 Thank you everyone for being here. I hope everyone's doing well Today, we'll just kind of go over a little bit of tips and tricks on how to get into product management So we'll start off with really quickly today's agenda. We'll talk about I mean, I'll share a little bit about myself What is product management and then how to kind of break into product management as well in the Lou of time if we don't have it I have also attached in the within the appendix a little bit of the types of PM interview questions as well If anyone has any interest in it as well, right? So a little bit about me to start off with So I actually have bachelor's in biology or pre-med You know really quickly and then ended up getting my technology management BA Graduated in 2018. I have worked in hospitals before but then got my break in Technology just being a manual testers for applications and then from there kind of I'll share a little bit more in the next slide My contact information is there in case you guys are interested in getting in touch with me a little bit after this particular Session on the personal side. I'm a mother of two. I'm a seven-year-old boy and a five-year-old daughter And then I also teach for product school on the side as well as I'd like to just kind of dabble a little bit into Henry broidery and then giving back like I said You know sessions like this from product school inclusive product management accelerator through University of Washington and based out of Seattle and then I also provide one-on-one like mentoring if anyone's interested But so a little bit about you know, how did I make that transition to product management is? You know, I learned a little bit about Creating hypothesis writing documents so on and so forth if you're taking a look at the screen Through my bachelor's degree in pre-med and biology From there. I started expo after that, you know exploring a little bit about code. I took C sharp classes It's not necessary for you to learn or know how to code But it can definitely help you when you're talking to the engineers if you know how to code Next step was you know, I got my foot in the door learned a lot about leadership But cool emailing through when I was a non-profit chapter founder here in Seattle and as well as just manual application tester build definitely build my resilience right because I Applied to tons and tons of jobs to get my foot in the door attack And then kind of diving a little bit more deeper into it from there I got my break at Samsung and AT&T as well as T-Mobile when I became a program manager in each of those roles Where I learned a lot about time management vendor management, you know, how do you work with different customers? What figure out what their pain points are? Stakeholder management because at that point time you have to not only work with your customers But the third-party vendor application The vendors as well as well as learning how to work cross-functionally with your marketing team With your engineering team with your design team and actually got my break Into product management over at T-Mobile because I was able to transition internally while also getting my University of Washington technology management MBA and then Which opened up doors over at Disney for me where I got when I was when I got the opportunity to be a You know part of a technology management rotation program that they have so every six months I rotated got a little bit more in-depth experience within Disney how figure out how they work as a conglomerate With all the different segments of business they have and also got my break into machine learning and computer vision from there I actually now am a lead product manager over here at Nike You know, I work remotely at least for the time being through Seattle And I get to Evangelize all of the machine learning and computer vision products that we're building within Nike all of my Stakeholders or customers are internal focused, but at the same time also, you know understanding out how do you? Identify some of the business pain points that you have or the internal customers have When it comes to pick can you solve it with machine learning right and then building out this proof of concept? So yeah, happy to take in any questions that anyone might have a little bit down the road as well towards the end of this presentation So we're just gonna dive a little bit more into, you know, what is product management and how do you become one? So first things first, you know product school is a great resource Especially if you're taking a look at just, you know, what is product management? So products but taking a step back a product could be an application, right? A software application on your on your on your mobile device It could be a slack application on your desktop device. It could be a Nintendo Physical product as well, right? Yes But the definition of product management is where we sit literally between Technology design and business to be able to build those products Which where we're solving customer problems and we're building the Solutions that are delighting the customers as well in the end But so kind of diving a little bit more into, you know, why of product management I know that there are a lot of us who want to go move into product management But is that the right field for us, right? So what does that mean? So figure out, you know, is product management the right field for you? Do you like to solve pain points of customers, right? Or you could be the customers in some cases You know working across a variety of teams as I mentioned earlier, you'll be working with not just the engineering team We'll be working with your designer teams You'll be working in figuring out even with customer solutions team to see what pain points your customers are running into And not only that You'll also be working with your stakeholders To not only ask for the resources, but you'll also resources meaning when it comes to Money as well as human resources to be able to build your teams out to be able to build out the solutions For your customer problems, then you'll have, you know, do you like to get things done? Do you like to build those roadmaps, right? Do you like executing to those roadmaps? Are you able to and we'll kind of dive into like what is you know What is product management? And then what will you will be doing as a product manager as well? And then making decisions and broadly communicating with them as well because that would definitely be your Responsibility and then being organized, you know detail oriented and then being prepared as well It's sometimes you will be jumping from one meeting to the other and you'll be switching your contacts pretty pretty quickly Over here at Nike sometimes have