Discussion, advice, and reviews regarding online products, the people behind them and the trends they represent, from Modular Innovation and Product Management to User Experience and Quick-UX.
More segments from our conversation with Ladislav Bartos — and shedding some light onto just exactly what makes Ladislav truly The Best Product Person of 2014.
About 12 years ago, I was working in a computer training centre in London. One day, a 70-year-old lady came to our centre to learn how to send emails to her grandchildren in Australia. While I helped her set up an email account and explained how to send emails, I observed how difficult this simple task was for her. The biggest challenges she had were mainly related to the design and usability issues of what was at that time a very popular email service provider. That was when I decided to learn how to create easy-to-use online services, and this is why I decided to become a product manager. Since then, every time I work on an online product, I ask myself: Would this old lady be able to use this product or service without any problem?
> What inspires you in your day-to-day work?
The thing that inspires me the most in my day-to-day work is when I see the sparkle in the eyes of the people around me when they are excited, surprised or happy. For example, the sparkle in my 2-year-old son’s eyes when I arrive home, in my colleagues’ eyes when we hit our targets, in customers’ eyes when they first interact with our new product, or even in a fellow passenger’s eyes when you offer them your seat on the bus or train.
Watch the video for more on daily inspiration in product management…
More to Come
Over the next few weeks I will share more of my conversation with other great participants from The Best Product Person of 2014!
Thank you to everyone who participated, nominated, interviewed, AND passed on the word! The nomination period for The Best Product Person of 2015 has begun! The individual who first nominates TBPP is also awarded! This year, the first nominator of Ladislav received a $100 gift certificate to Amazon.com. Nominate your pick for The Best Product Person right now!
And, don’t forget, take a moment and congratulate The Best Product Person of 2014: Ladislav Bartos. (tweet)
Enjoy!
Jeremy Horn The Product Guy
About ‘The Best Product Person’
The Best Product Person (TBPP) is the leading international award honoring excellence in Product Management. Established in 2010, TBPP is awarded annually in association with The Product Guy (http://tpgblog.com) and The Product Group (http://meetup.com/theproductgroup).
TBPP Recognizes 1 person each year, invites them to speak and share their knowledge and experience with the larger product community. The nominations can be submitted by anyone. And, if you are the first to submit the winning nominee,you too will be rewarded Over the course of the year, the various nominees are interviewed and the finalists narrowed down to: The Best Product Person of the year . The finalists are interviewed and evaluated for excellence in Product along the following lines… Becoming a Product Person, Your Product, Advice to Product People, and Future & Trends.
TBPP is both (1) the way the Product community gets together to recognize excellence amongst our ranks as well as (2) provide, to a large audience, insights into that excellence in a manner we can all learn from and leverage in our own Product journeys.
For more information about The Best Product Person award and past winners visit http://tpgblog.com/tbpp
About ‘The Product Group’
The Product Group is an opportunity for Product Managers, etc. to come together to meet, interact, and network. It’s an awesome way to meet fellow Product People in a laid-back, conversational environment within which sharing and learning can flourish and complement the knowledge base for all on a peer-to-peer basis. The NYC chapter of The Product Group meets the first Thursday of each month. If you are interested in a establishing chapter near you, please contact The Product Guy or The Product Group for more information. (http://tpgblog.com/theproductgroup/ )
If you are a great product person looking for a great product job, or vice versa, check out our job board. Thousands of employers across all areas of product, from management to design, from digital to physical, are looking to fill positions from our community.
Each week we highlight some of the recently posted openings. Check out this week’s newest, below…
Over the course of the night a few of the highlights were…
Featured Product: DOWN exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from authenticity to managing the press (thanks to Colin Hodge)
Customer Testing / Curation / Segmentation from IRL to validation
The Product Groupmeet-ups are an opportunity for Product People (managers, strategists, marketers, etc.) to come together to meet, interact, and network in a roundtable setting. It’s awesome to meet fellow Product People in a laid-back, conversational gathering.
If you are a Product Person and are interested in having your product featured or participating as a featured guest expert at an upcoming meetup of The Product Group, contact me(or email at jhorn (a-t.) tpgblog DoT com).
I am looking forward to seeing everyone at our next meetup…
In our a recent live stream from one of our mentors of The Product Mentor, Jordan Bergtraum, lead a conversation around “Introducing Product Management to your Organization”. We are always looking for more product mentors from all around the world. Signup to be a Mentor Today!
