Upskilling for Product Managers
Featuring: Moe Ali, Product Faculty
Hello, all you product-loving folks! 💜
Welcome to this week's edition of Product Café, your weekly cup of coffee for everything product management, startups, and more. ☕
The Next Step
You have landed your dream job. You are managing products well and pushing out successful products, and your customers are happy, too. Life is good! However, if you stay in this cycle, you will barely grow further and evolve enough to reach higher positions.
This is why it is important to upskill. Upskilling should be continuous as it expands your horizons and helps you achieve more.
Not so long ago, we had an enriching conversation with Moe Ali, CEO of Product Faculty. With nearly a decade of experience, including at Apple, Moe unveiled insights into the importance of upskilling for product managers like nobody else.
Whether you're a novice navigating the early stages of your career or a seasoned senior PM, the journey of upskilling remains crucial. While there's a plethora of resources catering to aspiring PMs, the lack of advanced courses for senior PMs is a gap Moe Ali's Product Faculty aims to fill.
As you level up in the realm of product management, Moe Ali imparts three invaluable lessons from his extensive teaching tenure:
Focus on strategy
Understand the importance of alignment
Ask for help
Focus on strategy🧘
Moe Ali emphasizes that prioritization problems are often strategic problems. He says, “Strategizing can be incredibly helpful in getting you out of all sorts of problems, including resource blips. It doesn't matter who you're competing with; you could be competing against Giants, but you can still win if you are more strategic”. He emphasizes that relying solely on hard work is no longer effective; instead, strategic work is essential for success.
Understand the importance of alignment 🚲
Moe shares that most Senior Product Managers do not realize the importance of alignment. You need to understand the strengths of your team members.
Moe explains that while you may invest heavily in hiring the right talent through rigorous interview processes, that's only half the battle; the other half lies in understanding their objectives. Even with a talented team, success becomes unattainable if their goals diverge from yours. Therefore, for you to be successful, your team needs to be aligned with your goals. Remember, “Any time spent on alignment is not time wasted.”
Ask for help🤝
Even senior PMs from esteemed companies like Amazon are not hesitant to seek assistance. Moe highlights that many successful PMs have participated and still participating in his courses, emphasizing their commitment to continuous learning and upskilling. This accentuates that even the most successful PMs learn more and upskill.
If top-tier PMs prioritize ongoing development, so should you. Attaining senior positions shouldn't signal the end of learning; rather, it should ignite a keenness for continual improvement.
Going toward being a Product Leader
This section is dedicated to product managers who are on the journey to become a product leader.
Note: We have already published a detailed newsletter on the same topic.
Transitioning from a product manager to a product leader requires unique challenges and careful navigation. Moe Ali shed light on the complexities involved in this transformative journey.
Mindset Shift
Moving from managing products to leading people with deeper domain expertise demands a shift in mindset. As a product leader, your role evolves from being the expert to guiding experts. Sometimes, your teammates could be better experts in many aspects, but keep your egos aside. Remember what Moe said about successful product leaders? 👆
Yes, this shift can be daunting, yet you can ace your role with humility, adaptability, and a willingness to learn from your team members.
Strategic Focus
While product managers excel in driving day-to-day execution, product leaders must prioritize strategic alignment and goal-setting. Rather than delving into the nuances of product development, your focus shifts towards ensuring your team is pointed in the right direction, fostering alignment, and supporting them through effective coaching and mentorship. Now, this highlights why alignment is an important aspect.
Strengthen Your Super Power
Early on in your career, it is more about making sure you have the basic skill set. Later on, when you get to Senior positions, you should care less about your weaknesses and more about identifying your superpower–the unique strength that sets you apart. Embrace it, nurture it, and strive to become the absolute best in that.
Senior PMs should leverage their foundational skills while doubling down on their strengths, seeking opportunities that align with their superpower. This focus is the key to rapid growth and success.
Embracing Influence
Product leadership demands you constantly be in product review mode (PRM). Even if engaging with stakeholders isn't your cup of tea, there's no dodging it in this role. You must cultivate comfort with constant interaction and pivot towards influencing for the collective benefit of the organization rather than personal gain. Drawing a clear line between manipulation and influence is crucial: manipulation focuses on personal goals, whereas influence is focused on steering toward positive organizational outcomes.
Moe ended his conversation with us with an enriching message. He says at the heart of successful product management lies a crucial truth: egolessness breeds success. It's not about championing your own ideas—it's about hunting for the truth, regardless of its source. The most successful PMs are relentless seekers of causality, amplifying ideas from every corner, not just their own.
Point to that quiet engineer in the corner. Their silence might hold the key to brilliance. By actively seeking input from everyone, you elevate all ideas, increasing your chances of picking the best one. This approach, though challenging, is pivotal.
So, here's the bottom line: Be as egoless as you can be. It's tough—our attachment to our creations runs deep. But those who shed their egos are more likely to steer their products toward success. And in the end, isn't that what we're all striving for?
Watch our conversation here:
Some PM Course Suggestions
Dr Bart's Product Management Course
Advanced Product Management Courses by Product Faculty
AI Product Management Learning Program by PM Exercises
Meme of the week 😜
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That’s all, folks! Have something you want to share? Put them in the comments below, and we’ll get back to you soon.
See you again in the next edition! 🥂
