Neelanjan Sinha

Product Managers, if you're seeking career growth insights, Lenny Rachitsky's recent podcast featuring Vikrama Dhiman is an absolute must-listen. Vikrama shares a valuable PM skill development framework, and immense wisdom and specificity on how to sharpen skills at every stage. While avoiding generational stereotypes, he definitely addresses what, I'd hazard, other leaders have noticed as a rising trend of young professionals seeking rapid career progression ahead of skill enhancement - and he does it with gracious & empathetic advice that is right on the money. For leaders aiming to mentor product managers effectively, this discussion is a goldmine too. Thanks Lenny and Vikrama for the thought-provoking dialogue #ProductManagement #CareerGrowth #LeadershipDevelopment

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When you understand your company's finances well, you make better decisions as a Product Manager. Vishal's answer is to the point - he has truly highlighted factors that can accelerate a PM's career. #productmanagement

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A Product Requirement Document (PRD) is a document used in product management to define the requirements for a product or feature. It serves as a blueprint that outlines what a product or feature should do, how it should behave, and what it should look like. A PRD typically includes sections that describe the problem the product is meant to solve, the target user or customer, the features and functions required to solve the problem, and any constraints or dependencies that must be considered. It may also include mockups, user stories, use cases, and other visual aids to help stakeholders understand the product's requirements. The PRD is a critical document that helps ensure that everyone involved in the product development process has a shared understanding of what is required. It serves as a communication tool between stakeholders, including product managers, designers, developers, and other team members. By clearly defining the product requirements, a PRD helps to ensure that the product meets the needs of its intended users and customers, and that it is delivered on time and within budget. Here is a sample PRD written for Lynda.com website for your reference. You can use the template to write PRDs for your own product requirements. Credits: Lee Nau For more such resources follow ProductHood School PS - Our next Product Management Fellowship Cohort starts on 7th June. Reserve your seat now -> https://lnkd.in/g4meNesX #productmanagement #productmanagers #prd #products

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Calling all Product Managers! Want to level up your UX skills? Watch now: https://lnkd.in/gPx7YXkF In this insightful video Ravish Bhatia, Head of Product at indiagold deep dives into mastering heuristics and wireframing techniques, essential for any PM. HelloMeets - Upskilling platform for PMs. #UX #ProductManagement #Wireframing #Indiagold #HelloMeets

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How I Transitioned From: Product Manager to Product Leader Ever wondered how some product managers seamlessly transition into influential product leaders? Hear from Virendra Jibhe, Manager of Product Management at ACG World, as he shares his journey of transitioning from being a Product Manager to a Product Leader. Virendra Jibhe, a strategic product manager with over 14 years of experience, has driven product success across various industries. He excels in product strategy and execution, cross-functional collaboration, technical acumen, and leadership. Key Takeaways: - Learn about the challenges faced and how the Institute of Product Leadership helped. - Discover how our speakers tackled interview questions. - Get your questions answered and gain useful insights. #ProdLeader #ProductManagement #ProductManager #ProductLeadership #ProductLeaders

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Mistakes that I make as a #ProductManagement mentor/ leader Mistake 4: Focussing to mentor only on the hard skills- problem structuring, product discovery and prioritisation. And not mentoring on the soft skills like relationship building, proactive communication and messaging for different stakeholders to build trust and credibility in the system.

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You might get lot of tips and advice as a PM aspirant. Not all are true. Transitioning to a new career is tough and requires a lot of hard work. I help people transition to #productmanagement career and try to be as realistic as possible. I don't like to sugar coat just to make some quick bucks. That's why if someone says you that you can become something in 6 weeks then mostly its wrong. Certainly some might be lucky but that's an exception than norm. Almost everyone I know or worked with had to struggle a lot to become something. So the next time someone gives you some tips, don't take it on the face value. PS - I don't guarantee a PM job but what I promise is something that you really need. Pushing you out of comfort zone. Join my next PM cohort and learn to build great products. Follow ProductHood School and check website.