View the live stream…
About The Product Mentor
The Product Mentor is a program designed to pair Product Mentors and Mentees from around the World, across all industries, from start-up to enterprise, guided by the fundamental goals…
Throughout the program, each mentor leads a conversation in an area of their expertise that is live streamed and available to both mentee and the broader product community.
Meet the mentors…
Matt Rogish Director of Product Development, Single Platform
Matt is the Director of Product Development of Single Platform (a Constant Contact company). At SinglePlatform, his job is to help the product team (Design, Engineering, Product Management, Operations, and QA) be more awesome through process improvements, guidance, mentorship, and support. In previous roles, he was the CTO of Funding Gates, a B2B Financial Services SaaS Company, Director of Development for Toura, a mobile application development firm, and CTO of The J. Peterman Company, a medium-sized apparel company in Lexington, KY.
Andrew Breen VP Product Delivery, American Express
I have 20 years experience developing and growing products and services for companies of all sizes in the mobile, enterprise, e-commerce, media and education sectors. My repeated success as an entrepreneur, technologist, product manager, and business development leader is the result of a unique combination of deep technical knowledge, broad interdisciplinary skills, team leadership, and negotiation capabilities. I can work strategically and get in-depth whether conversing with a CEO/Board Member or an engineer. I am recognized for my contributions that break through obstacles, create significant consumer value, and drive incremental revenue. My nearly 15 years in mobile provide me a unique perspective and experience where I now build media and monetization solutions scaling businesses from concept to widespread adoption.
Jordan Bergtraum VP Product Management, ServiceChannel
Jordan is a Management level, revenue-driven, B2B SaaS Product Management and Project Management leader. He grows revenue and adoption, and ensures product by turning business problems into profitable, simple, easy-to-use solutions Jordan works closely with his market, executives, and internal subject matter experts to develop roadmaps, and communicate these roadmaps internally and with clients. He translates complex business problems into solutions that are easily consumed by engineering, marketing and sales. Jordan has enterprise Software-as-a-Service experience within the facilities management, legal and pharmaceutical verticals, having most recently worked at ServiceChannel, Epiq Systems and Medidata Solutions. Jordan has a BS in Biology from Union College and an MBA & MS in Information Systems from Boston University’s School of Management. Jordan lives in Manhattan and in his spare time likes to play soccer.
Dominic Gadoury Director Product Management, ADP
Dominic is the Director of Product Management at ADP’s (Automatic Data Processing) New York City based Innovation lab. In his role in this lab of ~100 employees Dominic leads (and geeks out) in the fruition of roadmap deliverables for Employee Engagement, Analytics and Workforce Management solutions. Dominic has been in various product owner roles at ADP for the last 14 years including ADP’s creation of an employee mobile app that is actively used by nearly 2 million employees worldwide. Dominic was also a key player in helping ADP transition from a waterfall SDLC to agile in less than 2 years time. Dominic has a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts.
Asha Gupta Product Manager, Etsy
Holly is currently a PM at Etsy managing our iPhone and Android apps. Previously led product at Customer.io, worked at Venmo and studied at the Stanford d.school. With experience in product, design, engineering and user research at large companies and startups, I believe all great products stem from a deep understanding of user needs and all great teams require a razor-sharp focus that allows for ruthless prioritization.
Jeff Otto Senior Marketing Manager, Salesforce.com
Jeff is a Senior Marketing Manager at Salesforce.com in San Francisco where he collaborates with a great team to evolve Salesforce’s solution road map and integrated marketing plan for the financial services industry.
He began his career at Merrill Lynch in New York as a software developer, and later as a business analyst designing enterprise software applications. Following an MBA in Finance at the University of Texas, he co-founded Incenergy, a software venture in the “Internet of Things” ecosystem where he managed Incenergy’s Sales Solutions team and product road map. Following Incenergy, Jeff was a Vice President at Morgan Stanley in New York where he provided business intelligence to empower data-driven prioritization of a $43mm/year software project portfolio for a department of Morgan Stanley’s Enterprise Data & Services division.
Jon Stross President and Co-founder, Greenhouse Software
Jon Stross is President and Co-founder of Greenhouse Software, a recruiting platform designed to help companies get better at recruiting through built-in best practices, automation and performance tracking. Before founding Greenhouse, Jon served as the GM of International at BabyCenter.com and was responsible for the worldwide rollout of the business, leading all aspects of the international business unit including product development, editorial, technology, sales, marketing, legal and finance. He’s also held leadership and product management roles with Merced Systems, Johnson and Johnson.
Aditya Bhelande Founder and CEO, Yukta
Aditya, founder of Yukta, has over 13 years of experience working at large technology companies and Startups in Silicon Valley (Oracle, Yahoo, Dorado) and India (PubMatic). As a Product Strategy and Product Management professional he has diverse and rich exposure to various domains such as Supply Chain Management (SCM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Finance and most recently in Digital Media (Ad) Technology. Aditya has traveled extensively in Americas, Europe and Southeast Asia as part of exploring new market opportunities, meeting with customers and building partnerships. His practical hands-on approach for solving problems and getting things done has enabled him to get well-rounded experience across Management, Marketing, Business Development, Customer Support, etc. He has helped in enabling growth of established products as well as built new products from scratch. Aditya is passionate about creating winning teams and working cross-functionally for achieving challenging business goals. He is member of various Technology Startup non-profits and contributes his time actively to mentor up and coming Technology Startups.
Calvin Chu is a maker, gadget nerd, entrepreneur and product guy. Calvin Chu is Managing Director for Techstars and operates The R/GA Connected Devices Accelerator in New York. Much of his product background comes from managing products in a number of startup companies in the silicon valley. Today he spends much of his time helping out startups build amazing products in NYC.
At the start of his career, he entered product management by way of an engineering background in the Silicon Valley. He’s worked on enterprise infrastructure products that are now part of Compuware, Goldman Sachs, Williams Energy. As part of his startup career, products he designed have been integrated into MacOS X, and deployed to thousands of locations around the world. His last company, Mobile Crossing focused on hardware for consumer electronics, agriculture, government/municipal, and tourism markets.
Steve Cohn Founder and CEO, ProdThink
I try hard to be a good father, husband and entrepreneur.” That summarizes me well. Professionally, I am a multiple time founder who sold both prior startups (to LivingSocial and TripAdvisor). I have also held corporate jobs at Merrill Lynch, DoubleClick, IBM and Quantcast. But my strength is in innovation, the Lean approach to product development and the managing ups and downs of early stage products. I also have an MBA from Harvard.
Adrienne Tan CEO, Brainmates
In 2004, Adrienne Tan co-founded Brainmates with Nick Coster. As the Brainmates CEO, Adrienne draws on 20 years of senior Product Management experience gained at The Microsoft Network, Telstra BigPond and AUSTAR. Adrienne has a Masters of Economics (Social Science) with distinction from The University of Sydney. She majored in Industrial Relations in her undergraduate degree. Her other academic pursuits include lecturing at the University of Technology Sydney in Information and Interaction Design and co-authoring a chapter in the book Digital Experience Design. Adrienne recently contributed to two Product Management books; 42 Rules of Product Management and the 42 Rules of Product Marketing.
Cindy Solomon Host, Global Product Management Talk and Founder, Startup Product Academy
Cindy F. Solomon is host of the popular Global Product Management Talk, a top 10 business podcast on the BlogTalkRadio network reaching >30,000 listeners/episode, also available on iTunes and she developed the Android app, ProdMgmtTalk. Solomon founded the Startup Product movement for product excellence which is growing with Startup Product communities in over 10 locations worldwide. She produces Startup Product Summit showcasing product experts discussing first-hand experience managing products from startup to scaling, Startup Product Open unconference which blows open the doors for everyone to contribute, question, and interact with each others’ ideas, prototypes, products, problems and process using Open Space Technology. She founded Startup Product Academy, LLC to provide innovative approaches and experiential learning opportunities to forward passionate product people and organizations to achieve product excellence. She recently launched the Webcast Digest to serve up daily, curated educational webcasts, webinars and free online events to enable busy professionals to keep up with the latest trends and facilitate continuous learning.
Cindy is a frequent speaker, presenter and sought after moderator and curator for events and panel discussions. She’s a contributing author to several books, including “42 Rules of Product Marketing” and the Guide to the ProdBOK, Product Management & Marketing Body of Knowledge. A passionate product person, Solomon brings over 20 years of driving successful product marketing initiatives and managing organizations at enterprise and early stage software, hardware, web development, SaaS and mobile including Apple, Vadem, NetObjects and start-ups in Silicon Valley. She holds CPM/CPMM certification.
Ladislav Bartos Product Manager, Gumtree.com
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Leonardo da Vinci Ladislav believes that success is in simplicity that’s why his aim is to help companies to make complex products simple for users. He lives in London, currently working as Product Manager at Gumtree.com, an Ebay company, previously led product at international startups and large organisations. Ladislav focuses on user centric product development, especially on brand, usability and revenue product challenges. He is passionate about Lean and Agile Product management, innovative business models and business and product strategies.
Mike Claiborne Director of Product Management, Amplify
Mike Claiborne is an Executive Director of Product Management at Amplify, an independent edtech-focused subsidiary of News Corporation. Mike is responsible for the full product management life-cycle for assessments and intervention products serving elementary school children in all 50 states. Previously, Michael worked as the Director of Product Strategy at the College Board and an Associate Management Consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton. In a prior life, Mike worked as a software engineer for seven years. Michael holds an Management MBA from Columbia Business School, an MS in Computer Information Systems from Georgia State University and a BA in Computer Science from Saint Louis University.
In our a recent live stream from one of our mentors of The Product Mentor, Steven Cohn, lead a conversation around “Intellectual Property Recommendations for Startup Product Managers”. We are always looking for more product mentors from all around the world. Signup to be a Mentor Today!
View the live stream…
About The Product Mentor
The Product Mentor is a program designed to pair Product Mentors and Mentees from around the World, across all industries, from start-up to enterprise, guided by the fundamental goals…
Throughout the program, each mentor leads a conversation in an area of their expertise that is live streamed and available to both mentee and the broader product community.
Becky is an experienced Product Management Strategist with over a decade of experience across a wide spectrum of sectors and industries. With specialist knowledge and experience in Financial News Products, SaaS for professional services, Personal Media publishing apps and TV Media Product Strategy and Management. With a proven track record in defining a product suite/proposition in a sales driven B2B organisation through to being core lead for the operational readiness on a UK wide consumer product delivery. Becky has also shown a proficiency in recruiting/defining strong product teams, coaching and training new to the role PMs as well as adapting the soft skills of product management methodology to each new channel, end user type and content area. Becky is a strong leader whose strengths include; product strategy, product management methodology and process, concept development, creating and communicating a strategic vision, owning a Business Units P&L, defining business strategies and creating business cases for products as well as being proficient in creating new and re defining product mangement and launch processes, improving efficiency and cross organisation communication, managing stakeholders and board level expectations, line management coaching and mentoring. • Thirteen years of product and team management experience • Nine years of Product Management Experience, 3 at a senior management level • MA in Interactive Media
Beth Temple Digital Product / Business Consultant, bethtemple4u llc
Beth Temple has been building new digital products since 1994 for companies like Target, HBO, and Wells Fargo. During that time she learned a lot about why products fail and how to build successful products that grow markets and revenue. She founded and named her firm, bethemple4u llc, to emphasize the ‘embedding’ nature of her approach to building new digital products with internal teams. Her work for Credit Suisse HOLT – defining, developing and deploying a transformative global online platform – resulted in a MIT/Sloan case study. In addition, she is on the Board of Directors of ordr.in (a Google Ventures backed business) and mentors at two accelerators in NYC (eRoundTable Accelerator and Women Innovate Mobile).
Calvin Chu Senior Technology Licensing Officer, Columbia Technology Ventures
Calvin Chu is a maker, gadget nerd, entrepreneur and product guy. He’s currently in charge of commercializing Columbia University’s computer technology portfolio into products and companies. At the start of his career, he entered product management by way of an engineering background in the Silicon Valley. He’s worked on enterprise infrastructure products that are now part of Compuware, Goldman Sachs, Williams Energy. As part of his startup career, products he designed have been integrated into MacOS X, and deployed to thousands of locations around the world. His last company, Mobile Crossing focused on hardware for consumer electronics, agriculture, government/municipal, and tourism markets.
Raviv Turner VP Product, TapInfluence
Raviv brings over 13 years of product management and startup experience, building profitable, consumer and business software products. In his current role as VP of Product at TapInfluence, Raviv is leading a team of talented engineers, designers and product people out of Boulder, CO, building the first influencer marketing SaaS + marketplace for top brands and agencies looking to connect with online influencers. Previously Raviv was the Co-Founder & CEO of Guerillapps, a NYC based, social gaming startup. Raviv graduated from the Interactive Telecommunication Program at New York University.
