Quick Start Guide to Product Management: What I Wish I Knew When Starting in Product Management

Getting into Product Management is hard, but it's nothing compared to actually being a product manager. This book gives you a boiled-down condensed version of what you need to know. It's what I wish someone had told me when I started out as a product manager. Think of this as the quick-start guide before diving into bigger, scarier books. Most PM books tell you either how to break into the job or how to excel after you've been in the job for years. This book is meant for those of you just starting out. You've got the job or are in the process of getting the job, but you're still green. How do you start? You're too new to be in charge of the vision & strategy for your company or product, but you still need to contribute. What's that look like? How do you navigate the various stakeholders?Read this book to learn what mindset you need in this job. Learn how to interact with the various departments in your organization, including Sales, Engineering, and the C-Suite. Learn why angry customers aren't the worst thing in the world. Learn a few tips on managing a backlog. After reading this book, you'll have learned some of the key words and tricky phrases that will help you in your career and also to better understand all the other great books on Product Management that you'll read after this one. Part I: What’s This Book? What I hope you get out of this What this book is not Structure of the book Part II: What’s the Job? Judgment Influence without authority No typical way in Distill it to 5 seconds or less Product Management is a Full Contact Job You want (some) angry customers It’s not Project Management Section III: How to Start Get in the way You Can’t Think Your Way Out of This Assume your company knows what it’s doing Get a towel. Read Inspired by Marty Cagan. Learn some vocabulary. Read The First 90 Days Section IV: How to get input Why over What Types of Requests Small group sessions Customer Calls A/B Testing Section V: Prioritization & Backlog Management The ‘Why’ is more important than the ‘What’ Buy a Feature Frameworks Backlogs- what are they? Backlog 1 Backlog 2 Hoarder or Minimalist Communicate, Communicate, Communicate Section VI: Working With Engineers You are a hummingbird. Engineers are elephants. Get tight with your engineering manager Bring problems, not solutions What are the types of work? Engineers are optimists. Don’t believe them. Engineering Career Paths Section VII: Roadmaps and Release Plans Roadmaps vs. Release Plans: What are they? Why two types of presentations? Their Flexible Nature Sell your vision Section VIII: Working With Sales Sales is Coin-operated Sales Can't Wait for the Vision Inspire Confidence in the Product Be careful taking direction from your Sales team Section IX: Working With Customers They're running for dinner. You're running for your life. Customers suck at explaining problems. They're great at providing solutions. Customers buy for what the product is today and for what it will be in the future Customers want to be heard Section X: Working with the C-Suite CEO CPO- Chief Product Officer CFO- Chief Financial Officer CRO- Chief Revenue Officer CCO- Chief Customer Officer CxO- Chief Officer Section XI: General Good Things to Know The Whole Product If it hurts, do it more At best, you're the second smartest person in the room Take Thinking Days Find your superpower and feed it Anything worth doing is worth doing badly “I still don’t understand” Section XII: Types of Deliverables Features Defects Debt Risk Everything Else Section XIII: The End is just The Beginning