Anna Schmunk’s Post

Hey product managers, if you want to be successful you need to ask "why?" a lot. You need to get to the crux of why you're being asked to add or change a feature (or do anything for that matter). I'll admit being peppered with questions can get annoying (I've been on both sides!) So pick your battles. But don't give up your insatiable curiosity and mission to find the truth. Once that's happened, you're not a product manager anymore, you're a project manager pushing things through a pipe to get them done. Meh. 🫤 Hey founders, here are some recommendations for hiring product managers: ✅ Hire product managers that ask “Why?” Yes, you'll probably get annoyed once in awhile, but if you hire "mindless yes people" you'll lose. ✅ Hire product managers that are comfortable in ambiguity (I find this hard to test until you throw them in the deep end) and incredibly curious. ✅ Hire product managers that want to understand the whole business, not just their little section of it. Everything is connected, and if you pigeonhole product managers into one small area of the product / biz, you'll get a mishmash of stuff that's not aligned and driving the ultimate goals of your business model. ✅ Hire problem solvers and then let them solve problems for you. By all means get involved & lead, but don’t turn your product managers into automatons.

Jamie Beckett from Holley just posted for a Senior Product Manager opening on their team. I am going to start posting less product manager roles on LinkedIn and start moving these posts over to Skool and this is because I am getting blown up by hiring managers telling me to stop posting jobs they are posting on LinkedIn. This didn’t make any sense to me until I started speaking with more hiring managers about how their inbox is blown up with just horrible messages. My mission is to help as many aspiring and experience product managers land their next product manager role, but y’all have to help me out by sending better messages. Sending a generic, “I am interested” or “I applied” or “did you get my application” offers no value and it won’t help you land your next product manager job. If anything it’s only leaving a negative or at best forgettable impression to somebody who just might be your future boss. So do yourself a favor and steal my message templates in Skool, follow up, and have real conversations with hiring managers. The biggest mistakes product managers are making beyond sending out bad messages is not following up. There is reason why we have included 8 follow up slots on the Airtable and that because you NEED to follow up with your applications. You already spent the time applying so you might as well maximize your list until you get a definitive rejection, because you are only one application and one interview away from landing your next product manager role. PS Stop overlooking the smaller companies and apply to them. Seriously! I usually get 3,000 to 6,000+ impressions when I post a product manager job for a bigger company; but I only get 900 impressions when I post for roles at companies nobody has heard of. There is nothing wrong with those companies and I challenge you to interview with them. God knows you need the practice. If you want other people to give you a shot, then you need to give companies a shot too. You want hiring teams to start treating you like a like human instead of a number, then stop applying and interview for product managers like they are another number. Your vibe attracts your tribe. #ProductManagement  #WhatBadEconomy #GameHasBeenElevated #EverybodyIsOutOnTheTake

So these two homies over here not naming names just called me out because they don't think I know the difference between product management and product marketing. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 Sirs... I know they are two different roles, but product managers need to learn how to be more flexible in today's market. We had somebody in our program land an AI Program Manager role this year and is it the same as product management? No! Is there a whole bunch of overlap? Heck yeah. Solving complex problems, dealing with difficult people, and delivering impossible results within unreasonable timelines is what product managers do. You two rockstars worked at a lot of awesome companies, so you most likely have no clue how brutal the market has been for product management job hunters and the rift the tech recession has done to regular product managers who just want to work. People are struggling to land interviews and jobs because hiring managers LIKE YOURSELVES don't know what they know want, give people the run around, ghost people for weeks on end, and leave them hanging in the friend zone without a rejection email or an offer letter. There is no accountability or even the most basic level of professionalism from the hiring side and that needs to stop. Amazing how I get praised by product manager job hunters and trolled from product management hiring managers. All this just fuels me to fight harder for the people still on the job hunt. PS Don't let people bring you down. You can do anything! 7 years ago I was laughed at when I told people I was starting Product Gym, in New York of all places (those Bay Area elites laughed at New York), and I was going to bootstrap the whole thing. Haters are going to hate..... #productmanagement #productmanagementjobs #productmanagementcareers #productmanagementtransition #productgym #speedtolead

4 reasons why you should hire a Junior Product Manager: 1. More original thinking. Being in a domain for too long means you start thinking and acting like others. 2. More productive time for the leadership team. Senior team members can focus on more strategic activities rather than routine events. 3. Hiring a Junior PM or Product Associate does not mean hiring unskilled folk. They bring expertise from their previous role, their business, familiarisation with the industry, etc. 4. You'll be contributing to the product managers' community. Every time you give someone a chance, you are changing a life. Let’s give a chance to those who would provide value and ensure your product goals aligns with your business goals 🤝🤝 Hire a product manager Today 🙂 ___ Feel free to connect with me 🤝🤝🤝. Let's talk about all things product management, tech and the exciting world of building products! 🎓🎉 If you're looking for someone who can identify customer needs and bring your larger business/product vision and objectives to reality, please feel free to connect with me and send me a direct message. I'd love to discuss how we can work together to achieve our goals. #productmanagement #hire #value #buildingproducts #profucts #PM

