Kathy Borkoski

Network your gd face off. The market is full of laid off product people right now. You can waste time updating your resume and applying through LinkedIn and indeed. Or. Or you can start messaging people for a 15 minute chat to get their advice on your next role. Zoom has made this insanely easy. And we all want to help people that have fallen victim to the poop sandwich the market is handing employees right now. So ask for a chat. Have a REAL conversation with the person and learn about them while sharing your experience (not the story of your tragic layoff) and ask them if they can connect you to other people in the types of companies you want to work for. Do this 10 times a week for the next 2 months and crush the interviews you get.

Don’t assume your experience of the problem encapsulates the whole of the problem. Different user groups, demographics, etc. have different experiences with the problem. So talk to others with the problem during the research and exploration phase.

1/ don’t become a product manager if you aren’t comfortable with ambiguity. 2/ work with your manager to layout their expectations of you 3/ check in regularly to make sure you are meeting those expectations 4/ crush it (whatever the agreed upon “it” is - clear strategy, good processes, stakeholder alignment, successful launches, clear requirements, iteration, metrics attainment, etc.)

Please, please, be interesting. No matter how excited you are about your login improvements, it is very unlikely a prospect or customer will be, too. Only show the features that really solve problems. But when you talk about those features, start with the problem and remind them how much it hurts (really drive the knife in if you can), then razzle dazzle them with your sweet solution that makes the pain go away.

Start with the data, make sure there’s clear business value and try to get other people to share your goals. If it’s really a huge thing but wasn’t already on the team’s radar, you need to make a case stronger than NCIS Las Vegas.

I would expand this to: ask any questions. Training can get very one sided, especially if you think “I just need to get through all this material.” You may finish, but no one will be learning. To get your learners to go deeper, ask questions about their own experience and what they’ve learned from users.