to do that on a daily basis, you know meetings after meetings Sometimes there are 45 minutes 30 meetings but you're going from speaking with your engineers when you are in your backlog of assignment to then Talking to the designers and then talking to the stakeholders to figure out. Hey, what else do you can you build? Right for the same customers or how do you build out that road map to begin with as well? and Then so how do you break into product management as I said earlier? I was able to make that lateral move over at T-Mobile right working as a program manager slash vendor manager for third-party applications for mobile devices, right? Where they're preloaded and then becoming a product manager and working on the T-Mobile application So I was able to kind of bring along a lot of my transferable skill sets And especially when it comes to time management all the skill sets that I had, you know Kind of talked about in that the second or third slide of the presentation then another Way you can bring break into product management is just seeing if there was an entry role product manager Available, right? It could be a associate product manager It could be a product manager and depending on how many years of experience you have that also means, you know Being able to even sometimes be a technical product manager or a senior technical product manager Depending on if you have CS background, right? And then also you could join a startup in your current field So let's say if you're in hospitality and you know, you want to move into product management Are there companies out there that do hospitality? For example open table, right? If you're coming from hospitality area, you can go and see If you want to go and work at open table as an associate product manager or product manager Because you already know the customers, right? It's all about knowing your customers and how to solve those pain points as well And then last but not least you could start your own company, right? And the play the role of product You could be the CPO and CEO and CTO it all depends on who you have on your team and how to get started and You know, just want to mention that the first three areas that I've mentioned in this particular Slides are easier to do versus, you know, starting your own company if you don't have a product manager Experience I'm not saying that you can't do that but figuring out your product market fit, you know Figuring out how are you going to build out that roadmap? What is you going? What is? How are you going to build out that minimum viable product or a proof of concept where you're You know, you launch an MVP to see if the customers like it and then kind of move forward from there Next we'll talk about, you know, what does it take to be a product manager? So at this point in time you would you know first of all start off with figuring out your customers and Figuring out what pain points they're running into and then creating a strategy off of that now taking that strategy Creating that vision and business impact, right? Sometimes in bigger conglomerate Companies you could have top-down Right approach or bottom up approach And they're all just depends on how much of autonomy you as a product manager working as that at that company You have as well. So when it comes to vision and business impact It could also come from a top-down when they have certain ok ours as a company that you all need to meet Second or the third thing would be taking that roadmap breaking down into smaller chunks to be able to execute on that next Next definite Skill sets that you would want to have it's influencing without authority. I mean granted. There is a manager You know word in the product manager, but there will be a lot of time where you're basically just influencing without having any authority over Anyone for that matter besides your product. So how do you build that? Next is communication communication communication build that particular skill set early on as a product manager and then Last but not least to be able to drive, you know, data-driven decisions as well Because at that point in time, let's say if something happens that this comes really handy when you're trying to answer those product Execution questions. Let's say what are the metrics fall down? How what do you do from the data side? How do you go back and take a look at the certain data that you might have been able to collect people to answer those questions? But again, that's just an example But you would be making those data-driven decisions on a very very regular basis and then So we'll kind of diving into, you know, the hooves product management So there are so many different ways you can become a product manager There are so many different types of product managers as well So here I'm just quickly talking about the general product managers, right? Where they are leading the development of software product as well as different features. I mean Here at Nike, I'm working on different products that are internal-facing. So for material innovators, for example, right? for apparels or it could be The designers that I'm working with. Unfortunately because of the NDA, I can't go so much in depth but just wanted to kind of Kind of lay out the foundation and or just kind of tell you a little bit about my experience as well General product managers could be data product managers, growth product managers, platform product managers I mean, there are so many different ways you could be a product manager and like in a general type of fashion, right? What do they actually do? They work on applications. It could be SaaS application It could be a mobile application. It could just be taking a look at, you know, the user interface as well for example, and then Do you need to actually understand the system architecture as well? I would say it depends on the role and the company because there are Times or there were times where I didn't necessarily have to understand all of the architectures But now moving a little bit more into computer vision and machine learning I have to kind of dive a little bit more deeper into what does that look like, right? Are we going to be using AWS? Are we going to be using Azure? Are we going to be using GCP and what does that look like? And that also means that as a next level, you know Another type of product manager is a technical product manager. You would have to keep in mind all of that system architecture as well and What do technical product managers do? They work very closely with engineering teams and cool Developing those core technical products That doesn't mean that you don't necessarily get to work on the business side of things. It all just depends It is all I have to say right now I get to play the role