Omar Farooq

As a seasoned Engg and Product Leader , I'm often asked: Is AI right for my product? There is NOT a simple "yes" or "no" answer to it! Because, It requires a very careful assessment and evaluation. Do not just blindly follow the train, till you calculate everything around it to aboard. Let's understand with some examples : -Assessing AI for the product means, understanding its potential benefits and drawbacks. Take, e.g., the 📊Recommendation Systems. AI-powered recommendations can significantly enhance user experience by personalizing content. However, they require vast amounts of data and sophisticated algorithms, which may not always be feasible or necessary for every product. -On other hand, let's consider 🔒Cybersecurity. AI has changed the way of threat detection, enabling real-time analysis of complex patterns to identify and mitigate risks. In this case, integrating AI isn't just beneficial but essential for staying ahead of evolving security threats. -Now let's look at chatbots: While AI-driven 🤖 chatbots can automate customer support and streamline interactions, they may "still" fall short in handling nuanced Q/A or providing empathetic responses. In such cases, a human touch might be more effective. -On the other hand, in industries like healthcare , 🏥AI-powered diagnostic tools have demonstrated remarkable accuracy in detecting diseases from medical images. In this domain, the benefits of AI in improving healthcare outcomes outweigh concerns about privacy or algorithmic biases. 👩‍🎓 As a Technical Product Manager, my role is to guide 🗺 product decisions based on rigorous analysis and strategic foresight. Before jumping on the AI bandwagon, let's critically evaluate its relevance and potential impact on our product's success. When deciding 🛠️whether to incorporate AI, it's imp to weigh in factors like data availability, computational resources, and the problem domain's complexity. Blindly following the AI trend without proper evaluation can lead to wasted resources and missed opportunities for innovation. It is also 🎯crucial to educate leadership authentically, about the true status of AI research and its impact on consumers. Blindly saying "yes" to every AI implementation request, isn't beneficial to informed decision-making. By providing a balanced view of AI's capabilities, limitations, & risks, we can foster discussions grounded in reality. Ultimately, empowering leadership with knowledge and fostering a culture of critical thinking enables us to make responsible decisions aligned with our product's goals & values. 💡 What are your thoughts on incorporating AI into product development? 👩‍🏫 How do you approach educating leadership about AI in your organization? Share your strategies and insights in the comments below #ProductManagement #AI #TechInnovation #DataDrivenDecisionMaking #StrategicThinking #Engineering #Leadership #AI #Leadership #ProductStrategy #EthicalAI #ContinuousLearning #InformedDecisionMaking

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Reading relevant books is one of the best ways to learn more about Product Management. If you are an aspiring Product Manager, these are the books you should definitely read.

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PM lesson --> The practice of diligent observation that helps build better products Observation is a super power for PMs, here are some ways to build a habit around this 1. Observe products that sell Looks at the products around you, what are people are buying. Think: Why are they buying it (e.g. why are people spending XX INR to buy a Starbucks coffee when there is coffee available for 10 INR) 2. Observe what you bought What was your process of shortlisting something ? What were the factors that influenced you ? Why did you pay XX INR versus did not pay the same amount in some other situation (e.g. maybe you paid 3000 INR on Nike shoes but didn't pay even 1500 INR on a shirt). 3. Observe what are some product features that people use regularly (e.g. Magicbricks price benchmark of a locality). Think: why people use this feature ? 4. Observe how products carry out acquisition (e.g. how you first came to know about Uber), activation (e.g. Akshaykalpa incentivised customers to install the app and recharge INR 1000 via door to door campaign). engagement, retention, referrals etc. 5. Observe that target segment of a business (e.g. D-mart may target price sensitive customers versus More Supermart may target a more affluent customers). How things change based on customer segment and positioning ? 6. Start applying these ideas in your products / business. Track/ Observe the results and reflect on why it did or didn't match hypothesis. Repeat the cycle. #productmanagement #buildwhatsells

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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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Leadership doesn't necessarily means people management. It simply means to lead the group to a specific goal. Product Managers aren't necessarily people managers. They can be individual contributors but still leading the product team towards the business or product goal. Agree 👍 / Disagree 👎 ? #productmanagement #productmanager #aspiringproductmanagers #leadership ~~ If you found this post helpful, repost ♻️ this and follow me 👉 Nitish Rana for daily content at 𝟭𝟭 𝗔𝗠 & 𝟱:𝟯𝟬 𝗣𝗠 𝗜𝗦𝗧. You should also subscribe to my Newsletter 👉 The Product Leap if you are deciding to move into product role or have just moved.

