Our 2nd post in this guide series to breaking into product management will focus on setting yourself and your support group up for success in terms of execution.

Getting a bit meta first

Following the format of the first post in this guide series, I’m teaching you two things here:

1. A system you can use to get into product management
2. How to apply the system immediately

Seasoned product managers, developers, and those in leadership roles will also see something else: we’re applying a pre-existing team process to our journey here. Chartering (what we did in the first post) and execution are two aspects of a new team, project, or product setup that are vital for success when working in groups.

As a product manager, you’ll almost always be working in a team or with a few teams. There are cases where you’ll be working within a group of product managers that may distribute yourselves in various ways per your organization’s needs, but let’s go with the simple 1 PM/ team setup for this explanation.

The following system assumes you’ve gone through chartering and know your why (vision), what (mission), and how you plan to achieve progress towards each (goals). It also assumes you’ve identified what you value as a person within the scope of your charter.

Why am I digging into this?

Honestly, it’s one of the things I wish I learned when I first experienced chartering. You can apply this method to almost anything that requires solo or team dedication, commitment, and persistence. Knowing your why, what, and how before you jump in helps you form a decision making framework when things get tough.

Practicing the chartering process before you get an opportunity as a product manager (or any leadership role) is what I’m preparing you for. When you’re asked, “have you ever started a new team or product before?” and you’re going for an associate/ mid position, it’s terrifying.

Trust me, I’ve lived through this personally. It’s straight-up terrifying to think, “crap, should I have already known this stuff? I’m an associate/ mid”. This is why we’re going through these steps before digging into product management training topics.

As any role with a “manager” in it, you’ll be expected to take on some level of leadership and management responsibilities. This can feel like a heavy burden on top of your already-full plate of responsibilities, so having experience applying this method to yourself will help you understand and prepare for how others may respond to it in the future.

What that being said, let’s get onto #2 of our guided series so you can successfully execute on your charter.

Execution

1. Support Group

This is where you’re either going to decide to go solo or put together a support group for yourself as you go through the journey of landing a PM job. Failure is inevitable, but your growth is up to you to dictate so figure out whether you want to jump into this adventure alone or with a group.

Example support group members to consider

• Mock interview colleagues/ friends: Pick a group of trusted individuals that you can bring into your plan of landing the PM job. Ask them if they’d be willing to interview you on various aspects of the interview process. We’ll dig into specific parts in the future, but for now you can focus on topics like culture fit for the company you’re interested in, role-specific questions, technical/ subject-matter specific questions, and behavioral questions.
• Sourcer: Someone you either plan to pay or mutually benefit by helping them out as well in their search with the goal of sourcing positions. It can get exhausting searching for hours and burning through tons of job descriptions. Having a sourcer that sends positions your way can save a lot of headache and time. Of course, tools like LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and Indeed can act as wonderful automated solutions for this as well.
• Mentor: Know any product managers already or have a friend-of-a-friend you can reach out to for advice? I’m always open to help personally when someone reaches out. Want proof? Comment in the post or send a message through the contact page. I know there are people in your circle that would do the same. It’s a huge boost to your confidence when you can have someone challenge you in a safe space to grow. A mentor/ mentee relationship is priceless at any stage of your career so get started now if you haven’t already.
• Coach: How is this different from a mentor? Mentors are focused on ensuring you grow, coaches are there to ensure you perform well enough to succeed. In my experience, failure can lead to as much or more growth than success if you take your learnings and don’t fail the same way repeatedly. A coach can help keep you accountable on your goals and weekly/ monthly systems you’re setting up to make steady progress. This can be a friend, colleague, or significant other. Pick wisely!
• Partner(s): Have friends that also want to jump into product management? Bring them along for the ride. Share tips on what’s working and hold retrospective discussions where you figure out how each of you can improve your approach.

Having either setup a group or going solo, it’s important to know that you can always make changes as you go. Throughout this entire process, don’t be rigid about your planning. They can fall apart as soon as you start. Be ready to pivot so you can keep your eye on the prize and land that job. And make sure to have fun – more on this at the end!

2. Working agreement

Remember your goals from chartering? Grab your document/ get those on a 2nd screen and let’s decide how we’re going to achieve them. Get ready for some tough pieces of conversation if you’re in a group. You have to be ready to discuss direct feedback in a safe space.

