Upgrade yourself: Be a By-product manager!

Most PMs I interview for my org, I make it a point to ask them, how do they interact with the customers/end-users. What do they ask in order to assess their own ideas, or identify what user's want. Most of the good ones will answer it around identifying the problem of their users/customers.

Thinking about the problems is VERY important. In fact, it is better than thinking about solutions. But this post is about taking the entire thinking one level up.

What is the by-product of your solution? 

What impact is your solution having on the consumer base. I am sure it is helping them solve a specific problem but what else? Baking soda was originally advertised as a baking agent. Over time, customers started using it as a cleaner and deodorizer. To take another example, Whatsapp was able to help people text, talk, share pics, videos all in one window. But that was the intention. Whatsapp enabled millions of virtual communities to be born and grow. I am part of at least 5 communities related to startups and product management. Maybe I knew just one member of the community who added me and then so on, all communities are buzzing with superlative discussions and everyone is able to help everyone out. LinkedIn as a product is targeting to do such a thing, but it's happening over Whatsapp and Slack, un-intentionally. The best part of whatsapp is its reach. Slack is still limited to Organisation and Tech-savvy folks.

Your product might bring people together, save time, educate them - think what people are able to do with all this extra empowerment (network, time, knowledge etc.).

 - Ecommerce apps like Flipkart let people gift and donate stuff that they were finding hard to buy and ship.

 - IRCTC, Ola, MMT enables me to help my parents, living remotely, have a safe trip whenever they want to. I can mostly track them during their travel.

 - Dunzo is helping you attend the friend's wedding because the parcel will be picked from the station and delivered to destination without your sweat.

 - Bigbasket is saving you the fuel that you would have burnt in finding parking to be able to buy some tomatoes.

Manage the By-products too... 

You can clearly see that some by-products are really strong while some are weak and can be built upon. That's where the By-product manager comes in. You can identify the upshots of your product and build upon them.

1. Identify the upshots(by-products) of your product
• What exactly are users using it for?
• What else are they using it for? Or What is it enabling them to do?
• Other than solving the problem, what are their needs and wants 
• How has it impacted their lives outside of solving their problem. 
2. Explore the new problem scope - new use cases
• Do you see a new feature, product? 
• Is there an opportunity to help them, or take their experience to new level? 
• Is there an opportunity to sell?
3. You may either solve for it, or just leverage it for marketing better

Your product is creating new problems to solve.
New problems are new opportunities. If you are not tapping this, someone else will. And that's why it is extremely important to think outside the current problem scope and think about the upshot for your product.

What's the upshot of your product going to be?  

[Video of my talk at Upstart on this topic] [Slide deck]





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PM Job Seeker's Checklist

I've been helping a lot of techies and accidental PMs to understand the scope of Product Management. So many times that I was able to put most FAQs and basics in this short course. So while this covers the basics, people do come up with more questions on the role, some real challenges they are facing and also about getting the job of a product manager. 

Introduction To Product Management: ChalkStreet

One guy from IIM recently took up a BA role and is now looking to get into PM. But he wasn't getting any calls for job interviews. 

Here's what I suggested. I believe it is also the checklist for anyone looking for product roles:

1. Resume. Not sure if your Resume clearly indicates you are a good fit for the role. Look at the example of another sales guy trying to move to PM role. If you are moving from a non-PM to a PM role, you've to be extra careful that the Resume states clearly you are looking for a PM role, otherwise, the recruiter might just think they've picked an irrelevant resume and trash it. Look for all relevant JDs on Linkedin and tweak your resume to use all the keywords so that it can match those. Mostly the buzzwords are around specifications, PRD, wireframes, metrics, etc. Please make sure you compress your job summary to a 1-page resume. If you have more than 10 years of experience - you can think about a 2 Page as well. Not more than that. 

Before

After

More tips about how to write the BEST resume. 

2. Where can people find you? Better places for a PM role are Linkedin, Hirist, Instahyre, Angellist, Cutshort, and Naukri. Keep all these profiles updated. In fact, if you are applying for consumer profiles also keep Twitter, Facebook and other social profiles active and updated.    

3. Patience: Keep at it. It may take 3 to 6 months if you are doing all the right things, for relevant opportunities to open up. Apply, re-apply with personalized cover letters. Btw, the email that you write is a cover letter, don't write a separate one and attach it with your Resume. That's silly. 

4. Not just what you know, it is also about who do you know. Network! Networking is not just about sending LinkedIn requests. Attend good startup and product related events, join PM communities on FB, Linkedin, Meetup, Whatsapp. Meet people, learn from them, connect at different levels, ask questions, find out what people are looking for. Be active on social media. Engage with relevant folks and comment on their tweets or re-tweet them with your opinions. This will help you understand where you stand and how you can position yourself correctly. Look for ways in which you can help people. That's the best way to network.  

5. Prepare better. The chances you get will be limited, don't mess them up. If you haven't read some of the books like Cracking the PM Interview, Decode to Conquer your preparation may not be complete. At least read one of them. In general, as a PM you should be reading a lot of good books on business, startups, and product design. There are a lot of lists of good books available - here's one of mine. You are expected to know about and have opinions on trending technologies like Blockchain and Machine learning even if it is unrelated. You should also follow some current affairs about your domain. 

I am sure he'd get a job soon. I'd update when he does! :-) 

Update: 23/12/2017 - He is placed at Zynga Bangalore now. 

Update: A More updated deck from a recent workshop I took for Upgrad. In the deck, I talk about how to deal with different types of interview questions and assignments that you get as a part of the interview process.  


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