David Shoenberger Product Innovation Specialist
Award-winning product management, marketing and business operations innovator with deep digital/mobile experience at both start-up and Fortune 500 alike. Recognized for passionate leadership, results-orientation, customer-centric mindset, creativity, and a very wicked humor. A tireless, strategy-minded executive (equally adept at execution) my professional ambition is to help people lead better lives in a technology-enabled world.
Adrienne Tan CEO, Brainmates
In 2004, Adrienne Tan co-founded Brainmates with Nick Coster. As the Brainmates CEO, Adrienne draws on 20 years of senior Product Management experience gained at The Microsoft Network, Telstra BigPond and AUSTAR. Adrienne has a Masters of Economics (Social Science) with distinction from The University of Sydney. She majored in Industrial Relations in her undergraduate degree. Her other academic pursuits include lecturing at the University of Technology Sydney in Information and Interaction Design and co-authoring a chapter in the book Digital Experience Design. Adrienne recently contributed to two Product Management books; 42 Rules of Product Management and the 42 Rules of Product Marketing.
Steve Cohn Founder and CEO, ProdThink
I try hard to be a good father, husband and entrepreneur.” That summarizes me well. Professionally, I am a multiple time founder who sold both prior startups (to LivingSocial and TripAdvisor). I have also held corporate jobs at Merrill Lynch, DoubleClick, IBM and Quantcast. But my strength is in innovation, the Lean approach to product development and the managing ups and downs of early stage products. I also have an MBA from Harvard.
Ari Tiktin Head of Product, Healthgen Neonatal
Ari is an award-winning executive who has led cross-functional teams to launch dozens of multiscreen products for premier consumer brands. He is currently the product head for a healthcare startup aiming to introduce innovative solutions to help parents with young children. Previously, Ari launched WebMD’s mobile web business and grew it to 23+ million monthly unique visitors. Prior to that, he launched Discovery Mobile which included two-dozen mobile web sites, smartphone and tablet applications.
Adrian Chernoff Director of Digital Innovation, Wilshire Axon
Adrian Chernoff helps organizations articulate new products and leads teams to focus and deliver what’s next. Beginning from market insight and the simplification of an idea to sell-in and execution across organizations, Adrian brings together executives, engineers, designers and marketers to make it possible. Honored with over 20 awards and 89 patents, he has made an impact at inventing future transpiration at General Motors, launching consumer digital products at Eastman Kodak and creating rides at Disney. As a consultant he has developed office products for Staples, provided novel methods to sell luxury at the The Gucci Group, created digital connectivity solutions for Madison Square Garden and strategized digital health products for Equinox. Adrian balances left and right-brain thinking to visualize and strategize new opportunities as well as lead programs in building and launching new products and services.
More segments from our conversation with Ladislav Bartos — and shedding some light onto just exactly what makes Ladislav truly The Best Product Person of 2014.
> What key people helped shape you into the product manager you are today?
I have been fortunate enough to work with some amazing and talented people over the last 16 years. One of them is Andrey, who was the CEO of a small startup company called Slando. He is an inspiring leader and a great friend, who sold his first online business at the age of 18 and is currently working on his next startup project.
The second person I would mention is Andy, who is the Director of Motors at Gumtree, a company owned by eBay. He is one of the most inspirational strategists, visionaries and communicators I have ever met. Andy helped me to understand the difference between a manager and a leader.
Watch the video for more on key mentors in product management…
More to Come
Over the next few weeks I will share more of my conversation with other great participants from The Best Product Person of 2014!
Thank you to everyone who participated, nominated, interviewed, AND passed on the word! The nomination period for The Best Product Person of 2015 has begun! The individual who first nominates TBPP is also awarded! This year, the first nominator of Ladislav received a $100 gift certificate to Amazon.com. Nominate your pick for The Best Product Person right now!
And, don’t forget, take a moment and congratulate The Best Product Person of 2014: Ladislav Bartos. (tweet)
Enjoy!
Jeremy Horn The Product Guy
About ‘The Best Product Person’
The Best Product Person (TBPP) is the leading international award honoring excellence in Product Management. Established in 2010, TBPP is awarded annually in association with The Product Guy (http://tpgblog.com) and The Product Group (http://meetup.com/theproductgroup).
TBPP Recognizes 1 person each year, invites them to speak and share their knowledge and experience with the larger product community. The nominations can be submitted by anyone. And, if you are the first to submit the winning nominee,you too will be rewarded Over the course of the year, the various nominees are interviewed and the finalists narrowed down to: The Best Product Person of the year . The finalists are interviewed and evaluated for excellence in Product along the following lines… Becoming a Product Person, Your Product, Advice to Product People, and Future & Trends.
