Product Management is a hot field right now, with APM being one of the most sought-after roles in engineering. A blend of product design, marketing, sales, and technical innovation, this field encompasses a diverse range of skills and hence is one of the hardest to pigeonhole in one category.

The track has been divided into two parts :

Part 1 contains information about Product Management on a much deeper level. It is meant for anyone looking to explore PM or work on becoming a better PM for their Internships.

Part 2 is meant to help you prepare for your PM Interviews.

What is Product Management?

There are multiple definitions of what Product Management is, and all of them are true. The role looks drastically different from company to company. However, there are a few traits common to these roles. They are:

1. Problem Discovery and Product Building

Problem Discovery involves interacting with the user, developing a deep insight into their problem, and ensuring that the final idea is a sound business option. It requires ownership of the business outcome, impact, and road mapping. While Product Building involves things like features, quality, understanding data to identify the specifications, etc.

2. Management and Leading

In my understanding, management involves influencing without authority. It requires a deep understanding of the individual’s perspective and ensuring everyone’s requirements are understood and the best possible solution is implemented. Leadership on the other hand requires a deep understanding of the final goal and then trying to align the individual stakeholders towards accomplishing the goal. It might involve a certain level of authority. Think leadership as a class teacher working to make the students learn, while management as you trying to work on a group assignment.

[(source)](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/B6pgU3VMiaXk-LMq9mnqkJfWQQZHH-eaHA9kgzV4lBeZEaw4z-5HfGekLuf9B_cbloKQfs641yFPL_ZWMaXJnVAyxJGT5ksQsKQZ9izqMJLPr5v4zpq6TQAomGF3PtWGbOK58H0_6yTk_5wrdg)

(source)

What are the skills of a Product Manager?

Core Competencies (source)

  1. Product Execution (Product Building - Product Manager)
    1. Product Delivery - The Phoenix Project, Shape Up
    2. Feature Specification - User Story Mapping
    3. Quality Assurance
  2. Customer Insight (Product Building - Product Leader)
    1. Fluency with data - Measure What Matters, Lean Analytics
    2. Voice of the Customer - The Mom Test, Continue Discovery Habits
    3. User Experience Design - Hooked, Sprint
  3. Product Strategy (Product Architect - Product Manager)
    1. Business Outcome Ownership - The Lean Start-Up, Blue Ocean Strategy
    2. Product Vision and Roadmapping
    3. Strategic Impact - Good to Great, Working Backwards
  4. Influencing People (Product Architect - Product Leader)
    1. Managing Up - Escaping the Build Trap
    2. Team Leadership - Radical Candor, Dare to Lead
    3. Stakeholder Management - Escaping the Build Trap

Technical Skills

  1. SQL - Refer to Expository’s SQL Track or this link for a short 4-hour course
  2. Programming (Optional but good to know)
  3. Graphic Designing - A beginner Graphic Design (in Figma) course, Material Design 3
  4. Systems Design - System Design by Gaurav Sen

Hard Skills

  1. Prioritization Skills
  2. Research and Analysis
  3. Economics
  4. Development Principles

Design Sense

  1. Do PMs need to know Graphic Design?
  2. Brief intro to various design softwares available
  3. Basic UI-UX design principles + Gestalt Principles
  4. Prototyping website UI design in Figma: An Example
  5. Learn wireframing in Figma
  6. Design of Everyday Things - Don Norman

Emotional Intelligence (source)

  1. Relationship Management

    A PM needs to form successful relationships with both internal and external stakeholders. Strong relationships help in negotiating, working towards a common goal, and resolving conflicts.

  2. Self Awareness

    A PM must be self-aware to understand their own biases and ensure that they don’t get into the product.

  3. Self Management

    It can be an incredibly stressful job. Knowing how to convey a sense of urgency without showing stress or panicking, understanding what to prioritize and when to step away and take a breath is important.

  4. Social Awareness

    This means having as much empathy for the sales team as for the user while keeping in mind the business targets.

Interview Specific Preparation Resources

First, understand what are your strengths and weaknesses, and then prioritize accordingly. It’s extremely important to have a plan and a partner to prepare with. Try reaching out to batchmates preparing for product as well and make a regular schedule. You can dive deeper into how to make your product interview preparation plan in this video by TPF “60-Day Product Management Interview Prep Plan”

Round 0:

In most product companies, the shortlisting round is a take-home task. A problem statement is shared and the candidate is supposed to create a pitch deck that is judged on certain parameters. Generally, the timeline given for such cases is close to a week. It is suggested that candidates have some prior experience in building product decks to be able to execute faster on the D-Day. It is important to be able to differentiate your deck from the competition as well as give a logical explanation as to why you chose a certain problem statement for a given user base. The solution prioritization, as well as the list of solutions, are important. Ideal Deck Building Flow:

  1. Talk about the Vision of what you’re building briefly as a starter
  2. Describe the ideal user, surroundings, and the goals and pain points.
  3. Flesh out one of the unsolved needs and attached a problem statement
  4. Size the problem statement in terms of user impact, business impact, and market trends
  5. List down potential solutions and prioritize them basis relevant factors
  6. Talk about metrics you’ll keep in mind while building your solution
  7. Mention potentials risks and fail-safe to them if needed

You can take a look at these :

  1. Product Teardowns by The Product Folks to get an idea of what Product Pitch Decks look like.
  2. Exclusive PhonePe APM Decks from NextLeap.

Case Rounds

The subsequent rounds are case interviews. To get a deeper insight into what case interviews look like, check out the Consulting Track here.

There are primarily four types of cases in product interviews:

Feel free to drop comments or contact the creator of the tracks directly for any further questions.

Track Created by:

Rudhir Mehra -  +91-8284868727

Manasvi Singh - +91-8860074510