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"The Function within an organization which is responsible for the product's overall success is known as Product Management. It is a collaborative function to align internal and external stakeholders towards product vision" Major pillars of Product Management. 1)Market Research  2) Product development  3) Product Launch ❇ Market Research ✔ Identify problems & the key market drivers. ✔ Gather customer needs  ✔ Evaluate market potential  ✔ Market Segmentation  ✔ User Research  ✔ Competitive Analysis  ✔ Value proposition  ✔ Business Model ❇ Product development ✔ Product vision and Roadmap  ✔ Objectives and key results  ✔ Product design  ✔ Ideation and prototype development  ✔ Feature prioritization ✔ Build and test  ✔ User acceptance ❇ Product Launch ✔ Pricing Strategy  ✔ Sales and support training  ✔ Release notification  ✔ Sales play book and battle card ✔ Product messaging  ✔ Customer demo  ✔ User feedback  ✔ Go to Market ✴ Various types of Product Manager. The following general types and popularly used designations in the PM domain. 🔸 Technical Product Manager  🔸 Data or Analytics Product Manager  🔸 Design Product Manager  🔸 Growth Product Manager  🔸 Product Marketing manager  🔸 Product line Manager 🔵 Product Management is a broad function which requires to understand the market problem and the ways their product can solve the problem. So, organizations use to split this broad spectrum of responsibilities between different departments so each can focus on their respective areas ( inbound vs Outbound). Key focus areas of inbound and outbound PM. ⏺ Inbound Product Management ◼ More engineering focused responsibilities ◼ Understand technical aspects and prepares technical requirements/ specifications  ◼ Provide solution to customer problems in the form of technical user stories  ◼ Chalk out product roadmap and own the priority of features  ◼ Collaborate with engineering, design and research stakeholders to develop and release features on time. ◼ Customer feedback loop and release management. ⏺ Outbound product Management ◼ More business focused responsibilities  ◼ Understand the pulse of the market and prepares go to Market strategy  ◼ Provide insights to position the product better amongst target audience  ◼ Derive the pricing SKUs with ROI aspects  ◼ Develop sales & marketing enablement materials such as product decks, sales playbooks, battle cards, marketing collaterals etc. ◼ Product training to customer facing teams ♻ Organizational Structure 0f Product Management 📶 Career Trajectory of a typical Product Manager ⬆ CPO/CXO/CEO ⬆ VP,PM ⬆ Director PM ⬆ Principal PM ⤴ Senior PM ➡ Product Manager (PM) Do let me know your take, I'm eager to hear your responses. 😊

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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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In Product Management, theoretically, vanity metrics are poor metrics to talk about. You should be more focussed on success metrics, one of which could potentially become a North Star Metric. However, in real life while working on real products or real business models, everything matters, because it is all connected. You cannot discard a vanity metric and directly jump to success metric. In most of the cases, vanity metrics create path for success metrics to actually succeed. Example 01: Social Media Number of followers can be considered a vanity metric in this case as it does not signify a real value or return. You could argue that how much your users are engaged in your business is the real success, or even better, follower-to-user conversion. But would you want to have just 5 followers who are all engaged with you, have also purchased a product of yours, but are still 5? Example 02: B2B SaaS Website Number of unique website visits can be considered a vanity metric in this case. What would really matter is the number of new sign ups, number of users who have started free product trials, and finally how many of them went for a paid subscription. However, who would sign up without coming to the website? Metrics should be visualized as a ladder where one step leads to another, all done with a backward thinking approach. If your north star metric is revenue and your product is just a website, you should try to look at it backwards from revenue to how people would know do checkout, add product to the card, search for a product, even get aware about your website and type it in the URL. If you really want your product to succeed, don't jump to defining metrics. Instead, define a clear detailed step-by-step process and work on why and how would a user do what you want them to do at every step of this process - define success at every step. If that is done right, your product is going to succeed. Even if you have defined the right success metrics, it wouldn't really matter if you have not defined the right process. #productmanagement #productanalytics #metrics #product