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This is an invitation for an introductory webinar on "Design Psychology for Product Managers & UX Designers," scheduled for July 3rd, 2024, from 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM IST. Register for Webinar: https://shorturl.at/1G5LR Product managers and designers can apply the knowledge of "Design Psychology" to conceptualize and innovate product ideas, features, and functionalities that cater to users' psychological needs. With the emergence of AI, the digital technologies have gained the capacity to predict and adapt to users' mindsets. In this challenging and changing context, the knowledge of "Design Psychology", empowers the product managers and designers with groundbreaking techniques for user research, human-AI interaction design, and innovation. As a distinguished researcher in the field of HCI, Dr. Dinesh Katre has invested many years studying and experimenting to carefully curate the body of knowledge for Applied Design Psychology. More about the presenter: https://shorturl.at/mBGI7 #productmanagement #ProductCulture #ProductDesign #ProductSuccess #ProductOwner #ProductVision #hci #userresearch #designpsychology #PsychonomicDesign #humancomputerinteraction #uxdesign #userexperiencedesign #interactiondesign

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8 must have but longer to nurture skills in 2024 for product managers 👇 ✅ Communication skills - Good verbal and written communications are must to perform well in this role. You have to communicate day in and day out with stakeholders, customers and external partners. ✅ User experience - you need a thorough understanding of user experience principles, best practices, and processes. ✅ Critical thinking - Product managers must constantly make decisions about the product, the strategy, and the allocation of time and resources ✅ Problem solving - Product managers are excellent problem-solvers. It’s the very foundation of what they do: create products that solve real user problems. ✅ Technical skills - Technical knowledge to discuss a product's structure, features, and applications easily is mandatory for a product manager and their relationship with the engineering team. ✅ Business acumen - PMs occupy a strategic role, developing a vision for the product that aligns with business goals. To do this, they need a good dose of business acumen. ✅ Data analysis - The best product managers are able to analyze different types of data and use their findings to make smart decisions. ✅ Prioritization - product managers make sure that everybody’s working on the right things at the right time, and that goals and deadlines are met. What else you will add to the list?

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10 Product Management designations that you must be aware of 👇 1. Product Manager (General) 2. Product Owner 3. Product Operations Manager 4. Growth Product Manager 5. Technical Product Manager 6. Platform Product Manager 7. UX Product Manager 8. Enterprise Product Manager (also B2B PM) 9. Internal Product Manager 10. Function Specific PM (e.g. Mobile PM) What more designations have you come across in your company? Drop in the comment. Follow me and ProductHood School for more such insights.

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Debunking 5 common #ProductManagement myths ❌PM is the CEO of the product 👉 PMs don’t have CEO-like authority. Their power lies in influencing without authority and orchestrating product development collaboratively. ❌PM only focuses on product development 👉 PMs engage deeply in strategy, market analysis, competitive research, and continuous product optimization, balancing creativity with execution. ❌PM needs a CS degree 👉 While tech-savvy is beneficial, a CS degree isn't mandatory for product management. Success hinges more on vision, strategy, and user experience skills. ❌PM is the same at every company 👉 PM roles vary widely—affected by company size, industry, and culture. From multitasking in startups to specialized roles in large tech companies. ❌PM’s job is done after launch 👉 A PM’s work intensifies post-launch, focusing on user feedback, feature iteration, and strategic adjustments to meet market and customer demands.

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Skills that have helped me become a better #productmanagement professional. 1. Story telling and writing - This is an important and hard to acquire skill that comes handy while selling idea, presenting thoughts and writing requirements. It requires patience and lots of reading and writing. 2. Technology - I have been on the engineering side for almost a decade (software developer to CTO) and built from scratch multiple products. This helps me think from the engineering side and create better specs. I can deal with dev team easily. 3. Business sense - This is interesting and core to me. Understanding business (including sales/marketing/support) helps bring stakeholder onboard and think from a wide angle and do a cost benefit analysis of every product decision. 4. Curiosity - Reading, exploring and understanding the why behind everything helps understand problem and simplify them fast. There are lot of other skills that have helped me but I guess these are 4 skills that helps a lot. What are your top skills that has helped you do better as a PM?

