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For a lot of product work, good Product Strategies withstand test of time and remain valid for atleast 18-24 months. Good Product Managers are able to simulate various future scenarios well in advance to decent degree of confidence for future proofing the work. If you have to change your direction, redoing your strategy every 6-12 months as a team then perhaps your didn't put enough rigorous thinking to it in the first place. Am not saying we don't update our strategy baking in the latest tech/competition/user insights in that 18-24 months, but the changes should be less the 20-30% to the overall plan. #productmanagement #productstrategy

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I received over 500+ inMails for the PM role I am hiring for, and 90% of the people are doing it wrong hurting their chances of being considered. Here is how to do it right: ❌ Generic title of inMail "Interested in Product manager role" ✅ "Pm with 5 years of experience in e-commerce, analytical, ex-IG." Customize the subject line. As a hiring manager, it’s exhausting to sift through hundreds of identical messages. Your subject line is your first chance to stand out. Don’t waste it—make it specific, compelling, and relevant. ❌ "I hope this message finds you well! I recently submitted my application for the Product Manager, Creator Content, and Shop position at LTK and wanted to express my enthusiasm for this opportunity. The role aligns perfectly with my background" ✅ "Hi, I would be a good fit because I DID: X Y Z mapping to what you are looking for". Don’t make me dig through your resume or LinkedIn to understand why you’re a fit. Communicating effectively and concisely is critical for PMs. If you can’t demonstrate that in your InMail, you’ve already lost me. ❌ "I have relevant experience based on my experience as a Product Manager, E-commerce and AI" but your Resume/Linkedin title says you are a content strategist or PMM in Healthcare ✅ If I click on your profile and it doesn’t match what you claim, I lose trust immediately. This job market is not open for aspirations or translatable skills, there is just too much talent out there. Make sure your branding—titles, experience, and skills—aligns with your pitch. ❌ "Are you open to a quick chat?" ✅ "If you see a fit I'd love to hear about the next steps. I have already applied and messaged X recruiter name"Half of the people who messaged me didn't apply to the job and most ask for my time but often times there is a screening call with Recruiters. Try to find recruiters at the company you are applying for, especially in startups there are not that many so show you can be proactive. ❌ Don't apply to roles you do not qualify for. Loving the creator economy doesn't make you suitable for the role. ✅ 1/3 of the inMails are from people with 0 product management experience, outside of the US or no visa, that do not meet the 3 requirements I asked for. Do not apply to aspirational jobs, you will get little to not ROI out of it. ❌Sending inMails that sound generic, made by ChatGPT is not going to yield the results you are looking for. ✅ If you are truly serious about job hunting in this market, quality applications beat quantity every time. Some applicants sent me a 1 min intro video of themselves, I watched them all. Some others sent a case study on LTK, I read them all. All of the candidates that went above and beyond got my time and I followed up with all of them. If this resonates, share this with anyone job hunting. Also if you are interested in applying I linked the job in the comments :) #inmail #jobhunting #jobapplication #linkedin

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What is North Star ✨ framework? North Star framework is an important product management concept to define success metrics for business and inputs that drive the success metrics. Here is an attempt to simplify it (Go to PPT 💻) + What is a North Star Metric? A North Star metric is the one measurement that’s most predictive of a company’s long-term success. + Why Do We Need a North Star Metric? Focus and Alignment Company-wide View #northstar #nsm #northstarmetric #productmanagement

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Many times in my PM career, my teams were executing at full capacity, as per the aligned product startegy and also building backwards from customer needs found during user research convos. But the products failed to deliver the impact in first go and required few iterations to hit expected success metrics. Reflecting back, the success was not denied due to execution, but due to lack of understanding of all parameters which lead to success in any complex initiative. Navigating such complex situations requires understanding the issue and then communicating the same with others in team to create a shared understanding of what's wrong. In such cases Dr. Mary Lippitt's Model helps understand what's really happening in an initiative. The model essentially says, there are 5 inputs to manage any complex change and if any of the 5 inputs is missing the team will struggle. Go through the screenshot to identify individual scenarios and the corresponding team reality. Once you understand the parameter absent in your relevant context, fix it proactively to increase your odds of success. From experience, defining right “ Incentives” for teams with conflicting priorities is the toughest and "Vision" and "Skills" are most difficult to change in short term and hence Product Managers typically tweak the other 3 parameters to achieve success. #productmanagement

