 Hi, my name is Philip Orlin and I'm going to be doing a webinar today on transitioning from the military into product management To start here's a quick overview of what I'm going to be covering a little bit about me. I've had a very Very winding journey on going from the military into product management it might be useful for some of you who are exploring different careers and seeing What a path was that got me from the military into product management Then I'll go over Some product management basics just want to level set make sure everybody's kind of like operating on the same ideas Before jumping into what are the product manager skills that you're going to need? What are the military skills that you've already? developed and Where's the overlap? And more importantly, where's the gap? What I'm hoping to do is help you bridge that gap give you some ideas on what you might be able to do to fulfill those Skills that are kind of necessary in the product manager world, but you just need that experience and that kind of Portfolio, so we'll go through different different things that you can do to build yourself up so that you look like a better candidate Out on the job market Finally, we'll go over some product resume bullets that might be useful for you as you're going around and applying specifically for military to product. I've had a lot of people reach out who are Struggling with how they can rephrase the things that they've Accomplished within the military the skills that they've learned in the military and Take those bullets and then make them useful for the product manager world So we'll go over a couple of examples and then I've got a long list that you can screenshot and try to use for enhancing your own resume So first things first a little bit about me again. I had a winding path to getting into product management I started in the Air Force. I was a Logistics and supply chain officer stationed all over the world you know stationed out in Europe for a couple years I did a little bit in the Middle East some time in Asia and Again, some more time down in South America, South Florida Great experience knew that that wasn't really what I wanted to do for my whole career so after my time in the military I got out and Went and got in MBA while I was getting the MBA. I had a really good idea with a friend about How we can automate some financial processes? So we decided to start a fintech startup Unfortunately our idea came about three years too late and there were some very big players in the space that had already poured enormous amounts of money into their products and we ultimately decided to Make the decision to fold our startup so that we could pursue other things After that after graduating from the MBA I went and got into management consulting doing Strategy and transformations kind of for various clients across the technology Biotech and finance space While I was there Had the opportunity to consult on a couple cases that wore New product launches and that's where I really got my product management feet wet Understanding the product manager life cycle or the product life cycle and The software development cycle life cycle so going through those Gave me the exercise that was necessary to make the jump from that into product management at Amazon where I've been for the last couple of years and currently a senior product manager technical on the AWS side It's something called elastic compute cloud EC2 and We basically help customers get virtual machines scale them up and scale them down as they need So starting with defining product management product managers they pretty much own the entire cycle of the product sometimes you'll hear as like Product managers are the mini CEOs of the product That's one way to think about it. What I like to think about it is the cycle. That's on the bottom of the screen so What a product manager is doing is they're using a lot of different techniques different methods in essentially Figuring out how to best pursue each of the topics that are on the bottom They're gonna start by trying to understand. What is the market need? What are people's pain points? What is out there? They're gonna talk to customers. They're gonna do everything they can to understand the market the current market needs Before they do any of the other product life cycle Understanding your customer and obsessing about what your customer wants And even needs is probably the most important part about this throughout the entire Throughout the entire life cycle. It's it's going to be so important once you Once the PM starts to understand what they need. They're going to go through the development life cycle Again, depending on the product that you're building Either you're manufacturing or you're doing some kind of like software service You have your own life cycles for development And there are different tools and there's different methods and there's different ways to really solve this But ultimately what you're doing is you're building the thing that you want to sell Okay, once you have that thing Now you got to take it to market Uh, a lot of times this is running in parallel where you're trying to understand how much can you pay for it? Um, or how much can you charge for it? What are your expenses going to look like? What is the target customer that you're trying to reach? How are you going to inform them? Like how are they even going to know that your thing exists to go buy it? And there's a lot of different things and tools Different methods that go into the go-to-market phase where you're trying to Understand How do I've already built the thing? How do I get it in front of people so that they want to buy what I've built? And then once you put it out on the market and people actually like start looking at it Start looking at it start playing with it start buying it You're going to get that feedback and that feedback is super important for improving your product, right? A lot of times when you go to market You're