Well, the same type of people also work at Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Slack, Instagram, and every other tech company we interact with every day.
The responsibilities of a product manager range from leading the product team to maintaining communication among multiple stakeholders. This is common for companies that have a broad range of products. Product managers in google have more control over strategies and key decision-making about the product. Think of product managers at Google as mini CEOs of their business unit. Of course, one of the most exciting aspects of being a product manager is coming up with new product ideas.
This is a core responsibility of Google PMs. They look for new opportunities and develop ideas and pitch them internally to other stakeholders. Once approved, these ideas are then translated into concrete strategies by the PMs.
After they have shaped the strategies, product managers create a product roadmap to outline the entire process of product development to launch. Google PMs conduct extensive market research to stay on top of the market range. One way they do this is talking to customers. They look for opportunities to enhance and optimize existing products and come up with completely transformative ideas.
A Google product manager needs to have a good understanding of the market, competition, and its users. Knowing the user is an integral part of everything a PM in Google does, from creating product strategies to designing the product.
They also need to be aware of the market trends, to constantly keep their products relevant and be in a competitive position. A product manager role in a big tech company like Google requires efficient collaboration among multiple teams. Teamwork is an important part of any product manager role, but in a company like Google, it is integral. A product manager at Google needs to link multiple teams together, including the design, engineering, marketing, and finance teams.
They need to keep everyone focused on a common goal. Product managers at Google have the essential job of extensively testing new features to find any bugs or scope of improvement. This happens right before the launch of a product or a feature but is also an ongoing process. With the help of volunteers around the world, PMs lead the process of gathering feedback. Once they gather enough information on the user experience and functionality, the product team gets back to work.
Google PMs need to be efficient with handling the debugging process. This process of finding bugs and improving features continues even after the launch -- gathering feedback from both internal and external sources.
Facebook products extend far and beyond social media. Product Managers at Facebook work with teams of expert engineers, data scientists, and marketers. They are responsible for a range of managerial and product-related duties. Facebook is an extremely data-driven organization. PMs at Facebook have varying roles based on specific areas that are religiously tied to performance metrics. Some product managers focus on collecting and analyzing data, while others are more design and feature-oriented.
Together, these product managers work as a team to define, develop, test, launch, and evaluate everything they create -- from a simple dropdown menu to a complete advertising platform. This requires PMs at Facebook to be very flexible and able to pick up new concepts quickly.
Moreover, some product managers will be laser-focused on a particular feature whereas others might focus on the development process or the overall roadmap. The product managers at Facebook are particularly collaborative in this way. They have a knack for breaking down product initiatives into bite-sized chunks to efficiently achieve a specific goal in the product development process.
Good teamwork is crucial at Facebook. Product managers play a pivotal role in managing and delegating tasks to team members. PMs make sure that the engineering managers have access to all the resources they need. They also collaborate with designers and specialists to create bug-free products efficiently.
Moreover, Facebook product teams need to interact with multiple departments before and after releasing features -- from marketing to sales, customer teams, and executive committees. They are the glue that holds the organization together. Facebook is huge. They likely have product initiatives going on at any given time, or more. Product managers are primarily responsible for getting things done and getting them done on time. This is one of the things that product managers at Facebook report as so satisfying.
Product managers need a range of skills to be successful at bringing products to market at Facebook. They facilitate collaboration by maintaining steady communication among the teams. They need to be able to see the big picture and nearly predict how users will react and use what they build. If you love understanding who the customer is, their needs, and why they behave in a certain way, you may do well in a product manager role. Added to this, you will need to have a keen interest in competing products, determine the role of the product in the bigger scheme of a business, and define how it will be marketed to the customers.
If the product manager role intrigues you, here are 15 statistics about a career in product management you need to know:. In an attempt to get an idea of the number of product managers out there, we ran a search on the social network for career and business professionals, LinkedIn. We found that , individuals listed their profiles as a product manager August 22, Of course, the actual numbers are likely to be higher because some people may not have profiles on LinkedIn.
This indicates a growth of over half a million in about six years. The results show that The other 1. The same percentage is involved in go-to-market decisions, with half of these also taking part in making decisions involving pricing.
The pie chart below, provides an idea of what most product managers say they spend most of their time doing. Read more about what product managers do to find out more about the role and key responsibilities. Customers also generally tend to have more information, making them more demanding. The same article also reports that Harvard Business School reports that it is only able to accept one in every three applications to its Product Management course.
Finding the average salary of a product manager is quite complicated because different sources use different methods in providing answers. However, it is essential to note that salaries are affected by demand, location, cost of living, and standard of living in various parts of the world. One of the go-to sources for salary information, Glassdoor , a U. With the U. Census data showing that the median household income in the U.
Acquiring technical courage means you do not get intimidated by complex technical concepts and terminology. Once you dig into a technical subject, for example, like reading a white paper or book on some aspect of data science or security, you find the core concepts are actually quite simple once you unpack the jargon.
Being a Product Manager at Google can have a great career trajectory. Many go on to run business units or start their own businesses. One of the key things you can do to prepare for an interview for a Product Manager role at Google is to study their Product Excellence Framework. Sometimes, having too much knowledge can lead you to false assumptions about how users will experience a product.
To mitigate potential bias, make sure you analyze , observe and ask. A great concept to learn about is Design Thinking , which helps individuals think out of the box when innovating new technologies and ask questions that challenge assumptions.
A Critical User Journey is basically the path that a user takes to achieve a goal. When a person wants to engage with a technology, what are the steps they take to go through the process of achieving their goal?
For example, if a user wants to play a game, you can find out information such as how they search for the game, what buttons they hit, and what browsers or apps they use. When you understand the path a user takes, you understand how they use the product. Prioritization involves empathizing with users. This takes into account that users are not all the same and that all avenues of how they use a product need to be covered and assessed.
Preparing for potential pitfalls is essential to being a successful Product Manager. Understand any downsides, risks, and be ready for them. The concept of principles is that you determine what keywords your team will use to describe product excellence. When you have these key principles in mind, you can make sure to calibrate the product to meet those principles. What kind of measurement will fit your goal? Cross-check the progress of the product against the key principles, and continue to improve the product.
The interview questions will be focused on evaluating your capabilities in these areas: management, technical knowledge, analytical skills, and creativity. Here are some sample questions:. And this great resource from TopTotal explains where a PM fits in the org and looks at it from the perspective of the hiring manager.
My mock interview techniques will prepare you for the unexpected and I'll help you perfect your stories so they impress the interviewers.
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