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Live version of this playbook is at amuldotexe.github.io

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Great products deserve to be noticed—but if product managers can’t pitch it in 30 seconds, customers may never see the value. Here's how to create product pitches that grab customers attention: First define: 1. Users ↳Whose problem are you solving ? 2. Problem ↳ What specific problem are they facing ? 3. Current Solutions ↳ How are they solving this problem today? 4. Current gaps in alternatives ↳ What are the gaps which frustrate the user? 5. Your Vision ↳ What is the new world you are imagining/creating. 6. High level solution ↳ How will your product solve the problem? Then create your pitch using the below template: Today when [user X] faces [problem Y] they use/rely on [current solution Z]. Using [current solution Z] is not the best thing to do because of [current gaps A,B,C... in Z]. Our vision is to [create the new world where current gaps don't exist] and this is how our [solution will work]. Example: Here's is how the product pitch statement could have looked for Uber/Ola in their early days: Today when office goers want to commute from place A to place B in Mumbai, they have to use infrequent yellow taxis. Relying on yellow taxis is not the best experience for customers because yellow taxis are not clean, lack standard pricing and are not always available when needed. Our vision is to help office goers always find on-demand, clean and affordable cabs by creating a supply of cabs 24/7 accessible through one tap booking experience on a mobile app on their smartphones. #productmanagement

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🎯 As a candidate, it’s crucial to put your best foot forward and make it as easy as possible for the hiring manager to see why you’re a great fit. The advice in the quoted post is practical and spot-on in this regard. ⚠️ ⚠️ However, a word of caution: pay attention to statements like "this job market is not open for aspirations or translatable skills." This can signal that a company’s hiring practices are heavily dictated by market dynamics rather than deeply held values or convictions. While every company operates within the realities of the market, those that prioritize short-term trends over fostering growth and adaptability may not offer the stability or development opportunities you’re looking for. Aligning with such companies could mean being subject to the whims of external forces, leaving little room for personal or professional growth when the tide turns. 👀 Instead, focus on identifying organizations that value aspiration, potential, and the ability to adapt while delivering great work. These are the companies that see beyond the immediate and invest in their employees’ growth. 🚀 Your career is a long game—choose opportunities that align with your values and goals. The right role won’t just match your skills, current title, or exactly what you've done before, but will also challenge and support you to grow. PS 🤔 : Celebrating candidates who send 1-minute videos so early in the process means some may be evaluated based on visual, verbal, gender, or other personal signals, which carry a significant risk of unconscious bias. While we can’t police what candidates choose to include, promoting practices that could inadvertently bias decision-making calls for caution.

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Thanks to Rashmi Rajendra, PhD for sharing this post. As this is a very tough job market for those of us spending a large number of hours each day, searching for that right opportunity, only to find that by the time we find it, there are more than 100 applicants. Chantal Cox, thanks for sharing these important tips on the proper way to respond to a job posting and about going the extra mile to identify not only the recruiter but also the hiring manager and others in the organization. Get to the point and make it relevant! Thanks again for these important tips. #bespecific #jobsearch2024

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Product Methodologies , are you using it right or the wrong way? in this week's huddle I explore some hacks on how we can effectively use product methodologies and bring out the best in them. https://lnkd.in/gyNmcGDB please subscribe to my newsletter where I'll share insights, news and product management and productivity hacks. #productmanagement #hacks #agile #productframeworks #methodology

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Every product manager should conduct a product opportunity assessment. Here are some simple questions to evaluate an idea. #productmanager #productmanagement