4 reasons why you should hire a Junior Product Manager: 1. More original thinking. Being in a domain for too long means you start thinking and acting like others. 2. More productive time for the leadership team. Senior team members can focus on more strategic activities rather than routine events. 3. Hiring a Junior PM or Product Associate does not mean hiring unskilled folk. They bring expertise from their previous role, their business, familiarisation with the industry, etc. 4. You'll be contributing to the product managers' community. Every time you give someone a chance, you are changing a life. Let’s give a chance to those who would provide value and ensure your product goals align with your business goals 🤝🤝 Hire a product manager Today 🙂 ___ Feel free to connect with me 🤝🤝🤝. Let's talk about all things product management, tech, and the exciting world of building products! 🎓🎉 If you're looking for someone who can identify customer needs and bring your larger business/product vision and objectives to reality, please feel free to connect with me and send me a direct message. I'd love to discuss how we can work together to achieve our goals. #productmanagement #hire #value #buildingproducts #PM

Struggling to start your product manager job description? We've used our knowledge and gone through our archives for senior product manager job descriptions to provide you with some examples to help with your next product manager hire! #productmanagement #productJD #productmanagerhiring

Stop hiring product managers for domain knowledge first! You heard me right! Typically, when you hire a product manager, you get two types of candidates that people think of as good... The ones... ... with 🧠 deep domain knowledge in your industry ... with 💪 strong product management skillsets If you are lucky, you can get both together. They are rare, though, so don't wait to find them unless you are in a rush! The anti-pattern I see is that people hire focused on domain knowledge because the candidates sound knowledgeable about the industry in the interview, and it's easy to assess that as someone embedded in the industry. Assessing product management skills, on the other hand, is much harder and requires the interviewer(s) to step out of their comfort zone! In general, if there is one thing you won't be short of in your company is industry knowledge. And a great PM will learn that in very little time from all the other people who are already there. Heck coming in with fresh eyes can also be valuable to question some assumptions! What is much rarer is are strong product management skills. Hire for strong product management skills, and teach them deep domain knowledge! #productmanagement #productmgmt #productpeople #recruitment

This is an evergreen topic: who should you hire? A domain expert? A generalist PM? A unicorn who excels at both? (If you can afford it.) For years I was squarely in the "generalist" camp, but now I'm not so sure. Your choice should be driven not by what's easier learn. It should be driven by the company-building risks you want to mitigate with every new hire. For example, existential company-building risks in heavily regulated or complex industries (fintech, medtech, life sciences) are NOT related to product development practices. There, it's more effective to upskill a domain expert than to help a generalist PM get to the PhD level of knowledge that's required to _really_ understand the domain.

Product Managers Working in recruitment, I feel inspired by the impact that great Product Managers have on the tech world. They’re more than roadmap creators, they’re the strategists who transform customer needs into meaningful products that shape company success. I see a few traits that consistently set standout Product Managers apart: Customer-First Mindset: They genuinely understand the end-user, always asking, “What real-world problem does this solve?” Data-Driven Approach: They’re comfortable with numbers, using data to make informed decisions, prioritise effectively, and track success. Natural Collaborators: Product Managers often lead by influence rather than authority, uniting teams across engineering, marketing, and sales to keep the product vision clear and on course. Adaptability: In a market that’s always evolving, the best PMs stay agile, ready to pivot as trends and technology shift. If you’re exploring your next step in Product or looking to add to your PM team, I’d love to connect and discuss. #ProductManagement #Recruitment #Hiring

🤔 "But I don't have a tech background..." This is the #1 concern I hear from aspiring Product Managers. In most cases, you are closer to a PM role than you think. You don't need "Product Manager" in your title to be a Product Manager. Whether you're in: Sales Operations Customer Support Marketing Finance You're probably already doing "product work" without realizing it. I've broken down exactly how to identify these hidden opportunities in your current role and transform them into PM experiences that hiring managers actually want to see. In my upcoming newsletter, I share: - The "Product Proxy" framework - Real before/after resume examples - Practical strategies to position your non-tech background as a strength The issue drops this Sunday. Link in comments 👇 #ProductManagement #CareerTransition #ProductManager #CareerAdvice