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🤯 Product Thinking, Product Sense, Product Intuition, Product Judgement, Product Taste - Thats A Lot Of Product Jargons! What do they all mean? 🤯 First a disclaimer. At times even I have been confused with such a plethora of jargons 🤣 Whilst I had my own interpretations, I also actually looked up how various product thought leaders such as Gokul Rajaram, Julie Zhuo, Paul Adams, Jules Walter defined each of these terms. Some I agree with, some I don't. Here is my synthesis. ❇ Product Thinking It’s essentially the process of building a product to create customer value while driving business value. This definition is from Gokul Rajaram and is probably how I best interpret it too. ❇ Product Sense/Judgement/Intuition It is the ability to use your own judgment to (a) accurately predict what your customers need, want and value, and (b) design and ship the right solution for them (c) consistently to deliver value to business. This is in amalgamated definition from Intercom and Jules Walter. There are variety of techniques to build product sense/judgement/intuition, but the first principles of it is building a library of patterns and anti-patterns of what works / doesn't work and why. Some may argue that Product Sense and Product Thinking are the same, but purely from a dictionary stand point, the ability to sense things is a lot closer to intuition. Say for e.g the ability to "sense danger". Given that you can sense/ be intuitive, it is almost often followed by some judgement that needs to be taken. Hence I club them together. ❇ Product Taste  It is the ability to make product judgements that result in superior quality products. In common parlance, we usually refer to someone having good taste when they are able to identify and champion finer quality products. So if one were to think of it as levels of mastery, product thinking is the foundational layer where you understand each step of the process and get good at every step. As you get good at product thinking, you start collecting the dots and connecting the dots more effectively thereby sharpening your product sense/judgement/intuition. Over time, some of us may aspire to build super quality products and start collecting the dots and connecting them which then develop our product taste. To utterly simplify it Product Thinking - Process To Build Products That Deliver Value To Users & Business. Product Sense/Judgement/Intuition - Ability To Make High Quality Product Decisions Consistently & Timely. Product Taste - Ability To Make Product Decisions That Result In Superior Quality Products Consistently. #productmanagement  #productthinking  #productsense  #productjudgement  #productintuition  #producttaste  #productcraft  #productmanager

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Came across this awesome resource by Shravan Tickoo with YouTube videos to understand the basics of Product Management. This is perfect for anyone who wants to break into PM roles! Want to take it a step further? I'm offering FREE career consultations to help you navigate your PM journey. Link to book your slot in bio! ➡️

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YouTube is a free university for learning Product Management ❤️ More are the number of folks who have cracked PM roles from YouTube than from any other certification 🔥 But how do you filter the noise and find value? So here are 10 PM channels that I recommend to crack your dream role and become a great product leader ❤️ 1. Dan Olsen : https://lnkd.in/g3g-cHQ9 - The author of the "Lean Product Playbook". Dan has done over 150+ inspiring talks on Product management on his channel with amazing leaders such as Teresa Torres, Nir Eyal, etc 2. Colors of Chloe: https://lnkd.in/gT8i2eTd - Chloe Shih is one of my favorites on the platform. She’s from LA and went to Columbia University. Previously, she has worked at Google, Meta, TikTok, many startups, and now at Discord! ‍ 3. Liam Bolling : https://lnkd.in/gJczZAEa - Liam Bolling is a PM at Google Maps. One day, he got tired of seeing $5,000 in prerecorded PM courses online. He thought these companies were playing with people's hopes of becoming PMs and launched the channel instead. 4. Lenny Rachitsky : https://lnkd.in/gcBuv-Uw Lenny needs no introduction. In his channel, he interviews PM leaders leading the most successful tech companies 5. Dr. Nancy Li : https://lnkd.in/gsNN3-9v Nancy Li made it her career to help aspiring PMs land jobs in major companies such as Google. In her channel, she gives advice on how to prepare for interviews for major companies, how to juggle your PM career whilst being a mom 6. Product School : https://lnkd.in/gqFC25Bi Product School is one of the largest PM channels with over 100k subs. You can find sessions, and webinars by PM leaders across the globe on their channel 7.Product Gym : https://lnkd.in/gi4SCk8D I love Product Gym because they upload videos regularly. They give tips on networking, growing careers, and coaching. If you’re wondering about how a product launch works, or how to ace your PM interviews, definitely check them out. 8. RocketBlocks : https://lnkd.in/gPzWTYHH If you’re looking for how to get ready for an interview, it is definitely the channel to follow. The channel gives many tips for interview prep, industry insights, and career guidance 9. The Product Folks : https://lnkd.in/gfDGdUga One of the largest product communities in Asia . This channel has a lot of teardowns, PM leader sessions and a lot of other stuff which is of value Lastly Bonus : 10 . TheSwagWalaPM : https://lnkd.in/duJgZMq It's my small effort to help people navigate through the PM world. The channel has a lot of videos that help an aspirant build a product mindset ❤️ The channel has done over 2 million views and has created 400+ PM offers directly or indirectly So my request to all of the aspirants is to, give these channels a subscribe and like the post so that it reaches the largest set of aspirants :) Yours, Shravan bhaiya #productmanagement

