I get this question often. What’s the Google Product Manager interview process? How should I prepare? First, it is a lengthy process. Below I distilled everything that I learned about the process before becoming an employee or going through the process myself. If you’re interested in how to prepare for the interviews (steps 3 and 4…
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Joining Google
I’m embarking on a new journey in my career and I’m incredibly excited for what’s to come. I will be joining the Google Product Management team, focused on Hire [1]. This is an exciting next step for me and one that I wouldn’t have considered even just a year ago. Google is a company that I’ve…
Learning resources for new product managers
A reader asked for learning resources I found useful when starting as a product manager without a computer science background. Below is a list of learning resources that I found helpful and rewarding as a new product manager. Most of the online resources are free. General Management [web] Ian McAllister’s Quora answers. Ian McAllister shares…
From consulting, customer success into Product Management
Three years ago, I transitioned from Customer Success into Product Management full-time. Here is what my résumé included: Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering Healthcare Consulting (3 years) Customer Success Management (1 year) I transitioned into Product Management at BloomReach, a Software-as-a-Service company. It was particularly important to me to do Product Management at a company in…
To do your best work, stop fragmenting your attention.
Last year, I was introduced to Slack, the new way to communicate among teams. If you’ve never heard of Slack, in essence, it’s chat rooms that anyone in your company can join. But instead of calling them chat rooms, Slack calls them channels. I hated it. And not because I disliked the app, it’s actually…
Startups won’t build your career on your behalf. You must.
Startups are sexy. Here in Silicon Valley, most people I meet either work for a startup or are thinking about starting one. Working for a startup is an alluring proposition for those seeking a challenge. Startups promise ownership, exciting work, and the opportunity to be part of the next big thing. If you’re considering a…
Being ‘too busy’ is not productive. Prioritize and focus on what matters.
Productivity has been a topic of huge interest to me over the past few years. In fact, when having a discussion with a friend, I told her that my goal is to help people be more productive. Not happy, productive. If people are productive, my thinking went, they would be doing the things they love…
Don’t defend your product prioritization. Instead, show how you got there.
A critical part of a product manager’s job is prioritizing what to build. You must decide what to build now in order to make your product successful in the long term. More importantly, you decide what not to build. This will always draw plenty of opinions. Your colleagues have an example of clients that loved…
Don’t run away from discomfort at work. Clarify, remove obstacles and find purpose.
There will be times in your career in which your work won’t push you into that magical state of flow. The work that you are doing will not hit that balance of challenging without stressing you. You may be working on a project that doesn’t challenge you enough. You may be comfortably project managing a…
Becoming a Product Manager without a Computer Science degree
“Can I become a product manager without a computer science degree?” I asked that question to many product managers, friends, and anyone who’d listen when I was considering a transition into product management. I eventually transitioned into a product manager role at a startup, and now work as a product manager at Google, without ever…