The recent pandemic has impacted people all around the world and has negatively hit the global economy. Since the pandemic, many companies and organizations have been forced to close and unfortunately lay off workers. As a result, I have received an increase in daily emails and LinkedIn messages seeking advice and two common requests include interview tips and inquiring what it means to be a Product Manager. I have partnered with Bret Bodlovic, Senior Diversity & Inclusion Leadership Tech Sourcer at Amazon to provide a three-part series to give you all (1) an overview of product management, (2) product management interview tips, and (3) answers to some of our most frequently asked questions.
Overview
My personal experience.
I desperately wish there was an easy way to explain product management. To be honest, it depends on your industry, company, organization, and product (I discuss this in more detail on the Tech Unlocked Podcast which you can check out here). There are Product Managers (PM) who manage different products/features and in my personal experience, I’ve witnessed three types of PMs:
Software/Digital/Engineering Product Management: This person owns the development of a non-physical product or feature. Examples include: Prime Video user interface (UI), feature updates for Amazon Mobile App, AWS Enterprise tool development, etc. This also encompasses roles such as Data Product Manager, Growth Product Manager, etc. which provide more specific details on the product and responsibilities. Understanding system architecture is important, but a strong technical background is not always required (varies by company/team).
Product Management – Technical: You have likely come across Product Management – Technical (PMT) roles. This person works closely with the development team on very technical products and developing the platform/infrastructure to host a service. They are typically not working on customer-facing features that customers see, but they may be behind the tools that power the features you see. For example, a PM may own the customer facing “dashboard” UI for FireTV that determines what features should be displayed on the screen and what experience should be for customers interacting with the features. The PMT owns the development of the services that host FireTV and makes the calls (ie: API calls) so that customers are able to select features within FireTV app. People within the PMT role typically have a strong technical background, and/or are able to understand system architecture well.
Physical Product Management: This person owns the development of a physical product. Examples include: Echo devices, Amazon Basics products and private label food. This person works with a Sourcer to develop the product.
“Gray space” Product Managers: Now, this is just my opinion, but if you are not interacting with an engineering team, or developing a physical product, you are likely operating in a Program Manager capacity. This can vary based on company/organization but if you are seeking a “traditional” PM role, I encourage you to ask your recruiter/hiring manager what your relationship will be with the engineering team. This will help you gauge how technical the PM role is, and better understand the scope of the product(s) that you own.
My experience as a PM has been both #1 and #3. My current role is #1. I work closely with an engineering team to develop the CX for video games. I own a tech domain where some of my responsibilities include being the subject matter expert (SME) for my domain, conduct usability studies with our UX team, sign-off on customer facing features/bugs for my domain, create business requirements, own my product roadmap, lead sprint planning, and review weblabs (A/B testing). I recently developed an SOP/relationship guide for how my Software Development Manager (SDM) and I will manage sprint task and grooming. I am an extension of the tech team, and I am one of those PMs who is protective of my tech team (aka do not email/ping/bother them but use me instead). In addition to working with the tech team, I work closely with my business stakeholders to ensure the product that I am building meets the needs of the business. I have reviews with them to discuss financial opportunities, receive their requested requirements, and update them on development progress.
My first PM role was a combination of #1 and #3. I launched and managed a physical product that required engineering efforts for an external facing website, development for manufacturing tools, and ingesting/managing product keys. As my first PM role, it was a great way for me to transition into the PM job function. Key transferable skills were: cross-team collaboration, influencing without authority, project management, Amazon supply chain management systems and policies, and go to market strategy. I was able to leverage skills from my previous roles, while being able to develop new skills such as write a requirements document and work with an engineering team to prioritize and develop features.
In both roles, customers are my top priority. I consider myself the intersection of tech and business, with the goal of being the voice of the customer. Sometimes I have to wear different hats to push the product to completion (if you can, have Technical Program Manager partner with you on large projects) so I often make tech and business trade-offs and “influence without authority” to ensure I am delivering products that will delight customers. I will share more of my experience on this in a future blog post.
Which PM role is best for you?
My Perspective (Product Manager).
When you are looking at roles I highly encourage you to think about the following:
Industry: What industry do you want to work in? What will excite you? What are the industry trends that have long-term potential? I start by looking at what industries excite me, and within those, which are growing and have long-term potential. For example, I work in Digital Software & Video Games. SaaS and Gaming are growing industries that have upside potential long-term as the tech industry and consumer interest evolves.
Skills: What skills do you want to develop long-term? How transferable are those skills? Try to make sure you are not over-indexing on team/company specific skills.
Product: What product will you own? Is it a product that excites you? It is important you are working on a product that excites you and that you believe in. You are the voice of the customer. If you do not care for the product, how can you deliver something that customers will enjoy?
Audience: Do you want to work on external impacting products, or internal impacting products? I have worked on both found that there are pros and cons for each of them.
Tech Fluency: What is your tech background? Do you want to work with a tech team? How comfortable are you with working with an engineering team and reviewing system architecture?
Bret’s Perspective (Recruiter).
Product Manager HQ has a very nice article when considering what Product Manager role is best for you. Some of the key points are as follows:
First and foremost, put your customers first! Product Managers need to do whatever it takes to build and ship the best products possible, even if it includes tasks and responsibilities that may not be the most “fun” all the time. It may be a bit stressful at times and it may seem like the buck stops with you when things go wrong. There will be tension at times, as it is when you’re working with a large variety of people/teams but all this said, being a Product Manager is an exciting, rewarding, and critically important role!
Customers have very strong feelings and Product Managers need to listen carefully and ensure the customer feels that they are truly heard. Remember, many of the decisions that are made will be based on “your recommendation,” so research is a big part of your role. You must do your due-diligence before making recommendations to the customer.
“Learn and Be Curious,” one of our Amazon Leadership Principles, should be an excellent skill set of yours. You should be naturally curious and enjoy learning new things, especially those that are challenging.
Are you socially savvy? Product Managers are constantly interacting with a wide array of social groups and diverse populations. They are able to facilitate communication, convey vision, find gaps, and remove roadblocks during those group meetings. They know when to speak and once again, when to listen.
If you’d like the review the article in its entirety, you can review it here.
Conclusion
I hope this is helpful to get started in understanding product management. I will be sharing more details on topics such as transitioning to product management, working with tech teams, building diverse products, and PM best practices in future blog post.
The next post in this series will provide details on interviewing tips and how to stand out with Amazon recruiters. Make sure you are subscribed to receive an alert once the post is shared. Please comment below questions that you have and we will answer them in Part III of this series.
Check out open roles PM/PMT roles:
1. Prime Video
2. Advertising
3. Amazon Music
4. IMDb
While we would love to engage with each of you directly, please understand that bandwidth may not allow us to response to every inquiry. We will do our best to answer your questions in Part III of the series. We appreciate your understanding!