going with your what we call a minimum viable product by amazon. We use the minimum lovable product But what you're taking to the market is the basics so that you can start to get real feedback from customers Um before you put it in their hands a lot of it is just notional a lot of it is just like theoretical Yeah, sure. I'd like this or I'd like that Uh features But nobody's actually committed money to the thing that they're not invested Emotionally in your product Um, and when you start to get that feedback it starts to pay off Dividends in making your product Taking it to the next level And in this life cycle Sometimes you have to start considering, you know, and I am I nearing the end of my product's usefulness on the market, you know, is it Too old is it not meeting the needs? Is there something else out there that's newer? That's cheaper? That's better Um, do I need to start thinking about how I'm going to remove this from the market? Um, if it's, you know, something where you're providing services after you've sold it So think of something like Um software updates for your phone Um, you know, if you're removing that service, that's a really big deal to some people who are going to continue to use that phone So you got to think very thoughtfully of how you're going to go Um about Actually removing that so you're not investing your own resources into sustaining that product and You know, all of that combined is really what a product manager is doing Usually all these are going you've got all these streams running in parallel at any one time they're they're going constantly and You're trying to juggle all of this Um at the same time for multiple different products now, um, there are a bunch of different ways that you can Uh Do all of that product manager life cycle that we're just talking about in the last slide And so what I want to do is just throw some common product management tasks and artifacts out there Uh to help you kind of be a little bit more familiar about what they are And so essentially what all of the things that you do as a product manager You're trying to document What everybody is saying or what you're thinking So that it's down on paper. It's it's listed somewhere that you can come back in reference You're trying to communicate that information out to as many people as possible As fast as possible and as efficiently as possible And then you're trying to align everybody who's either working with you or the target customer And using these PM artifacts, um is really how you're going to Get success in the long run, you know year after year after year um having these these things these tools these methods to fall back on um and Contain all the details that are necessary for um making sure everybody's kind of like moving forward in the right in the same direction and so uh a lot of things that you'll um some common some common Terms that you'll run across is going to be things like the product roadmap and the product prioritization The backlog sprint planning the roadmap is really like As it sounds you're just planning out showing where the the map of what you're going to be doing um the prioritization really helps when you're talking with stakeholders who wanted something um, but they're not going to be getting it in The first release or any release um, and you use that prioritization to show and walk people through and say hey, you know, this is um This is the trade-offs that we had to make and here's the prioritization framework that we used so that we can Demonstrate that there's other higher value things that we need to be pursuing for this next product iteration And then those things that don't make it onto that first uh onto that first development phase, you know, you put it onto your backlog and then That's where the things that you're not working on Kind of sit and they're just waiting for the next available opening um, you go through sprint planning, uh, you'll do your market analysis You'll try to figure out what your product metrics are going to look like Um, you'll define the requirements. You'll reach out to customers for stuff We like to call user stories You'll go through something called wire framing which is building like the most uh Simple model of what you're trying to explain You can draw it out on a pen and a piece of paper um, there's some tools online, but Wireframing can be as simple as that Uh, you're going to try to define like how you're going to do your research your user research your user testing And then you go to market strategy artifacts are Really just around like that documenting communicating aligning And I think there's a couple other videos out there that will go into more depth About this if you download the slides it's in the notes Some more information on those So some good product manager skills to have Is really like you want to split it into The high level and the low level and what's in between So at the high level as a product manager, you're setting the vision for where that product is going to go You spoke into customers. You you're the one who's reaching out to people trying to understand what the pain points are And what people are trying to um What they wish they had a product that solved their problem So that's where you come in you're setting that vision Okay, here's the thing that we're going to build and it's going to solve these problems And that's why people are going to pay us money And you're building that positioning that Story that goes along with it like here's the why they're going to pay us money for this product and um Try to try to navigate that path. That's what we mean when we talk about high level product management skills at the low level That's going to be your tactical um tactical skills and this is probably where as a military person you're going to need um to beef up your Your skills and experience and we'll get a little bit more into how we can do that But this is really just your technical depth, you know, how technical on the product that you're building Are you how familiar are you with the technology? um How deep in the conversation can you go for software? It's you know coding and stuff like that, but for manufacturing or b2b Um, you might have other technical details In logistics and supply chain. There's a whole other set of technical details that you need to be familiar with You need to be able to dive into data And this is something that um, at least in my time in the military, we didn't really do But was go through actual databases and pull out information um from there And then you might have other things like negotiation um influencing or Trying to have these conversations with people to win them over to your idea um At the mid level right so high and low, uh, you're always going to be talking you're always going to be communicating with your team um handling risk management, so you know, they're the the mark of a good p.m. Is the ability to fluidly go from the strategic high level down to the tactical low level and then constantly just bounce back and forth um High level for strategy and then you move into a call You know in the next hour And you dive into that tactical technical analysis where you're trying to Really iron out just a very um minute detail Uh, and so there's actually a lot of overlap with military skills uh here where at the high level You know, you're going to be going over that strategy um in the military you're talking about in control and how to plan for stuff training and readiness all that but that high level strategic view Will carry over into the product area Things like command and control are as important um but influence is And so it might be a little bit you might need a little bit of a shift in your mindset to go from the military to the corporate world but It's a smooth it's a smooth and easy transition Where you're basically trying to influence people um in indirect means and then again, you know diving down into the low um tactical details, you know as a military person you understand, you know your unit tactics how to execute um your operations Uh, you you're paying attention to detail There's some amount of diplomacy involved in what you're doing, especially uh in the middle as the military becomes like this uh global partner with different Global organizations all over um, so Really as a military member or as a military leader, you're going to be jumping from that strategic down into the tactical and then pulling up to go to another strategic discussion And so as i'm saying there is a ton of overlap in Skills and so what i've put here on the screen is where i kind of personally see that overlap um, you have a lot of customer empathy emotional intelligence understanding so Like you are focused on the people that are around you understand how important that is now you just got to Build a framework around that for when you're trying to gather feedback Command and control is really just your cross functional collaboration um And it's an easy transition when you can understand what's Going on behind behind the curtain And how other teams and other people Are motivated into Working on the products that you're trying to put out to market um, but essentially You know, there's all these different skills that as a military leader you've developed over the years and um, really your Resumes and your portfolio should reflect these things um that are very Good to transition over Um into product management Now as i was kind of alluding to There are some skilled gaps and Uh, you might be wondering why donuts when i was searching for the word gap Uh online these donuts popped up so Decided to throw them on the screen. Anyways um, so some of these common skill gaps are really those tactical detail um level skills that you know, unfortunately you can't get without Operating in the environment Or uh an extended period of time Now you can pick these up super easy Uh everything that you've done in the military. I think prepares you to constantly learn Um, and just overall be curious about like what what is out there? And what do I need to know in order to get my mission done? Kind of adapting and overcoming your challenges and so You know, all I can recommend is that whatever product niche that you're trying to go into that You really jump in there and try to Get real hands-on experience for all these different um technical knowledge and What the product life cycle that you're interested in what it looks like what the market looks like that industry Um understanding the pricing how that works Pricing can make or break you no matter how good of a product you have Um same with marketing, you know, if you don't have if you haven't informed the customer that your thing exists And that it's something that they should buy and convince them to do that Then you could have the best product and it's happened and this happens a lot Um where you have a very strong product that you have a bad channel of a bad sales channel And you just ultimately can't succeed when that exists And so here's really the the skill list of the couple last slides where You can see, you know, the military and then you can see the Product manager skills and kind of where that gap is And so what what you want to do is you want to anywhere that there's a gap That's what we're going to try to solve. That's what we're going to try to Um build your skills up so that you can ultimately succeed in the long run and I think the best way to do it is real world experience and that might be a little bit uh daunting, but it's not as Bad as you're going to think it is so first off Probably one of the best ways is going to be internships or part-time work There are tons of companies startups smaller companies that are hiring That are looking for Getting those skill sets They need someone who can focus on the product itself and bring it to market and so They would be more than happy to bring you on as a product manager For this so the trade-off is really like they'll they'll