A working agreement document can consist of many parts. Let’s look at what you can include solo or as a group:

• Communication method(s)
  • Group: You need a primary method of communication that everyone can rely on. In 2020, that’s likely the case, so consider setting up a Discord, Slack, etc. space to get a centralized communication spot going for you and your group.
  • Group: You can setup weekly syncs to catch up on how things are going. If you’ve setup a coach, mentor, and a sourcer these might be 1:1 conversations instead. If you have a few partners in place, you can setup a group sync.
  • Solo: Identify a centralized place to keep notes such as Google Drive or Microsoft One Drive.
  • Communication is hard. No matter what team I’ve been on, I’ve always experienced some form of communication breakdown at one time or other. It happens. Default to positive intent and clarify the communication – then move on.

• Feedback
  • This is important whether you’re flying solo or in a group, so please pay attention to this section.
  • Things can get tough when looking for a job – especially if it’s a big leap or dealing with rejection. Tensions get high and feelings can get hurt. Giving and taking feedback in a safe space is critical for growth and trust. It’s also a key part of the interview process for many companies that have a rich culture of direct feedback.
• Solo: If you’re solo, be ready to have honest conversations and thought experiments with yourself to retrospect on your progress (or lack thereof). Be honest with yourself on whether you’re hitting your goals and don’t try the same things over and over again. It’s (likely) just you in your head so be honest and thoughtful about how you need to change your approach if things aren’t working.
• Group feedback
  • Setup feedback as a safe and healthy practice of helping each other grow.
  • Giving feedback should be pre-empted as much as possible. Acknowledge among yourselves though that someone approaching you with a, “hey, can I give you some feedback?” will likely create a fear reaction in many similar to seeing a bear in the woods. Even without knowing the content of the message, feedback can feel like a huge blow to the gut. Practice in giving and taking feedback regularly will help this a lot. When giving feedback, try to be as objective as you can about what actions were taken, the impact, and potential improvements.
  • Example feedback: “I noticed during the mock interview that you provided a lot more detail than what was asked for in the hypothetical situation question. When you did this, I lost track of your story’s key points. A potential improvement may be to use the S.T.A.R. method by laying out the Situation, Task, Action, and Result so the interviewer can clearly understand what happened.”
  • Taking feedback is just as important in setting up for growth and trust within a group. When receiving feedback, aim to listen first and foremost. Don’t interrupt, even if the feedback seems off a bit in terms of what they perceived vs what your intent was. Even if it’s blatantly wrong, listening intently to the feedback opens you both up for a more productive conversation.
  • Example in taking the feedback given above about a lengthy response to an interview question: “Thanks for taking the time to give me that feedback. I appreciate it.”
    • If the feedback was accurate: “I’ll try to use the S.T.A.R. method in our next mock interview. Do you mind if we practice a bit beforehand to make sure I have the method down a bit before the questions start? It might help if you can provide an example as well.”
    • If the feedback feels off: “I’m not sure I’m seeing the same thing you are. Can we go through that question again and I’ll provide my answer so it’s fresh? Maybe then we can dig into the details that were too much or you can give me an example of how I could have used the S.T.A.R. method.”
    • The last thing you want to do is down-right challenge the feedback and create a confrontation. The person giving the feedback is (likely) not trying to start a fight, especially if they took the time to give you the feedback in the first place.
• Like communication, feedback is also hard. At first, it can feel super awkward to give or take it. Hang in there. Once you’ve done it for a while, you’ll see the benefits of being able to openly discuss flaws and improvements. Until then, enjoy the ride:

3. Definition of done (DoD)

How do you know you’re done with something? Like, really done enough to check it off a list and move on completely. Let’s look at your goal sheet again from chartering and identify a few ways you can define “done”:

• For each objective, you’ve listed a qualitative outcome. Even if there are measurable pieces in the objective, the key results are your checkboxes for “done”.
• Let’s look at an example:
  • Objective: Actively apply for product management positions at game studios
  • Key results:
    • Apply to at least 1 job every week
    • Reach out to at least 1 recruiter every two weeks asking about company culture and what they’re looking for in a candidate.
    • Track active applications and phase of interview loop in a document.
  • Definition of done:
    • 1 job application submitted each week – simple enough.
    • Reach out to at least 1 recruiter every 2 weeks – also a binary yes/ no on whether it’s been done.
    • Tracking active applications and their phase of interview is not as easy to say it’s done. It’s an ongoing process and can be difficult to “mark-off”. I don’t generally recommend key results like this, but OKRs are also not always used in cases like this. Since we’re using this process to help ourselves and learn how to use it later on as a product manager – it’s worth it to take the time to make it work since you’ll run into this with teams as well. So let’s look at how to mark this one done in tasks:
      1. (weekly task) Apply to 1 job
      2. (1-time) Create a tracking sheet
      3. (weekly task) List all active interviews
      4. (weekly task) Update interview phase for each active interview loop
      5. (bi-weekly task) Reach out to a recruiter
    • The idea of an OKR like this isn’t to mark it done and move on. It keeps you tracking towards establishing a consistent habit of applying to jobs, reaching out to build your network, and tracking active apps and interviews. Once you’ve built a habit out of this and no longer have to look at the OKR to complete these tasks, then you’re “done”.
• The example I used above was purposely a complex one as “done” isn’t always clear-cut. If you’re tracking tasks, then it’s clear when a simple task is done. If you have a goal that aims to establish a qualitative change or habit, then it becomes more complex quickly. The idea is to establish a clear definition of what each repeatable task looks like when it’s done.