of a little bit of both here at Nike where I work very closely with the engineering team and Building out those core technical products as well as figuring out. Okay. Well, how much of an impact are we going to be making? Is there you know ROI that we can go back and take a look at and what sort of What does that look like as well? and Technical product managers usually do have a very strong technical backgrounds if you're a software developer or a software engineer It would be easier if you want to move into a product manager to actually explore a technical product manager positions first To because and then it will easily transition into being a product manager Another type of product manager is a physical product manager, right? At this point in time we're taking a look at Google Home or Amazon Alexa or Fitbit devices For example, where you have the software component as well as a hardware component that you would be able to Take a look at and then see what it looks like across all of the different products And then at last but not least quickly wanted to kind of check on you know or take a look at the web So let's say when do you need to start looking and when do you know you're ready to be a product manager and start applying for the particular position I would say that there is literally no right time I would say the right time would be right now because there is a lot of preparation that needs to happen You need to work on your resumes you need to work on your cover letter Especially for transitioning from another industry to a brand new industry or into a different role as a product manager Up to go ahead and update your LinkedIn Also, I would suggest You know research the companies that you would like to go work at take a look at their vision Take a look at their mission See how they're aligned with what your values are and how do you bring it all together? Take a look at not working, right? I mean, let's say if you're interested in working at Nike seek out all of those product managers working at Nike to be able to see how do their roles actually look so different because I know for a fact that my role looks a lot different than Let's say a product manager working on Nike comm Right like the website and or the Nike application and then last but not least to do not forget to do a lot of mock interviews practice practice practice, especially when it comes to Like that product manager interviews as well. So what's that? I will actually stop sharing my screen. Just wanted to say thank you and I'll open it up to questions Okay, another question is nothing about pms After product ops, okay, so Lisa. I hope I haven't put your names, but I will See if you want to jump in and to be able to ask that question I would like to understand a little bit more about the questions if you could So Lisa actually type a little bit more about what what did you mean by nothing about pms after product ops, right? Okay, so Rob to your question Are any pms better or worse for advancement in a company? I would say it all depends and I know that's not a good answer but I would say because Every company has a different set of product manager roles, right? So you could you could go in with and Be a associate product manager and then become a product manager at a start up It might be a little bit more easier to kind of make that transition in or get that promotion versus that a bigger Conglomerate company, but I wouldn't say no, I mean it depends on the years of experience that you also have Okay Okay, so better best as advice for when you're searching for your for new PM roles not working Yes, absolutely the best way to look out and search for new PM roles would be definitely not work on LinkedIn differently also reach out to folks on Twitter if you're following them not necessarily to do with like referral or asking for referrals but First get to know the person right ask them. Hey, can we grab coffee over zoom or virtually? Learn what they do at that particular company if that's the company you're interested in and or the role that they are in right if There are technical product manager working on a certain product for example Like Nike comm for example or Facebook versus Instagram, right? Just as an example and then kind of get to know more of that and the last question I would ask within those coffee chats would be hey should I be reaching out to anyone else for example, right? Like in those companies and there will be more than happy to kind of give out those Those names of where you can go back and reach out to those dumb newer folks Okay, let me actually start asking or bring in a few more folks on the platform Okay, Shailesh you are on The platform if you would like to ask me questions here Okay, Shailesh. Thank you. Yeah, of course. Sorry. I'm off the video So the question that I had was more in line with the one that you just answered in terms of Prepare for the PM interview. How do you approach it and to be honest? I've worked in the past for about six seven years in technology for field and I Don't know if I'm more suitable towards an associate PM or a more PM kind of a role and how do you approach that question? Yeah, absolutely, and then I also see that within chat There are you know, I think Jack had a question around are there any interview prop resources that I also recommend, right? So that's kind of hand-in-hand we can talk about both of them at the same time So say let's because you've actually already been like have been in tech I would say reach out to see, you know, may I ask, you know, what sort of company if you're not Comfortable sharing that but just maybe data consulting analytics data and data Yeah, so I mean if I were you I would take a look at maybe a data product manager role, right? And a different company because you already understand what that looks like. What are how do you build database? How do you take a look at? Like interpret data, right? So I would I would take a look at that particular role If there are companies that are hiring in that particular position We're also a tech PM role as well, right? And then kind of get your foot in the door as a PM and then kind of go from there But then when it comes to being able to answer those Interview questions, I mean I love doing mock interviews to through Stellar peers if you guys have heard about it. It's quickly taking a look at, you know Creating your Google account attaching the calendar and then doing a lot of mock interviews also practice practice practice So practice your system design interviews or you know Say less for you especially for as a TPM if that's something that you want to move into versus You know your tech design or not tech design. Sorry your Actually, I have slides on that too. Let