PMD #15 - on Experimenting

???? Hey there, Product enthusiasts!

This newsletter is all about learning, staying flexible, and ready to try new things.

In this edition, I will dive into:

1. The importance of trial and error for any product manager, exploring experimentation at both the company and personal levels.
2. Essential skills for growing as an Individual Contributor PM.
3. Insights on transitioning into a leadership role.
4. Key tips for crafting standout interviews and resumes.

Experimenting and Iterating

Experimentation is key in product management. Validating your product quickly can save you from realizing too late that no one wants what you built. Justine Arnaud highlights the importance of early product validation to avoid wasting time and resources. Because, let’s face it, nothing feels worse than waiting 6 months to release a product nobody uses.

One of the biggest frustrations I see in engineering teams is the lack of getting products out the door.?I once worked for a startup doing banking apps, and when I joined, I had one-on-one meetings with everyone to test the water. The #1 complaint was to have been working on a product for over a year without releasing it on the app store. They just wanted the product out and to receive feedback from the users. In my current role, I noticed that as we increased our delivery frequency, the team felt a greater sense of accomplishment. #winwin

Nacho Tejero Mancho provides a great story of how his startup Webel had to go through multiple failures before finding success. They worked on MVP for months before deciding to pivot totally. It's a great lesson of persistence but also shows you the sooner you get your product to the public, the sooner you will reach Product Market Fit.

And when deciding how to test and iterate there is no one size fits all. ? Bü?ra Co?kuner gives great advice on deciding when to validate or invalidate assumptions to reduce risks. It's an approach I applied for a startup that was pre-market fit. We had to define the different assumptions, map them out and prioritise the riskiest assumptions to test (your RAT).

Experimenting is not only tied to products and features. It applies to your team and yourself too. John Cutler discusses the need for teams to keep trying new ways of working. There’s no end point where a team is perfect. This fits with agile principles and Scrum - if done properly a Retrospective is an opportunity for a team to uncover growth areas and test new ideas.

Two methods you can try are Product Sparring and synthetic user research.

• Ant Murphy talks about product sparring, a concept from the design world where designers present their work to get feedback. Product managers can do the same to get new ideas and constructive criticism. It’s about sharing knowledge and improving through feedback. It’s also a great tool for teaching how to ask for and receive feedback.

• Kate Moran tested a new idea: AI-generated “synthetic users.” These can’t replace real user research but can start discussions, give ideas, and create hypotheses to validate later through real user interviews. Even unconventional methods can have value in the right context.

Skills to Grow as a Product Manager

When discussing career growth for a Product Manager, it’s important to understand the difference between succeeding as an Individual Contributor (IC) and as a manager.

Both Marc Baselga and Matt Hines enjoyed Claire Vo's presentation and slides about being a “Super IC PM.”

The bottom line: to become a top IC, you need to be versatile and indispensable #pridemonth.

Then the main categories of PM skills are usually around:

• user-centricity
• analytical mindset
• business acumen
• stakeholder management

For the analytical part, Pawe? Huryn offers a handy list of product metrics. From acquisition to engagement, knowing all the important metrics within your funnel would greatly help you define which metrics to use.

For keeping the user at heart, Toni Dos Santos ’ article on booking user interviews is very helpful here. It shows you how to do this efficiently using free tools. It provides methods for identifying prospects, cleaning data, and sending targeted campaigns. He recommends tools like Brewska, Folk Extension, ChatGPT, and La Grosse Machine. With these, you can optimise your user research and start applying continuous discovery.

Skills as a Product Leader (the office edition)

If you’re moving into a management role, it’s important to understand what kind of leader you want to be and how you want to be remembered. Romina Aswani ’s post is insightful on this topic. She points out that we often celebrate loud, flashy leaders, but real leadership is about preventing problems before they arise. We should praise leaders who keep things running smoothly without drama. It’s important to think about the type of leadership you want to practice.

In higher positions, it also becomes harder to receive honest feedback. The higher your title, the less negative feedback you get. Leah Tharin explains how ego can grow with titles and reduce leadership effectiveness. To counter this, she advises fostering an open culture and challenging each other to give and receive feedback. As a leader, you must address the fear of repercussion to ensure all voices are heard.

Good managers reduce this fear and encourage their teams to iterate, test, fail, and learn from mistakes. Nitish Rana gives a great example of embracing mistakes and learning from them. He talks about how a supportive manager helped him lead scrum ceremonies for the first time, face issues, learn from them, and become better.

For those aiming for top positions, Ed Biden offers tips on moving from VP to CPO. He explains that it’s a significant leap involving managing diverse stakeholders and strategy. One of your roles is to identify and solve the CEO’s top concerns. This transition requires strong problem-solving skills, execution skills, credibility, experience, and clear commercial impact.

Interview and Resume Tips

Alex Rechevskiy gives tips for creating an effective product manager resume. Focus on readability, impact, and customization. He suggests removing the summary and objective parts if you have less than 10 years of experience. Make sure all keywords are in the bullet points. Ensure your resume is clear, readable, and impactful. Customize it for each role.

Talking about resumes, Mirza Be?irovi? , while recruiting for a product manager role, noticed a trend. Many people include metrics in their bullet points, but the impact is unclear. For example, “increased revenue by X per cent by launching a new product” is vague. You should provide more context about the product, why you launched it, and how. The goal is to make your resume a conversation starter.

If you reach the interview level - Nikhyl Singhal offers a step-by-step guide to crafting a complete career story. This is useful for interviews or performance reviews. It helps you articulate your achievements and learning, which benefits your career. Common pitfalls include being too long, unclear, or lacking insight. Use a clear framework that covers context, role evolution, challenges, outcomes, and lessons. Practice to have a concise two-minute version of your job story.

Let’s keep the conversation going. I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences. So feel free to reply to this newsletter to join the discussions.

Thanks for reading, and see you next time!