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𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 In the last 3 months, aspiring Product Managers who reached me out for consultation have asked interesting questions. The second most popular question (first being how to transition into PM) was the career path for Product Managers. While designations tend to differ organisation to organisation but I widely categorise accountabilities rather than designations. Here are the categories: 𝗧𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩 𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙧 - Responsible for day-to-day product management activities, owning the product roadmap, and bearing some strategic responsibility 𝘼𝙨𝙨𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩 𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙧 (𝘼𝙋𝙈) - Similar to a Business Analyst role, performs analysis and makes recommendations but doesn't have full decision authority of a Product Manager 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝙋𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙞𝙥𝙖𝙡 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩 𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙧 - The highest level of individual contributor product manager, responsible for defining product strategy 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩 - Owns the strategy and delivery of a full product or large feature, manages the product team, and owns the product roadmap and KPIs 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝙂𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙥 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩 𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙧 / 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩 𝘿𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙤𝙧 - Leads a team of product managers, responsible for product strategy for a specific product or set of products 𝙇𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩 𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙧 - Leads an entire product or product feature, often managing other product managers, develops the product roadmap 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝘾𝙝𝙞𝙚𝙛 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩 𝙊𝙛𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙚𝙧 (𝘾𝙋𝙊) / 𝙑𝙋 𝙤𝙛 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩 - Focused on company strategy and how it translates into product strategy, manages the entire product portfolio, responsible for P&L and revenue KPIs 𝘿𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙤𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩 𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 - Focuses on product strategy and how it aligns with company goals, manages product managers 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀: 𝗧𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 roles focus on day-to-day product management activities 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 roles define product vision and strategy 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 roles manage teams of product managers 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 roles set company-wide product strategy and manage the overall product portfolio #productmanagement #productmanager #careerpath #career ~~ If you found this post helpful, repost ♻️ this and follow me 👉 Nitish Rana for daily content at 𝟭𝟭 𝗔𝗠 & 𝟱:𝟯𝟬 𝗣𝗠 𝗜𝗦𝗧. You should also subscribe to my Newsletter 👉 The Product Leap if you are deciding to move into product role or have just moved.

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It is 2024 and I am yet to find any Product Management Certification in Indian landscape which gives good ROI. For instance spending 50k- 2 Lakh just for the Product managemt basics, case studies and "exposure" still does not make sense to me. It is all available Free today. I am looking for inputs or suggestions from people who have participated in such certifications who have gained value, feel free to comment and let me know your experience. DMs are also fine if you think you do not want to comment publicly. P.S: I am okay with the hate I get for writing this, I am a PM have too thick skin for all this. Sankalpa Sarkar (PSPO) Tannishk Sharma #productmanagement #aspiringpms #productmanagers

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Product management demands honed skills that are cultivated and refined over time. Many believe they can effortlessly navigate the realm of product management, but there's a chasm between mere participation and achieving tangible outcomes. Here are five pivotal skills for product managers who consistently deliver results: 🚀Insightful Data Interpretation: Transforming qualitative and quantitative data into actionable insights necessitates sharp critical thinking. 🚀Product Intuition: This amalgamates cognitive empathy, creativity, and domain proficiency. While nurturing creativity can pose a challenge, it's entirely attainable. 🚀Compelling Data-Driven Narratives: Mastering the art of persuasive storytelling with data, while ensuring factual accuracy, is a skill that can be developed with practice. 🚀Versatile Communication: The ability to communicate effectively across various mediums is crucial for successful product managers. 🚀Decisive Decision-Making: Product managers are constantly required to make informed decisions swiftly, utilizing available information to prevent team stagnation or inertia. What stands as the foremost growth opportunity in product management within your organization? And what about yours? #productmanagement #coachingproductmanagers #productleadership #producttakes ------ 🌍 Shubham Karnwal 🆘 0-1 Product Managers 🔔 Follow me for more content ♻️ Share is care