TBPP is both (1) the way the Product community gets together to recognize excellence amongst our ranks as well as (2) provide, to a large audience, insights into that excellence in a manner we can all learn from and leverage in our own Product journeys.
For more information about The Best Product Person award and past winners visit http://tpgblog.com/tbpp
About ‘The Product Group’
The Product Group is an opportunity for Product Managers, etc. to come together to meet, interact, and network. It’s an awesome way to meet fellow Product People in a laid-back, conversational environment within which sharing and learning can flourish and complement the knowledge base for all on a peer-to-peer basis. The NYC chapter of The Product Group meets the first Thursday of each month. If you are interested in a establishing chapter near you, please contact The Product Guy or The Product Group for more information. (http://tpgblog.com/theproductgroup/ )
If you are a great product person looking for a great product job, or vice versa, check out our job board. Thousands of employers across all areas of product, from management to design, from digital to physical, are looking to fill positions from our community.
Each week we highlight some of the recently posted openings. Check out this week’s newest, below…
If you are a great product person looking for a great product job, or vice versa, check out our job board. Thousands of employers across all areas of product, from management to design, from digital to physical, are looking to fill positions from our community.
Each week we highlight some of the recently posted openings. Check out this week’s newest, below…
Out of the hundreds of nominations, and 3 amazing finalists, the 5th annual winner of The Best Product Person is … Ladislav Bartos.
The Best Product Person (TBPP) is the leading international award honoring excellence in Product Management. Established in 2010, TBPP is awarded annually in association with The Product Guy and The Product Group.
Take a moment and congratulate The Best Product Person of 2014: Ladislav Bartos. (tweet)
Ladislav believes that success is in simplicity. That’s why his aim is to help companies to make complex products simple for users. He lives in London, currently working as CPO at Uvic Ltd, previously led product at international startups and large organisations such as Ebay. Ladislav focuses on user centric product development, especially on brand, usability and revenue product challenges. He is passionate about Lean and Agile Product management, innovative business models and business and product strategies. For more about his work, or to connect with him, visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/ladislavbartos.
Watch and learn more about Ladislav …
More to Come
Over the coming weeks we will be speaking with and learning more from Ladislav Bartos.
Thank you to everyone who participated, nominated, interviewed, AND passed on the word! The nomination period for The Best Product Person of 2015 has begun! The individual who first nominates TBPP is also awarded! This year, the first nominator of Ladislav received a $100 gift certificate to Amazon.com. Nominate your pick for The Best Product Person right now!
And, don’t forget, take a moment and congratulate The Best Product Person of 2014: Ladislav Bartos. (tweet)
Enjoy!
Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy
About ‘The Best Product Person’
The Best Product Person (TBPP) is the leading international award honoring excellence in Product Management. Established in 2010, TBPP is awarded annually in association with The Product Guy (http://tpgblog.com) and The Product Group (http://meetup.com/theproductgroup).
TBPP Recognizes 1 person each year, invites them to speak and share their knowledge and experience with the larger product community. The nominations can be submitted by anyone. And, if you are the first to submit the winning nominee,you too will be rewarded Over the course of the year, the various nominees are interviewed and the finalists narrowed down to: The Best Product Person of the year . The finalists are interviewed and evaluated for excellence in Product along the following lines… Becoming a Product Person, Your Product, Advice to Product People, and Future & Trends.
TBPP is both (1) the way the Product community gets together to recognize excellence amongst our ranks as well as (2) provide, to a large audience, insights into that excellence in a manner we can all learn from and leverage in our own Product journeys.
For more information about The Best Product Person award and past winners visit http://tpgblog.com/tbpp
About ‘The Product Group’
The Product Group is an opportunity for Product Managers, etc. to come together to meet, interact, and network. It’s an awesome way to meet fellow Product People in a laid-back, conversational environment within which sharing and learning can flourish and complement the knowledge base for all on a peer-to-peer basis. The NYC chapter of The Product Group meets the first Thursday of each month. If you are interested in a establishing chapter near you, please contact The Product Guy or The Product Group for more information. (http://tpgblog.com/theproductgroup/ )
Many people want the title Product manager. It sounds and reads suave and impressive. However, the ambiguity surrounding this particular role and its responsibilities and no set defined academic requirements leads people to self-proclaim themselves as a product manager a tad too early in their career. Similarly, many recruiters also do not have complete understanding of the skills of a product manager and as a result companies tend to make hiring decisions based upon domain experience against quantifiable product management skills. Here are some tips to land the best product manager job.