take someone who's less experienced but You know, you're really just building up your resume at that point And so it's not the greatest source of income um Another thing that you can do is you can use degrees and courses to kind of show that you know on paper I know what i'm doing. I know in theory the things that I need to do Um, but again getting back to that number one point There's nothing quite like the actual experience When you can point to a product and say this is what I've built um This is the thing that I that I've made now. I will say that degrees and courses will help you get Um internships part-time work full-time work They'll help you get even, you know, like the top tier everything that you can want So definitely worth it There's industry newsletters and those are really useful for keeping, you know up to date with what's going on in the in the industry um And that'll help you if you're reading these on uh daily, you know subscribe to a few of these newsletters um They'll really help you Uh train your tongue so that you're speaking in the way in the language of that industry It will make your product management experience a lot More smooth When you already know like all the all the technical jargon that they're going through And finally, um networking so if you see any kind of like military, uh events that are slightly adjacent to product management or launching a product something like that then definitely go Meet people talk about the products that you're launching that you're trying to go through The the problems that you're experiencing seek help ask them for advice. That's probably the best way To learn and grow is you know reaching out at these networking events and Meeting people and then asking them like hey, I'm working on this product And this is the challenge that I'm having, you know, what would you do as a more seasoned experience product manager? great way to get feedback Action will feedback And so the whole point of that last slide is like building up your portfolio and building up your resume And ultimately while you're doing all that part-time work while you're doing all those internships while you're doing your degree courses and everything like that, right? These are the the skills that we're looking for in In industry, right? We want to see that you've led the product development We want to see that you've done proper market research um, you know customer research or uh product vision and strategy ultimately what we're looking for is real-life deliverable Experiences what have you brought to market? And so as you're going through all those experiences on the last slide think to yourself, you know, am I Is the thing that i'm doing building to one of these um skills is the thing that i'm doing actually bringing a product to market or is it just the educational self-improvement thing that i'm I'm working towards and and they can build on each other But ultimately these are what you should be focusing on because these are what can These are the skills that are going to deliver results for you and so what i want to do one of the feedback and pain points that i got Was as a military person i'm just really struggling with my resume. I'm just having trouble taking my resume and translating it into product manager language And so what i've done is i've taken some um military Bullets that might that you might have if you were a like army platoon leader, okay And then i'm trying to translate them into product language That will be useful for people in the corporate world who have no experience in the military Or even just different service branches where they're not like in the air force. I'm not super familiar with the rifle platoon. So I might not know how Impactful being a platoon leader actually is And so what I want to do is just Change the language to show what you're doing. So in that first example, you know, you're leading a team and you have um Some kind of result and so in the product world you're still leading that team But now it's a team of managers. It's a team of individual contributors. That's what I see is And where you know, you might have a decrease in Some kind of combat activity that might translate to use like an increase in effectiveness in what you've been doing in that area Again for the second one, you know training is so important in the military And it can likewise be important in the corporate world. So You still implemented that new training program which Improved the team proficiency and performance, you know in Your military experience it was to improve marksmanship. But ultimately You know, you're helping get the team done in a more effective manner Uh, again, you know, you've done 20 combat patrols and you were successful in Capturing some high value targets. So, you know, you've led 20 successful operations events and uh You know that resulted in 10 high-profile success news stories so You got to be a little bit creative with what you're thinking, but ultimately you got to show what you did Still matters and there was an impact and then translating it into The language that we use in the corporate world. So finally, um Here's a like a really long list of military bullets and a really long list of what I've tried to translate them over into product um bullet so Go ahead screen screenshot this try to use it just to um, they're probably not a hundred percent correct but uh, you're just trying to get through the Challenge of doing that translation Look for look for these uh as inspiration and and how you might rephrase some of the things that you that you've been doing Again, um, my name is filip warlin. I really appreciate that you took the time to watch this Hopefully it was helpful. Um, go ahead. Tell me what you liked what you didn't like about this. Um, if there were things that Uh, I could kind of elaborate on go ahead. Let me know and I'll definitely reach out and try to Uh provide that provide that feedback and provide that information that you're looking for