me see if I can share my screen and Talk through that as well Just in the appendix when Pia the product school goes and shares out the different the slides You'll see the product interview questions that you might also be You know, you might also be facing during your interviews would be what is your favorite product and how do you improve that? And they're here a certain like framework that you can use right figure out What clarifying questions you need to ask identify your customers and so on and so forth It's all so that would basically also mean the product design questions or product critique questions There are certain things as a product metrics questions, right? Like what what should the goal be for example? When Instagram launch there are stories up top, right? So what should the goal be as a PM? How would you define that? So at that point in we want to take a look at, you know customer journey And take a specifically taking look at the metrics around three four different Areas like awareness is an acquisition so on and so forth and then creating that funnel of metrics or the marketing Another would be product execution we touched on in a little bit especially taking look at the data And how do you kind of you know, do you look at external data? Do you look at internal data? How do you and then finally summarizing and if there is any A.B. testing or hypothesis you would want to create There is also product strategy questions as well that they could ask, you know Like should Google go into autonomous self-driving car business, right? How would you answer that during an interview and then last but not least Taking look at behavioral questions as well So the questions could be tell me about a time where you had to sacrifice your long-term goal for short-term or your short-term goal For example for your long-term product vision and how do you kind of go about that? There are two different frameworks that I've actually come across that I like to use interchangeably, right? And how do you create those experiences would be through building your stories and I've just kind of given a little bit of framework But I would like to actually go back and take a look at the questions as well to see how many are there So say legend. I hope Jack that answered your question Yes, I did. Thank you. Thank you. Shelly. Yeah, of course Okay, so yeah, there is a lot. I see a lot of transitioning happening, right? Especially from UX to then a PM role You Chana, I hope I'm doing Justice to your name and how to pronounce it. I just want to make sure that that That's a lot to do with the fact that you know How often do you work with those product managers on your team as a UX and they kind of bringing in those transferable skills? And then building your stories off of that as well So I hope that helps. I'll bring in a few more people here on the Let's see if they're here Maybe I'll ask question My question is a little different. What is your take on growing field of product operations being independent of the whole product management team? Oh, yeah, to some degree all PM's have some product ops, right user guides developing Documentations actually Zulisa would it be okay if we actually take that offline? I Hope that's okay Okay, Shama your Head of product Operations at a small fintech company. I'm looking for new rules. I'm getting first few first recruiter interviews Okay, I'm able to get the next second. Okay, I would say the best way would be to ask for feedback to those First, you know the recruiter interviews ask what they were looking for and what you are able to answer and then how do you kind of Build that that bridge right taking a look at those and it depends on what roles you're also applying for Are you applying for product ops roles? Why are you just applying for product manager roles as well? Okay So Ruchel actually has a question good question around did I find it difficult to transition into a different industry within product management? I would say it all depends because As long as you are able to talk through your experience as a product manager as It's you know, you should be able to bring in those skills with you Even when it comes to moving from for example for my example like entertainment company to then a retail company And how do you bring those skill sets of what you'll be able to answer those questions? As well, so I hope we're shield and Shama that that answers your question happy to kind of take that offline as well She knows her any any Can you hear me? Yes, I can hear you go for it Okay, I'm she knows and I just wanted to ask I'm an undergraduate student I'm still studying in the university and I just gained interest in them product management So I wanted to ask like I have zero experience in Project management, so I wanted to ask like what step do you think I should take in actually diving into this new role Yeah, so I mean I heard you say both project management as well as product management I do I do want to make that clear that both of them are different roles as a project manager You might be a little bit more in-depth, right on Assigning those human resources on to taking on certain type of Features and building them but as a product manager, you'll be working on a product and creating that roadmap So I just wanted to kind of first of all distinguish the two of them first And then moving forward the first thing first I would do is you know take a look at all of the different Different companies that you would maybe want to work at And reach out to those product managers and those companies to be able to see what do they do in that company as a product manager, right? And see how you can build those skill sets May I ask how like in what? What is your? Graduate degree in as well I'm studying industrial physics Okay, yeah So I mean you would want to go back and see how those skill sets could be transferred into becoming a product manager I would also suggest if you don't know that much about Product management, maybe taking some of the courses that are offered through product school or any other, you know companies as well I know it's to learn a lot more about product management. What does it mean to how do you build that product? Right, how do you build that road now? How would you create that strategy and they kind of taking those first few steps and then going from there? Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you so Okay, any other questions Let's see in the chat Okay, any any other questions. I'm not able to see the questions Okay Well, thank you so much everyone. Please let me know if there is anything I can do And I'm happy to connect with anyone offline and see how can Help you kind of transition into becoming a product manager. Thank you