The product management stack is based on the principle that to grow products within a large organization and shepherd teams, sustainably, personal development, diagnostic analysis, and strategic thinking is required. While being an expert in your product is valuable, we understand that promotability only comes after self-mastery and analytical acumen.
Thesis
You cannot manage others until you master the management of yourself.
Thesis
To manage the decisions of people, you must know what they do, how they do it, and why they do it that way.
Thesis
Product is not hard. With frameworks, it's masterable.
I kicked off my career in tech through a
two-year Associate Product Management program at Indeed.com. I chose Indeed for its data-driven and experimentation culture. My first product was a massive, global design system implementation. I ran 30 different variables and ran over 60 A/B and multi-variate tests. The opportunity built my analytical acumen and refined my natural inclination for diagnostic analysis and set me on a trajectory for more strategic leadership. Year 2, I replaced a senior product manager and independently led a team of 12 engineers, 2 designers, and 3 QA. I made go/no-go consultative decisions for product teams outside of my own core team. I was responsible and accountable for significant work. It paid off indirectly. I built a reputation for strategic thinking and sound leadership through crises. It led me to a unique strategic role as a NLP and Search Product Manager owning the areas of Query Understanding and Platform. There, I led a team of 8 engineers, 3 linguists, 4 taxonomists, a data scientist and a product scientist across Tokyo and the US. I built the overall team strategy and drove the hiring of team members to support the areas I carved out. After a sponsor shared that my strengths lay in the strategy and leadership and that I had a knack for simplifying complexity, I transitioned to a role in Corporate Development that took advantage of a skillsets as a strategic, savvy, cross-organizational leader that had an uncanny ability to grow things outside of its existing boundaries.
This is where we answer all your questions. Check it out.
Engineers and product managers have distinct skillsets. An engineering skillset is binary - the code is either good or bad, operable or inoperable. Product isn't so. Success in the role is driven by how satisfied people are with how you think, how fast you think, and what you think. In some instances, it's about what you believe and how you work irrespective of quality. In a nut shell, it's nuanced. Therefore, the nuance requires whole-person development rather than confined hard skill development.
Through lived-experience. Product came naturally to us, but we weren't being promoted. Relationships strengthened and company awareness of our work increased, and we saw our performance ratings go up. However, we weren't promoted until people felt like they could trust that we knew who we were and could show up consistently in any room with any exec or stakeholder the same way. When an unwavering sense of self was developed, we were perceived as more reliable and therefore endorseable for promotion. The people and person components of product are the missing pieces for most PMs. Our goal is to contextualize it for them and provide the resources to bridge the gap to promotion and enable a sustainable career in product.
Email us at fullstackproductmanager.com
Email us at fullstackproductmanager.com with the subject line:
"Opportunity you can't pass up"
Our team will answer all your questions. We ensure a quick response.