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Most product managers get trapped in the distraction of building shiny new features as the only remedy for product problems. Building new features is a necessity for new use cases but driving product adoption for existing features can very well move the needle for overall product. Here is how to improve adoption of your existing features for better ROI on your product investments: Let’s first understand reasons for poor adoption: ↳ Awareness Issues: User does not even know the feature exists or feature is not top of mind among alternatives. ↳ Value Gaps: The feature is not solving the problem well and hence users don't want to use it. ↳ High friction in usage: Difficulty in using the feature either due to high friction in usage flow or complexity in activation. ↳ Discovery issue: Users don't know where the feature is, hence can't use it despite having intent. Now let's move to how you can identify the adoption challenges: ↳ Bug reports: To uncover where the feature is failing and creating value leakage. ↳ User surveys: To uncover discovery, awareness issues in a low touch manner.  ↳ Funnel analysis for feature’s user flow: To uncover friction and value issues. ↳ Cohort analysis for diff user segments: To understand value realisation challenges for different user segments. ↳ Customer Interviews: To go deep and understand details about all 4 potential reasons for poor adoption. Once you know the challenges you can solve: ↳ Awareness Issues through in app notifications, emails , whatsapp notifications or broader marketing efforts. ↳ Value gaps through first narrowing the focus on fewer user segments to solve the problem really well, then scaling the feature to broader audience. ↳ High friction gaps through reducing the steps needed to go through key user actions, reducing cognitive load via feature simplification and user education for activation. ↳ Discovery challenges through simplifying the interface and giving better/prominent visibility to the feature in product. Recommended order to solve adoption problem: For existing features, it is recommended to solve adoption challenges in the order: Awareness > Discovery> Value> Friction. You should follow this order as in case customers are not even aware of the feature(discovery and awareness) they will not use it and you will not learn about value and friction gaps. Let me know in comments what has worked for your team in the past to solve adoption challenges in your product. #productmangement #productadoption

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Being a talented IC Product Manager not always leads to great career outcomes. Reason - Remaining a generalist for a very long time. Here is how to avoid this career mishap by building expertise on key PM role specific skills: 1. To build expertise, pick any of the below skill which excites you and you have opportunity to work upon: • Crafting great user experiences • Finding new opportunities in competitive landscape for the team/company • Becoming an expert in specific domain eg AI/ML, Payments, Cybersecurity etc • Driving growth through growth funnels/loops for acquisition, retention, monetisation work 2. Once you know what you want to learn, play long term game building expertise in that skill (think 5+ years). 3. As you get in top 10% of any skill, move to other areas to build median expertise in others. Having a median expertise in other skills is key to get from a PM to a PM leader. There is no silver bullet to say which skill shall one build deep expertise on as it is entirely personal due to past role experiences, one's preference and having understanding of what kind of work gives energy to that individual. In case one is still not sure, PMs can explore each skill for couple of years in different roles before settling on one skill for long term deep dive. PS: Building AI/ML and Domain specific skills is not possible for everyone apart from folks in mature/late stage/bigtech companies. But, from my observation hiring for senior PM+ in startups is also focussing on expert skills eg Growth, User experience these days rather than pure generalist skills. #productmangement #pmcareer

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What is North Star ✨ framework? North Star framework is an important product management concept to define success metric for business and inputs that drive the success metric. Here is an attempt to simplify it (Go to PPT 💻) + What is a North Star Metric? A North Star metric is the one measurement that’s most predictive of a company’s long-term success. + Why Do We Need a North Star Metric? Focus and Alignment Company-wide View

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The most common mistake that an Aspiring PMs make in their resume, while transition to PM roles; read how 👇 to avoid. 1. 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗷𝗼𝗯 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘀 🤜 If you are Developer - You are in the solutioning part of the Product, you have a deep understanding of the technical aspects of product development, which is crucial for a PM to effectively communicate with engineering teams and understand the feasibility of product features. 🤜 If you are Program Manager - You are in the execution part of the Product, As a Program Manager, you are adept at conveying complex ideas clearly and ensuring that all stakeholders are aligned. This is equally crucial in product management, where you need to communicate product vision, strategy, and updates to diverse teams and stakeholders Add them in your work experience 2. 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗲 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿, 𝗘𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁 Avoid much rated AI Resume Builders, build your resume in simple word file, - No flashy pictures which occupies space and adds nothing. - Add bullet points - Proper spacing to increase readability 3. 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗦𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆 "Ye 10 seconds tumse koi nahi chin sakta" . Yes, your resume get judged within 10 seconds, to make impact in 10 seconds you MUST have work summary. That summarize what you have accomplished and your results, why you are suited for the job role. 4. 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 Keep 5-6 bullet points (relevant to Product role you are applying) The sentence must start with - What you achieved, How you achieved and by doing E.g. Reduced error rate by 15% by conducting user interviews, identifying and prioritizing pain points, testing assumptions, and by cross functional collaboration 5. 𝗞𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗻𝗲𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 - Name, contact details - Work Summary - Work Experiance - Educations - Certifications, Portfolio Do let me know your thoughts in comments. If you apply these changes in your resume, check the results. Save this post and respond if you get any results or no results. ----- 𝗜'𝗺 𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗣𝗠𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗠𝘀. 𝗣𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗗𝗠 𝗺𝗲, 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽.