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9 key ideas discussed in the session: 1. Product sense and strategy are interconnected, and one is necessary condition for the other. 2. Product sense in interviews is different from PS on the real-job 3. Decisions in your career affect your product sense 4. How learning product sense and strategy is different than many other things we have been trained on 5. The scope of product sense changes with seniority (IC PM, PM Manager, PM Executive) 6. Skills that you need to master for product sense. 7. Skills <> seniority level mapping 8. How to measure if you are improving product sense 9. Books that would help you improve PS Couple of relevant links - > Next cohort on product sense and strategy starts at 17th August, go and apply here - https://lnkd.in/eAsgZ8xP > If you like this session, we have another free session 'Mastering Growth: 20 lessons for product leaders' coming in August, go and check it out - https://lu.ma/rw0aqbp2

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🚀 What’s Next for Product Management? Going from ‘Classic’ PM to AI/ML PM 🤖 I remember the first time, as a ‘Classic’ PM, I came across ‘Growth Product Management’. Growth PMs were sought-after by high-growth companies to prioritize product-led growth over long, expensive sales cycles. Now, I see the PM discipline diverging again with ‘AI/ML Product Managers’ adding into the mix. Similar to Growth PMs, AI/ML PMs are set up differently. Here are 3 characteristics AI/ML PMs have that stand out to me: 🔧 Technical Proficiency: Traditional PMs: Need a good tech grasp but don’t typically dive deep into how it works behind the scenes. Should know enough to communicate with engineers, identify trade-offs between different approaches, and have an idea of feature sizing. AI/ML PMs: Must understand AI/ML data processing and model training in-depth; even if unaware of ‘how’ an algorithm will work, they should have a conceptual understanding of what it will require (eg. Supervised learning model needs well-labeled, annotated datasets.) 📊 Data-Driven Focus: Traditional PMs: Should use data for various purposes including market research, user feedback, and performance analytics. They rely on this to make informed decisions about product features and improvements.  AI/ML PMs: Data is the core of the AI/ML driven product/feature itself. They need to ensure data quality, understand data transformation, and leverage vast amounts of data to train and optimize ML models. 🔄 Experimentation and Iteration: Traditional PMs: Conduct user testing, A/B/n testing, and iterate based on user feedback and market trends. Focus is on continuous improvement of the product features and user experience. AI/ML PMs: Go a step further than just experimenting on UI/UX. They also experiment with different ML models and potential refinements, and iterate based on model performance metrics and outcomes. Being an AI/ML Product Manager is indeed more challenging. But, I believe this is only temporary. As AI/ML knowledge becomes more widespread, leveraging it will: → be easier → be more accessible → provide better ROI 💬 PMs in my network, what other differences can you think of? #ProductManagement #AI #ML

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Why do most product managers drown in a daily whirlpool of triaged tasks and constant firefighting? I've observed product managers often put Strategic initiatives that could actually propel their company and advance their careers on the back burner. Yet, instead of reclaiming their time, most PMs keep piling more onto their overflowing plate. Why? Because they're told that being a selfless servant is the PM job description, immediately answering any Slack pings or unblocking every minor engineering ask is supposedly what "good" PMs do. But that's bullshit advice that slowly grinds you down. My clients don't drown in a deluge of reactive tasks. They reserve dedicated blocks of uninterrupted time to drive strategic, high-impact work - even while managing large teams. How? By taking complete control of their roles instead of obediently jumping through hoops whenever someone lobs an idea their way. By fortifying their mindset and mustering the courage to say "no" to endless demands on their time and attention. By coaching their teams to embrace more autonomy and distributing ownership over the many micro-decisions that don't actually require a PM's input. You have limited hours in the day. You can keep spending them putting out fires, replying to emails, and sitting through useless meetings. Or you can commit to maximizing your impact. Look, I get it - tips and tactics for improving processes are exciting. But this mental overhaul is vital. Without reframing how you assert control over your time and priorities, no PM hack will work. It's time to run your job before it runs you into the ground. --- Thanks for reading, and if you enjoyed this: 1. Save it 2. Repost it to share with others 3. Comment with your favorite takeaway Then hit follow → Shobhit Chugh for more posts on product management.

