Product Management Chat

When I think about IoT,  I mostly think about my Apple Watch. I also imagine how cool it would be to live in a home with not just a smart TV. But also with other connected appliances such as a smart fridge, coffee machine, thermostat, camera, alarm system, doorbell, and a smart lock. Furthermore, how amazing the future of work would be if we’re all driving smart cars, and even living in smart cities. But more than that consumer side of IoT, it is actually more prevalent in the AECO industry. That’s where Ritesh Chandawar, Group Product Manager at Screening Eagle Technologies has spent most of his career. AECO stands for Agriculture, Engineering, Construction, and Operations. IOT use cases include: smart buildings installed sensors predictive maintenance the drone technology, etc.

One of the most misunderstood relationships on cross-functional and software development teams are between the Designers and the Developers. One of the misconceptions is that the Designer likes most aesthetically pleasing user experience. On the other hand, the Developer likes building something that’s easier and more feasible Designers don’t have the technical skill to build the thing that they want to be built On the other hand, Developers don’t have the perspective of the users’ needs. Lots of misunderstandings and improper stereotyping. So.. to handle the tension. There should be: 1. a data-driven decision 2. user feedback That’s where good UX comes into play. As a previous UX Researcher and now a Product Manager at speakX, Riya Arora shares some guidelines.

Three things that are *personally* exciting about GenAI, according to  1. Helps increase productivity e.g. drafting emails, summarizing email threads, writing meeting minutes, coming up with a to-do list What’s most amazing is it can even help us prioritize tasks based on the the data that it can gather from all our emails and chats 🙂 2. Make our work happier GenAI can help us with the mundane/ repetative work, but so we can focus more on activities with high outcomes 3. Creativity It can help us come up with better brainstorming marketing ideas faster.  Yes, there are a lot of hype that’s going on around GenAI. So it’s amazing to hear some of the things that can make us *personally* excited about it.

Yashi Srivastava, Senior Product Manager at LearnApp, was recognized by ADPList.org as one of the Top 10 female mentors in Customer Experience Also, she previously had a “Top Product Road Mapping Voice” badge on LinkedIn. So I’m honored to have her on my podcast 🙂

In the words of Marty Cagan in his book “Inspired”, the Group Product Manager (usually referred to as GPM) is a hybrid role.  Part individual contributor and part first-level people manager. Stephanie from Waresix has been one for almost 3 years now. Listen to our conversation in which she shares how she balances being an IC and people manager as a GPM 🙂

To become a good Product Manager in tech: You need to be “technically trained”. Meaning, trained in software engineering You need to learn Scrum or Agile Both are common misconceptions of most of us essentially So.. it’s been amazing to sit and talk to Justin Chew as he debunks those misconceptions. And shared how can non-tech folks *successfully* transition into tech as a PM. Successfully, meaning, no need to take a pay cut or start with an associate role 🙂 Also a fun fact: the aspiring Product Managers that he coached came from unusual backgrounds (e.g. airforce, army, civil service, etc.) Any questions, you may reach out to Justin on LinkedIn— https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcyw/  For a more tailored product coaching, you may check out Justin’s website— www.justinPMcoach.tech

In the words of Marty Cagan in his book Inspired, a Product owner is the name of the role on an Agile team for the person responsible for the product backlog. I’ve also heard on a Product Thinking podcast by Melissa Perri that she doesn’t not love the split of Product Managers and Product Owners. Reason being is it that a Product Owner is a backlog grooming jockey for the Developers. And that there’s no critical thinking involved. I asked Matt, Product Manager at Microsoft what the Product Owner has been for him before. Some key takeaways are: The title/ responsibilities change from company to company It becomes less nowadays. It’s basically a role that most people had in their early days, before they become a Product Manager

There’s a lot of great Product Management books out there. Some of my favorites are: Inspired by Marty Cagan Escaping the Build Trap by Melissa Perri The Lean Startup by Eric Ries And I’ve yet to read some which are The Lean Product Playbook, Continous Discovery Habits, Cracking the PM Interview, and so on. All were recommended to me by the product people that I spoke with. So all are realllly insightful. However, I was also told several times that it’s still best to build. Learn by doing > learn by reading

Working with several industries such as FinTech, healthcare, e-commerce, retail, hospitality, manufacturing, media, etc., Manish Mrigank said all companies are technology companies nonetheless. Fun fact, even Nike calls itself a technology company. As a Product Leader, the things that helped him adapt when switching industries are: 1. Empathy Because any industry is trying to solve a customer problem nonetheless 🙂 2. Being agile and continuous in learning Because technology keeps on changing

A friendly reminder to aspiring product managers that it’s okay if you don’t know a lot of tech jargons in the beginning 🙂 Ankur Goyal, Product at Virtual Internships used to not know all of them either. But was humble enough to ask and learn from his developers whenever he got the chance. Fun fact: Ankur has created a Product Management community called “Creators of Product”. And Lenny is a part of it back in the day 🙂