Day in the Life of a Platform Product Manager

This article is a sequel to our popular post, Day in the Life of a Product Manager.

There are many different flavors of product management, especially since product manager responsibilities depend greatly on the industry, company, business model, and product.

Due to this variability, there is a wide range of day-to-day activities, but ultimately a product manager is still responsible for doing whatever it takes to collaborate with multiple teams and move different conversations towards closure.

That being said, there are a few general buckets of product managers, mostly based on business model and product ownership.

Below, we’ve provided an example of day-to-day activities for a platform product manager. Continue Reading

Day in the Life of a B2B Product Manager

This article is a sequel to our popular post, Day in the Life of a Product Manager.

There are many different flavors of product management, especially since product manager responsibilities depend greatly on the industry, company, business model, and product.

Due to this variability, there is a wide range of day-to-day activities, but ultimately a product manager is still responsible for doing whatever it takes to collaborate with multiple teams and move different conversations towards closure.

That being said, there are a few general buckets of product managers, mostly based on business model and product ownership.

Below, we’ve provided an example of day-to-day activities for a business-to-business (B2B) product manager. Continue Reading

So You’re a New Product Manager, Now What?

If you’re reading this article, congratulations! You’ve pulled together a compelling resume, you’ve studied your behavioral questions, you’ve practiced your case questions, you aced your phone interviews, and you wowed your hiring manager during your on-site interview. You’re now a Product Manager! It’s a big deal, so be sure to take the time to celebrate your accomplishments.

As a new product manager, it’s critical to ensure success starting on day 1, and to set the foundation for strong future performance. Here’s the guide that I wish I had when I first became a product manager.

Note that it may look long and daunting – don’t try to do everything at once! Take it one piece at a time, and celebrate your success as you go. Continue Reading

How to Succeed with Remote Development

As a product manager, you might work at a product organization that works with remote teams. For example, I’ve worked with software development teams based out of India and China.

On top of the typical challenges of product management, remote development poses its own unique set of challenges to navigate.

Let’s talk through 1) why remote development can be beneficial, 2) what the challenges of remote development are, and 3) how to mitigate these challenges.

Why Remote Development?

One of the largest costs for any software organization is the salaries that they pay. After all, the business model for software basically converts human time (a fixed cost) into software (an asset), which is then monetized through various means such as advertising and licensing. Continue Reading

The Ultimate Associate Product Manager Guide [For Beginners]

One of the best ways to break into the field of product management is to start as an associate product manager (APM).

After all, the associate product manager role is set up as an apprenticeship that leads into a future product manager role.

When I first started in product management, I had no idea what associate product managers were, and how they fit into the broader career trajectory for PMs. Therefore, I’ve put together this guide to dive deep into the associate product manager role.

I’ll cover the following:

  1. What is an associate product manager, and what do they do?
  2. Why do organizations even have associate product managers?
  3. How does the associate product manager fit into the broader PM career trajectory?
  4. How much does an associate product manager make?
  5. How can you best position yourself to get this role?
  6. When can you expect to be promoted to a full Product Manager?

Let’s dive in!

What is an Associate Product Manager?

An associate product manager works with one or more product managers and enables them to do their work more effectively.

The associate product manager responsibilities include a lot of things that product managers do, such as:  Continue Reading

Product Manager Career Paths

Members of the PMHQ Slack community regularly host awesome events for product managers to swap tips and learn from one another.

In San Francisco, Vinay Melwani (Product Manager at HouseCanary) has organized a monthly morning meetup called AM | PM. Attendees answer a thought-provoking question-of-the-month in a round-robin fashion and reflect on each other’s responses.

Below is our summary of January’s AM | PM meetup!

Our question of the month for January 2018 was:

“What viable career paths exist for product managers?” 

Below are the different paths that we explored as a group.

Vice President of Product

Vinay commented that the traditional path of a product manager is to rise the ranks internally: from product manager to director of product, then to VP of product. Continue Reading