Product Management Guide for Young Product Managers

Young #Product Managers that get hired at startups often think about how to best prepare for the role.

I see them actively seeking recommendations about resources which is great.

However, only a few brace themselves for the biggest challenge for a startup PM.

The loneliness of the role.

Not being able to bounce off ideas & get product-specific mentorship within the company can be quite frustrating.

Sure, learning best practices & principles is helpful but sometimes you just need something more tailored.

Your boss will be busy running the org. If you take a user story to an engineer, they'll focus on execution & complexity. Take it to a designer & they'll comment on UX. And so on.

For sure, that counts as valuable feedback too but they don't necessarily come from the customer's POV. Moreover, there's little product advice e.g. on roadmaps, strategy, priorities etc.

In such scenarios, you'd wish for a Senior PM who knew the product inside out, understood the audience & lit a path to make decisions.

Alas.

There's no easy answer here but a few things I learned late in my career that might help in such roles:
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1. Network with a lot of customers

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2. Seek advice from external domain experts

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3. Get specific feedback from Reddit & Quora.