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Product Management is a lonely job If you are already a PM, I am sure you could resonate to this fact that PMs are at an intersection of multiple functions and have to navigate through difficult decision making process while advocating the vision and priorities alone. Though there are partner teams to support but at times we need to walk alone some tough routes before we arrive. But why? because.... 𝟭. 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 "𝗡𝗼" 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿: Dan Olsen spoke about this in this video: https://lnkd.in/eiFUA8EA, how product managers are expected to deliver without any powers to influence. It leads to a situation of exploring self worth. 𝟮. 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗶𝘅 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀: Most organizations form matrix teams (less likely for PO or TPM roles) to build products. While majority of members of this team belongs to the same group and focus on execution, PMs are considered mostly external (though no one says it explicitly) especially during the situation of conflicts. 𝟯. "𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗮 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗷𝗼𝗯": Not my words but I am sure you might have heard. It's a by product of above two points but when it happens repeatedly we tend to feel out of the place in spite of putting tremendous efforts in building the product. What do we do about it? It's an eternal truth and can't be changed however it can be mitigated to some degree. It worked... If you are already a PM 𝟭. 𝗕𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁: To learn and have deep understanding of current and future direction. It helps in becoming a consultant, leader and a navigator for partner teams. Shreyas wonderfully explained it here: https://lnkd.in/eVif7VuW 𝟮. 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗻: PMs are expected to have opinion and it comes by being present. It helps teams gaining trust. 𝟯. 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀: Many cross-functional teams are unfamiliar with PMs' daily tasks. While its not essential but highlighting skills such as data analysis, writing, meeting moderation, and presentation is crucial. The focus should be on contributing to product success and carving out a valuable role within the team. 𝟰. 𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁𝘀: Assuming responsibility for failures and acknowledging contributions in success is vital leadership. It fosters transparency and a healthy environment, and makes you feel part of the team. 𝟱. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗹𝘆 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻: Understanding industry, company, team, and product changes keeps us informed and fosters trust-building conversations within teams. If you are not a PM but wish to transition 𝟭. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻: Product management is a fascinating career but it's not for all. If you wish to jump into it, think again whether it's your inner voice or just an infatuation because 10 of your old colleagues transitioned into it. 𝟮. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗣𝗠𝘀: Connect with PMs around you or on linkedin to learn the goods and bad, and ofcourse the lonely aspect to take a wise decision. I love this loneliness! Do you? #productmanagement

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A meaningful part of good product management is good common sense, and while common sense is famously not all that common, it is also not the exclusive domain of product managers, which is precisely why it is silly when large orgs implicitly assume that only someone with the Product Manager title should do product work and a project cannot start unless there is a Product Manager allocated to it.

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A badly marketed good product has better chances of success than a bad product that has been over marketed. While the former will rely on word of mouth to gain traction, the latter will just be heading towards an impending doom, faster. #productmanagement #productmarketing

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***How to actually be a data driven product manager? Well if you are are the kind of PM who only looks at data supplied by your analyst in excel and has never documented a deliberate instrumentation section in your PRDs and has never logged in into your web analytics tool but love to proclaim yourself as a data driven PM, well let me peel the layers a bit*** 1. Let's start simple - first step is understand some basic nuances of data that you are seeing - let's say you are looking at conversion data - some simple questions you could ask yourself - Is it visit level or visitor level data, does it make sense to look at this data at this level, what do the attribution windows look like? Default attribution is ok or should you look at longer term attribution. 2. If the data feels off, do you have the ability to look under the hood and know whether it is due to an incorrect instrumentation problem or due to incorrect segmentation strategy - eg some segments applied at visits level, some at page views level. Hint - segmentation should generally be applied at same granularity. 3. When you are asking for more granular data - know what is feasible and what is not. Eg. if as a PM while launching the product you never bothered to instrument price buckets for devices on key events - then expecting your analyst to supply you conversion data for high end vs low end devices is foolhardy. Sure, he could first pull out the data by different device models and then manually bucket them but he is just paying extra tax for your own sloppy work. If you were planning to do this analysis from get go you should have built it into your instrumentation strategy. 4. Which brings me to a very important point always be very very deliberate and clear about your instrumentation plan- events and dimensions and make it part of your PRD. 5. Finally, you need to know the right tracking strategy for the problem at hand. Eg. if you want to know conversion of users who click on filters in the funnel, what should your tracking implementation be? Do you think if you track the click info in a page level variable as normally click data is tracked, you will be able to find the conversion? I hope you will do this in the future before loudly and proudly proclaiming yourself as a world class data driven PM. Let’s stop BS-ing shall we? Follow me for high quality content, not product philosophy but practical insights - https://lnkd.in/gHweK_q7 AND also here https://lnkd.in/ggUKftFq While you are at it you can also grab my product assignments playbook, 19 real product cases, all successful submissions, real job offers, ~258 pages of content. ***Grab it now**** - https://lnkd.in/gHzyN-Xc #product #datadriven #analytics

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