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One question I’ve regularly encountered as part of the product manager interview is the superpower question. This question usually looks like the following:

“What is your superpower as a product manager?”

I’ll admit, the first time I got this question, I was totally caught off guard! Because I wasn’t adequately prepared to address the question, I floundered for an answer – and of course, I didn’t make it any further for that particular interview.

Since then, I’ve learned that it pays to be prepared to answer the superpower question as part of the product manager interview. After all, employers love to ask this question for multiple reasons!

Why Employers Love Asking the Superpower Question

First, employers want to understand whether you have self-awareness. A self-aware product manager understands their strengths and weaknesses, and self-aware product managers are also more likely to be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of their teammates. Continue Reading

Product managers are always juggling lots of initiatives at once, so it’s crucial for product managers to know how to effectively manage projects and deadlines. In my own journey to product management, I didn’t have any formalized training in resource management and timeline management. So, to shore up that weakness, I obtained a Project Manager Professional (PMP) certification, which empowered me with an expanded tool kit of mental models and techniques to lead my initiatives more effectively. One key technique that I gained from studying for the PMP certification is the critical path method, which identifies the key bottleneck in any project.

It was through the critical path method where I fully internalized that not all velocity is created equal. In other words, only the velocity on the critical path matters. Below, I’ll share what a critical path is, how to use the critical path method, and why it’s so important for product managers to understand the critical path. Continue Reading

I’ve noticed that more and more people have been asking, “what is growth product management?” and “is growth product management right for me?”

These are fantastic questions! Growth product management is one of many variants of the product management discipline, and its focus is on increasing critical metrics by reducing barriers to value. Over the years, startups and tech companies have demonstrated a growing interest in hiring growth product managers.

First, I’ll discuss what a growth product manager does, and how that differs from a core product manager. Then, I’ll break down the kinds of skill sets that growth product managers need on the job.

What Does a Growth Product Manager Do?

Growth product managers reduce barriers to value, which means that they enable customers and users to quickly find value within the core product. In other words, growth product managers are most effective when there’s already an existing product that hasn’t yet been optimized for growth. Continue Reading