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Top 5 PM Post on LinkedIn 1.Shravan Tickoo The Key to Product Success: Solving the Right Problem for the End User https://lnkd.in/gymQuAR3 2. Ankit Shukla The Boom and Bust Cycle of Product Management Roles https://lnkd.in/gzXSCk5E 3. Vishal Bagla Mastering Product Development with the CIRCLES Framework https://lnkd.in/gSKCugrM 4. Manoj Aiyer The Art of Stakeholder Management for Product Managers https://lnkd.in/gsHKY5J2 5. Paweł Huryn 🇺🇦 Essential Product Metrics Every PM Should Track in 2024 https://lnkd.in/g-n7Jx8x Fuel your curiosity! Follow Growjunction for more content. Don't miss out on our Product Management Program! Secure your spot today.    Secure your spot: https://lnkd.in/gS3cJWBb #ProductManagement #UserFocus #CareerInsights #StakeholderManagement #ProductMetrics #GrowJunction

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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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Let's understand NPS(Net Promoter Score) which helps your product attain PMF(Product Market Fit) with an example. Example: You ask your customers how likely they'll RECOMMEND your service/product to anyone they know based on the scale of 0-10. 1. '0' Indicates they are NOT AT ALL inclined to recommend your service/product. 2. '10' indicating DEFINITELY they will. Now based on the scores they give customers are classified as follows:- 1. DETRACTORS (0-6) 2. NEUTRALS (7-8) 3. PROMOTERS (9-10) Now, based on your survey of 100 customers, you found:- 1. 30 were DETRACTORS 2. 50 were PROMOTERS 3. 20 were NEUTRALS By the formula (NPS = PROMOTERS - DETRACTORS), We get 20 (50-30) as our NPS. A score of 30 and above is considered GREAT. Means, there will be a larger number of people who will promote your product than those who'll discourage it. In this case, Thodi mehnat karni padegi😂😅. #sales #marketing #genAI #democratization #decentralization #dataengineer #startups #ConnectX #entrepreneurship #fundraising #LinkedIn

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AI IS EATING PRODUCT MANAGER ROLES! Okay. That's a shameless clickbait. But it's also partially true. Read on to know more. I tried ChatPRD today. It's a service to assist PMs in writing product requirement documents. And to be honest, it's surprisingly effective. The service takes minimal input about the product and chucks out a fairly detailed PRD. I gave a one liner about an idea/product and the service threw a 200 word document. The document ticks many points for a PRD checklist. It was detailed and had most sections required for a PRD like problem narration, user scenarios, goals, success metrics, etc. It uses a fairly professional language that most PMs are used to. Although the output is probably generalized, I can tweak individual sections by giving additional prompts. When I asked it to expand on the user stories, it listed out more stories covering much more spectrum on the scenarios. If it doesn't eat our jobs immediately, it will help us to be more productive by detailing out the PRD text, automating the mundane writing (rather typing) part. What I wonder is typing PRD is not just a mundane routine. It involves hard thinking on the PM part to think in the user shoes, empathize with them and cover their scenarios. In that view, a PM is more of a wingman for a user, a bestie within the context of the problem the product is solving. Imagine a PM recognizing every pain point in every instance of usage of the product and address the important ones in a never ending cycle. I'm not sure how much of the user empathy part the service will be able to replicate. To this part the PM is not losing his job, at least for the foreseeable future. So my click bait statement is not fully true but this also raises one pertinent question. How many of us do real product management? How many of us work with users to discover problems? It's a known fact that many or most companies operate feature factories where a stakeholder, mostly a large client or a revenue center partner like sales or marketing prioritizes and hands down enterprise level problems. Individual product teams break that big problem down to smaller constituents that their products deal with and work towards solving those sub parts. In this parlance, AI product management services may end up eating PM roles. Peripheral functions like program, design and development can use these services to list down requirements without a PM and develop functionalities. There is some potential to a threat here. To summarize, AI PM services may end up eating the routine mundane parts of PM role. This may impact feature factory PM roles more than discovery PM roles. But these services will not take away the hard PM role for products involving human interaction, involving empathy. The future looks interesting. Do try ChatPRD if you're into or interested in product management. It's a good tool to improve your PRD productivity. 

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