Take product management training for best knowledge
If you want the best product management job, you should have the best knowledge as well. Real product managers drive the product vision, work with designers and engineers and everyone in between, analyze the performance of the features and make decisions. As the tasks involved are extensive it become imperative for the aspiring candidate to have either extensive experience or training in the commonly agreed upon industry standards for the practice of product management. When you get trained, it helps you gain an inside view of the prevalent practices, enhance the existing knowledge and network with similarly skilled professionals.
Read product management books
As a product manager, you will have to manage a range of diverse activities, departments, work on a number of tools and deal with a highly diverse set of professionals. Reading product management books will enable you to speak the language of those involved. Interviewer might even ask you about some extra resources that you follow in order to stay ahead of the curve and if you come out with a name or two of some of the famous product management books it will definitely add to your appeal as a prospective candidate.
Crack the Interview
With the responsibilities that a product manager handles, it’s no surprise that candidates are overwhelmed when preparing for interviews. Sadly, there is no way you can bypass this critical step. The typical interviewer might test your design experience or analytical capabilities, your leadership skills or business acumen or just focus on the technical portion. You can never be too sure, thus, it is best to be prepared for everything. Customer empathy is another important quality that CEOs seek in their product managers. As Steven Sinofsky, the former President of Microsoft’s Windows division explains, “as a PM you are the voice of the customer so you have to really understand their point of view and context.” Some of his favorite questions include
What was the last product you bought and why?
Describe your buying process and what influenced your buying decision.
Develop Connections and leverage them
Networking has always been one of the best ways to secure a job that you wouldn’t have been able to in normal circumstances. In this age of internet, networking has also assumed different notions, and has turned into more of a social networking phenomenon. LinkedIn has become the de-facto for reaching out and meeting new professionals of an industry.
Joining the existing product management groups on this social network, and participating in the discussion or starting your own discussion is a good practice to make an impact. For a real world perspective you can join a local product management association and participate in the events. You can show this participation in your resume and also cash in on the opportunities to establish professional connections. Such groups and associations are sometimes the first places that recruiters and companies search for candidates for product management jobs.
Highlight your achievements
Crafting the right resume is a critical part of any job search process. Make sure that you highlight the right sections in your resume as recruiters only scan a CV for six seconds according to a study. Achievements are one section that fits the criteria. Your new job application should highlight all that you have achieved in previous organizations and jobs, and how these achievements align with the new product manager job that you are applying to.
There are rarely any professionals who start their career as product manager. The majority of them start their career in different functions and after gaining necessary skills and experience, and making the right moves ultimately break into the PM roles.
About Saurabh Tyagi Saurabh Tyagi is a career author with over 4 years of proven experience and expertise in writing article for various leading blogs and online publishing platforms. He is a technically sound person, equipped with the knowledge on various upcoming web technologies, including social media, product design, web design and development. You can find him here Saurabh Tyagi.
Thank you to everyone who participated, nominated, interviewed, AND passed on the word! The nomination period for The Best Product Person of 2015 has begun! The individual who first nominates TBPP is also awarded! This year, the first nominator of Ladislav received a $100 gift certificate to Amazon.com. Nominate your pick for The Best Product Person right now!
In our a recent live stream from one of our mentors of 
Matt Rogish
Andrew Breen
Jordan Bergtraum
Dominic Gadoury
Asha Gupta
Jeff Otto
Jon Stross
Aditya Bhelande
Calvin Chu
Steve Cohn
Adrienne Tan
Cindy Solomon
Ladislav Bartos
Mike Claiborne
Becky Yelland
Beth Temple
Raviv Turner
David Shoenberger
Ari Tiktin
Adrian Chernoff
Written by Guest Author: Saurabh Tyagi
If you want the best product management job, you should have the best knowledge as well. Real product managers drive the product vision, work with designers and engineers and everyone in between, analyze the performance of the features and make decisions. As the tasks involved are extensive it become imperative for the aspiring candidate to have either extensive experience or training in the commonly agreed upon industry standards for the practice of product management. When you get trained, it helps you gain an inside view of the prevalent practices, enhance the existing knowledge and network with similarly skilled professionals.