Breaking into product management can be hard but this session will cover all of the important steps needed to land your first Product Manager job (or to find a better one). Dan and Alex lay out concrete steps you can take to establish your credentials and to set yourself apart from other candidates.

1. Dan Corbin
Sr. Product Manager
Return Path
HOW TO LAND A JOB IN
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
Alex McCarthy
VP of Marketing and Product Management
American Innovations

2. Sponsors
Advocates
In Kind
Supporters

3. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
‣What is Product Management? What does a PM Do?
HOW TO LAND A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
‣Ways to get your foot in the door.
‣What skills, talent, and experience are needed?

4. WHAT IS PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT? WHAT
DOES A PM DO?
HOW TO LAND A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

5. HOW TO GET A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
WHY PRODUCT MANAGEMENT?

6. HOW TO LAND A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
BUSINESS &
INDUSTRY
TECHNICAL &
DESIGN
PRODUCT
FUNDAMENTALS
Product
Manager
WHAT DOES A PRODUCT MANAGER DO?

7. HOW TO LAND A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
ROLES WITHIN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
CTO / Development
CHALLENGES
‣ Not every company defines Product
Management the same way
‣ Some companies combine roles
‣ Some companies place these roles
under different departments
‣ Every company has someone who wants
to be doing what you’re doing
‣ Managing veto rights

8. HOW TO LAND A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
WHAT DOES A PRODUCT MANAGER DO?
● Create the product vision and deliver on that vision
● Own the product lifecycle
● Make strategic and tactical decisions
● Research, Planning, Discovery, Manage Agile
Process, Test, Implement, Product Releases, etc.

9. HOW TO LAND A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
WHAT QUALITIES MAKE FOR A GREAT
PRODUCT MANAGER?
Passion
Empathy
Work Ethic
Integrity
Confidence
Intelligence
Influence
Business Sense
Evangelizer

10. SKILLS & TALENT
HOW TO LAND A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

11. SKILLS AND TALENTS
HOW TO LAND A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
● Technical Aptitude
● Time Management
● Communication
● Focus
● Business Skills

12. HOW TO LAND A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
GET SOME TRAINING
● General Assembly, Galvanize, Product School
● Product Innovation Educators
● Udemy
● Form your own study group!
● Coursera
● Pragmatic Marketing, Proficientz

13. HOW TO LAND A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
GET CERTIFIED
● Pragmatic Marketing Certifications
● Google Analytics Academy
● The 280 Group
● Certified Product Owner (Talk with Agile Velocity!)
● AIPMM Certifications

14. HOW TO LAND A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
JOIN THE LOCAL PM COMMUNITY
● Product Austin
● Kickass PM
● ProductCamp Austin
● The Product League
● Agile Austin Product SIG

15. HOW TO LAND A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
GET A MENTOR
● TheProductMentor.com
● Austin PM community
○ Go to the meetups
○ Connect with people on LinkedIn
○ Ask people to meet for coffee (or beer!)

16. HOW TO LAND A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
BECOME A MASTER OF ONE
● Agile Expert
● SME
● Industry Expertise
● Wireframes
● Mobile Design
● Google Analytics
● A/B Testing
● API
● Public Speaking
● Jira (or Rally, Pivotal Tracker)

17. GETTING YOUR FOOT IN
THE DOOR
HOW TO LAND A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

18. HOW TO LAND A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
GET. SHIT. DONE.

19. HOW TO GET A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
PM
Operations
MarketingDevelopment
Sales Customers

20. PRODUCT MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE
● You don’t need to be a PM to learn the fundamentals of product
management.
HOW TO LAND A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
● Start a side project at work
● Create your own product

21. HOW TO LAND A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
BUILD YOUR OWN PRODUCT
Slack for Group Travel

22. HOW TO LAND A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
Integrate into Product Team
● Let them know you’re interested!!
● Join meetings, shadow a PM
● Identify a pain point and volunteer to help
● Demonstrate your PM abilities
● Develop an “inside advantage” – external candidates
can’t compete
● The key is to recognize the gap to be filled and start
doing it. Don’t wait.

23. HOW TO LAND A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
How You Can Help?
● Help with a product launch
● Write a white paper
● Help interview or survey existing and potential clients
● Setup A/B testing and compile results
● Out of box testing
● Test competing products and write a summary with product
differentiations
● Submit an Opportunity Canvas and ask for feedback

24. What Should I Do Next?
HOW TO LAND A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

25. Sponsors
Advocates
In Kind
Supporters

26. HOW TO LAND A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
THANKS!
Alex.B.McCarthy@gmail.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexmccarthy
Dan.Corbin@gmail.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielcorbin

27. RECOMMENDED READING

28. WIREFRAMES
ROADMAPPING
BACKLOG MANAGEMENT
ANALYTICS TOOLS
HOW TO LAND A JOB IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT