soAware,whatshouldIknowbeforeinterviewingforan
enterprisesoAwarearchitectrole?"
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• Promise a new feature to a customer during meeting • First customer interview represents a market segment • Confusing sales calls with customer learning/research • Believing your own marketing/selling materials about why
customers buy and love your product • Confuse process steps (stories, tickets, releases) with
market success (renewals, revenue, customer love) • Announcing that you’re “CEO of the product” • Narrow job role definitions (“you do X”) • Project managing development work • Ticket-writing instead of communicating • Telling engineers how to solve things • Not knowing internal counterparts
(Marketing, Sales, Support, Finance)
11 Mistakes You’ll (Probably) Make in Your First 6 Months as a Product Manager
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CONTACT
Rich Mironov, CEO Mironov Consulting 233 Franklin St, Suite #308 San Francisco, CA 94102
RichMironov
@RichMironov
+1-650-315-7394