Cracking the PM Interview: How to Land a Product Manager Job in Technology (Cracking the Interview & Career)

by Gayle Laakmann McDowell

As a PM, you’ll need to learn to lead your team without authority, influencing them with your vision and research.

a big part of the product manager’s job in this phase is creating or proposing a roadmap. This means figuring out a cohesive long-term plan for the team.

Product design is defining the features and functionality of the product.

During the implementation stage, the product manager keeps track of how the project is going and makes adjustments.

the PM identifies the most important issues and iterates on the feature design to find better solutions.

the PM might continue to support the product after the launch, gathering metrics and iterating on user feedback,

They’ll need to balance features that match their long-term strategy against features that current big customers are clamoring for.

Product managers are responsible for identifying problems and opportunities, picking which ones to go after, and then making sure the team comes up with great solutions,

In any meeting or conversation, the PM needs to represent the interests of all the people who are not in the room.

PMs influence without authority, building up credibility with the team, communicating clearly, gathering data and research, and being persuasive to lead the team. Teams follow PMs when they’re convinced that their goals align

If you work for a company that files patents, make sure you file patents for your innovations.

Once you have a good manager, show them you are reliable and can do good work.

Career advancement as a PM usually means expanding the scope of the area you work on.

At some point in your career, your visibility across the company is going to matter if you want to be promoted to higher positions.

One way to really stand out as a PM is to get more concrete about what success means for your team.