Ask HN: My first full time job as a Product Manager. Any advice?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5012637

by thomap • 14 years ago

5 11 14 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Hello HN!

I've just finished my studies (in both computer science and digital business), and I'll start my first full time job in two weeks. I'll be a Product Manager in a web startup.

Do you have any advice or good books to read on the subject?

Thanks!

gus_massa• 14 years ago

I like the articles in http://www.joelonsoftware.com/

Proably the more usefull sections for you are "Tech lead" and "Program manager".

ABrandt• 14 years ago

Read The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey. It's quick, cheap, and provides the most actionable advice of any management book I've come across.

When you're put in a management position its usually because you're good at doing something. Good do-ers tend to want to do everything themselves because they know best, but when you're in management that can cripple you. This book will prevent you from making all sorts of mistakes right off the bat.

http://www.amazon.com/One-Minute-Manager-Meets-Monkey/dp/068...

tnorthcutt• 14 years ago

Rands in Repose may be good reading for you.

gyardley• 14 years ago

Rule number one: no surprises. Your job is to know exactly what's going on with the product and why, and make sure no one else is surprised by communicating the information they need in the form they need it.

Rule number two: get to know the customers well. If you're bogged down in a hundred different internal meetings you might be very productively building exactly the wrong thing.

It can be hard to balance these two things sometimes, but they're both really important.

There's a lot more to it than that, but product management is mostly learnt on the job. If you're just starting out, and have no product management experience, you're probably not the only product manager at your company. Glom on to someone who seems to know what they're doing and get mentored. Ask the people you interact with what they're looking for in a product manager. Be a sponge.

Good luck!

roseleur• 14 years ago

Be humble, open for advice and critique. And build up a network as soon as possible. The more people you know, the easier it is to get things done. Don't forget the external network, it helps to know other product managers.

gregcohn• 14 years ago

Useful framework of all the disciplines related to and adjacent to product management. Will be overly comprehensive for a web startup PM, but it's a useful framework and may give you ideas on areas to read up on.

If there are any aspects of this you aren't familiar with, at least understand how they contribute value to the product management lifecycle so you can learn more and/or hire someone to help where needed.

http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/about-us/framework

I'm also a big fan of usability testing and getting in front of users for different kind of qualitative testing (e.g. concept testing) generally. It's easy not to bother with this step when everyone thinks they know what the product/customer needs.

asadotzler• 14 years ago

If you do nothing else, you must first represent your users. You care about them more than anything. You live in their shoes. You go to bat for them at every opportunity.

Strive to nail that, to get to a place where your normal mode, your "instincts", are driven by genuine user empathy.

If you struggle with this, either keep working at it or look around for other roles you can play. If you can't get comfortable caring deeply about your users, you're probably not going to be able to help your team or your organization build great products for those users.

goronbjorn• 14 years ago

How big is the startup and what is the breakdown by position (i.e. # engineers, # marketing, etc)?

ssylee• 14 years ago

Don't act as if you're a manager. You're more like a product development organizer and status updater.

dkisit• 14 years ago

The Ultralight Startup

debacle• 14 years ago

I'm a programmer, and I want you to know that if I work for you I'm probably going to lie to you, in two ways.

The first way is that you're going to ask a question you think I understand, and I'm going to answer your question in a way I think you understand, when in reality we're speaking two different languages. The result will wind up making both of us look bad.

The second is that I'm going to tell you something is done when it's not. This is really a follow-on of the first item - I'm going to think that it's done, because I've done everything you asked me to, but when you look at it's going to be clear that it's not done, because something assumed didn't get done.

I'd recommend you read Rapid Development and/or Code Complete, if you haven't already. They are important books, that will be a good read for you even if they are more for the programmer perspective.

Ask HN: My first full time job as a Product Manager. Any advice?

Related Stories