• Here’s a more clear-cut example: DoD for Interview prep – these are all tasks that are done or not done. Defining the done state is what matters.
  • Take notes of company mission, vision, goals, and values (sound familiar? it’s their charter)
  • Complete 1 mock interview for each part of the loop the recruiter told you about (tech, PM skills, culture, leadership, product, etc.)
  • Create negotiation documentation for your needs (salary, position level, product preferences, location, benefits, etc.)
  • Research their key products and identify (research methods for improvements, CIRCLES analysis for product improvement, x hours of game-time played for each of their games – make sure this is a real # and not just a variable)
• Keeping clear documentation of what “done” means will help you update it over time to catch your blind spots as you go. This is critical solo and within a team when you’re trying to avoid repeat failures.
• You’re documenting this because it’s absolutely inevitable that you’ll think you’re done with something only to later realize that you were totally not ready. Be prepared friends:

4. Continuous improvement

I’ll keep this section short as there will likely be countless posts about it going forward. For the scope of this exercise, identify how you’ll handle continuous improvement. This can apply to the above working agreement section as well under communication.

Both solo or group: Consider a recurring retrospective that is on a cadence that makes sense for the size of your group/ you.

Think about:

• What’s going well
• What isn’t
• What actions you need to take to mitigate what isn’t going well

You can also run a start, stop, and continue session to identify actions that need to fall into each of those categories to improve your progress.

Example:

5. Change management

This is more important in a group environment vs going solo. When you have multiple people in your support group (and later on, your dev team), change is easy to enact, but difficult to communicate and track. Whether you’re setting up a retrospective meeting, centralized documentation, or recurring syncs, consider putting in a section for change management in each of these.

Example changes in the scope of landing a PM job to tell your support group:

• Top companies you’re interested in – they’re going to evolve as you interview. Keep your team updated.
• Companies, cultures, products you want to avoid – you’re going to realize some places aren’t for you. Share that with your group ASAP so they know not to source from there, or to dig into that with you in terms of mentorship, coaching, and partnership.
• Your mock interview schedules – everyone has a life outside of this wonderful journey you’re embarking on. Respect their time and yours by being the one to manage mock interview schedules. Be ready to push things out when life happens. Also, be kind to yourself. You are helping this group as much as they are helping you, regardless of role. This is something meaningful and life-changing you are all working on together. It’s worth their time. You’re worth their time.

How to find the fun

This entire process can seem daunting to anyone that’s reading through it in blog post form. Don’t forget, there’s a reason we’re giving ourselves a year here! You’re shooting to land a PM job in 2021 and for some of you, that year might be placed even further out. That’s okay!

Remember to have fun as you do this. If you’re not passionate about this path, you’ll churn out just like people drop off their new years resolutions in late Jan/Feb. Stick to it and bring friends along for the ride. Have fun and enjoy the learning and growth experience.

Examples of how you can make this fun:

• Applying for game studios? Go play their games together. You’re going for a PM spot right? How would you improve that game? Go research on the forums, sub-reddits, etc. and enjoy learning about new games as well as playing them with friends. This is also a great opportunity to reach out to old friends and ask them what they think about certain games.
• Working solo? Gamify the journey! You can setup rewards for yourself as you get through the interviews and applications. Spending time doing this means you’re not spending money on other activities. Reward yourself with the money saved and grab something that gets you excited to keep going.
• Document your journey here and share it in spaces where it might help others. If you go through it and enjoy it, share your experience in order to help others improve. No, this isn’t a call to like and subscribe while hitting some notification bell, lol. Just share what you’re up to and I’m sure the activity of helping others will bring you joy in seeing them grow as well.

This post is meant to prepare you for the wonderful road ahead. It’s going to filled with trials and tribulations on a personal level as you really put yourself out there. In the end, the one thing it will ensure is that you will grow. Let this all soak in as the next few posts in this series will start to really dig into what you can do to prepare for what’s up ahead.

As always, GL HF!