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8 Product Analytics questions that every PM/aspiring PM should know [1] What all metrics will you track for WhatsApp (or any other product)? [2] If you were to design a new product/feature, how will you measure its success? [3] How would you define North star metric for Spotify (or any other company)? [4] What are top 10 acquisition metrics that you, as a PM, would track at Quora (or any other platform)? [5] Let's assume that DAUs of LinkedIn (or any other product) dropped by 20% suddenly on a given day. How would you go about figuring out the reason? [6] Traffic on a news website declined gradually over 2-3 months. What could be the potential reasons? [7] Delivery rating of restaurants on Zomato in a particular area has declined significantly over the last 2 weeks. How would you investigate? [8] What metrics would you use to define the success of referral program of Google Pay? Liked this? Follow Vishal Bagla for more. P.S.: If you are preparing for PM interview, I have created something which will definitely find useful. Check the first comment. #InterviewPrep #ProductManagers #ProductManagement #Metrics #Analytics

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If you are happy and you know it you are not a Product Manager! If you are happy and you know it you are not a Product Manager!! If you are happy and miserable and you really want to show If you are happy and miserable then you are a full stack Product Manager!😀 Cheers to all the PM’s and the ones in making. Be at it and may the forces be with all you folks!! Inspired from the nursery rhymes 😀 Book an appointment to connect with me and know more. 😀 #Productmanagers #proud #productmindset

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Depth in Product Management is super important. 1. Business Strategy 2. Design 3. Technology "A successful Product Manager is a Business strategist first and technologist next." "A successful Product Manager is a psychologist first and an engineer next." #productmanagement #productmanager

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ChatGPT as a Companion to PM Interviews and Real-Work I was going to start writing about Product Sense after covering market sizing and guesstimates in the last few posts. But analytical seems like a topic that’s a natural extension of market sizing and guesstimates. Analytical skills aren’t just important for PMs. They are also quite important in adjacent roles — business or product analyst, data scientists, consulting, program management, etc. Every one of these people have to work with data to figure out insights. But the burden of using data to create insights, and translating that insight into the impact lies with product teams. To do that, product team needs to have a deeper understanding of: 1) Defining the metrics : Product dashboards, and defining various levels of metrics in the dashboards; NSMs (north star metrics); Success metrics for a product launch, and guardrail metrics 2) Merging user research and data merge to create powerful insights 3) Root cause analysis of a problem using data, like a metric going down (or up) 4) Creating a plan to move a metric The above skills are in the increasing order of complexity. For example, item #4 (moving a metric) is something that is the hardest to do among all the others. While PMs require all the skills listed above on the job, when it comes to the interviews, it’s hard to display #2 (merging research and data to create insights). So those questions don’t appear in the interviews. Further, the type of skill tested also changes with levels. At an APM/PM level, you would get more questions around defining metrics (success metrics, NSM, dashboards) and RCA, whereas at an SPM/GPM level, you start getting problems of creating a product strategy to move a metric. We are going to cover these items in the next set of essays. But one of the more interesting things that has happened in the past 1.5 years is large language models (LLMs). And one of the notions I had around analytics is — Analytics is also lot more structured and objective than product sense or strategy interviews, the response of LLMs might be pretty effective here just as it happens in coding. In other words, can we start using these LLMs as a product companion when it comes to analytics? Since ChatGPT is available at your service 24x7, it’s an amazing companion to have. If the answer to the first question is yes, to what extent should we be using them? Should we using them for Interview Prep or Real-work or both? If all these questions excite you, do give a read to today's edition of the newsletter - https://lnkd.in/gd36NcrN

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Few truths on career success as a Product Manager: 1. Your career's growth is a function of impact you create 2. Your impact is a function of your competence  3. Your competence is a function of your knowledge and actions Hence in order to grow PMs need to consistently show high agency, do a lot of hard work and have a consistent learning routine for up-skilling. #productmanagement

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