How to choose a good product manager

Most people remember that the product manager is the soul of the product, the manager of the product. But in practice, can the product manager play such a big role? How to choose a good product manager? After reading this article you should be able to get the answer you want.

It's been a while for a start-up to recruit, and it's quite different to be in a startup with a big company. In Yahoo! Search, it feels like we're always hiring. I have 5-8 interviews a week. There are endless resumes, interviews and hiring agreements. Now I don't always work as a hiring manager. When you work, you only hire a few product managers. But the company is always recruiting, and I'm often a member of the interviewing team. In a big company, the first thing you can notice is that the division of labor is meticulous. In startups, people have to do all kinds of things more or less, so what you need is the almighty hand. More importantly, the future is unpredictable, so you have to recruit highly adaptable people. You may think you're looking for someone to do a special job, but it's not likely to change in a few months. This is different from the way a big company is recruited, and when you're recruiting, you know exactly what position you're looking for, and the chances of change are small. Most of the people recruited in Yahoo! may not be suitable for startups. I remember some of the previously recruited conversations, almost all of them-"Well, I'm not sure they're perfect candidates, but they all look good for the job, so just take it." "It might be useful in a big company, in a start-up, that's the idea of getting killed," he said.

My career started as an engineer, and soon entered the high project management queue. In the meantime, I probably hired hundreds of engineers. I've learned a lot about recruiting, and most of it is learning from mistakes. When I turned into a product manager, I could use some recruiting experience to hire a technician, but I learned a whole new set of lessons. Last week, a friend told me that he needed to hire a product manager to listen to my suggestions. I realized that there was no rich and good information about the interview product Manager (in general, there was no rich and good advice on product management). More crucially, you should look for product managers, no matter what the environment you are in-startups or big companies are not many. So I want to combine some of the things I've learned.

Man, remember, no one asked you to show up.

Product management is a team that can function properly even if it lacks (at least for a while). Without an engineer, nothing can be done. Without salespeople, nothing can be sold. Without a designer, your product will look like rubbish. But in a world without product managers, everyone can simply fill in the blanks and move on with their lives. Be sure to remember-as a product manager, you are not a necessity. Now, in the long run, a good product manager can really determine success or failure, but you have to give proof. Product management also combines the elements of many other positions-engineering, design, marketing, sales, business development. The discipline of product management is full of quirky, abandoned people who are completely unfit for other places. For me, I like the technical challenge, in addition to writing code. I like to solve problems, but I hate to be dictated by others. I want to be involved in tactical decisions and I want to have a product. The market appeals to me creatively, but I know I don't want to be too far away from technology. The engineers all respect me, but also know that my heart is elsewhere, they all think I am too "marketable" person. People like me will naturally be attracted to product management.

1. Hiring smart people only

What do I do when I'm looking for a PM? More importantly, born smart. I would rather have an inexperienced PM than the Grinch, but his intellect is more than the average person with years of experience. Product management is fundamentally about your way out, one step ahead of your competitors and the ability to imprint yourself in the minds of your co-workers and customers. I often ask candidates for a series of analytical questions to measure their intelligence and problem-solving abilities. Usually, I ask questions all the time until I think the candidate is smarter than me. For some reason, most people I know hate doing this. They thought it was insulting the candidate. I think the right candidate will relish the challenge. In fact, this was the first Test-and when they reacted, I said, "I want to ask some theoretical questions, so can I?" The best group of people usually jump out of their chairs with an excited expression. And super savvy people sometimes use these questions to ask themselves.

2. Strong technical background

Some of the managers I know insist on recruiting only those with computer science degrees as product managers. I'm not a snob, but I tend to like people with technical backgrounds, which may be related to my liberal arts background. Having a solid technical background can give the product manager two key skills-the ability to relate to the engineers and the ability to manage the technical details that drive the product development. Of course it has to do with the product-a product manager who touches the underlying development API must have more technical details than a product manager who is responsible for the front-end design of a personal site. But the basic principle is applicable--a product manager with a technical background that is more successful when it comes to communicating product requirements to engineers and explaining complex technical details to colleagues and customers who are not skilled. Even so, there are some pitfalls you need to avoid. The most important thing is that a product manager who used to be an engineer must realize that she is just a former engineer. Surprisingly, a product manager from an engineer who is still trying to control technical decisions and implement details will fail. Because of this, I like to recruit someone who has a technical background and has turned into a product manager in the last job. They've been through that challenging period of adaptation, and they can also see how they fit in by looking at resumes. I'm too lazy to ask questions to assess technical skills during an interview. This is a specific technical direction, and if you're looking for an engineer, there are hundreds of websites that can offer you good advice. Instead, here are some good questions to assess the adaptability of a product manager to the role and his ability to work with an engineer:

Why did you decide to switch from an engineer to a product manager?

What do you think is the biggest advantage of having a technical background?

What is the biggest disadvantage?

What's the biggest lesson you've learned in your transition to a product manager?

What do you want to learn when you are an engineer?

How do you get the respect of an engineering team?

3. The product instinct and creativity of "superhuman ability"

This chapter is very subjective, difficult to articulate but extremely important. I'm a specific crowd. Product instinct is a loyal supporter of this view. These people just know what kind of products are good products. They may not always be right, but their instincts always take them in the right direction. They tend to be strong supporters of a certain point of view that sometimes annoys their co-workers. I've been fortunate to have worked with many of these people, and it's a very important exercise for product managers. That feeling can only be understood. For product management, there are a number of small and miscellaneous decisions that are involved when you are in a highly variable environment such as a network. Of course, it can also have big ideas and decisions. But it is these small decisions that make it possible to tell whether the product manager has gone or is a great one. When other people in the same group don't think about it and they come up with their own advice, the others immediately realize that you will find their "superhuman abilities". It's really a challenge to judge this product instinct in an interview. But it can be done. One of the things I often do is to observe in an hour-long interview whether they have completed all of the following interview tasks:

Independently repeat some of my own views on my product-if you are a good product manager, you will consider many things that affect the product. Perhaps the product's appearance is not good, the function is too small or the product construction itself has to be pointed out defects. These are the things you should think about to make up. I have been waiting for a moment, that moment makes me smile, nod, and even can't help but say: "To what you say is also very let us crazy things."

Show me something new about our products-these are the new things that I've never thought of. A product improvement, an idea that hits a competitor, or a problem that has been overlooked. When I get this information from the candidate, I know two things: first they dare to judge, second they are smarter than me. And these two things are what I need the product manager should have.

Guide me to learn something new or interesting-people who have good product instincts tend to be aware of better products before others. If I'm interviewing for a first-rate candidate, I tend to walk away thinking about new discoveries or new ideas.

Here are some good questions about how to judge a product's intuition:

Tell me about a good product you've met recently. Where do you like him? [By the way, when the interviewer says one of my products, it's going to be crazy. I've had a hard time in Yahoo!, and when I was recruiting, they often said that the best product I've ever met was Yahoo!, and it was really painful. ]

What makes [a product here] successful? [I usually pick a popular product, like an ipod or an ebay, that's easy to get from customers in a crowded market.] ]

What do you dislike about my product? How will you improve?

What kind of problems do we have in a year? What about two years? What about ten years?

How do you make sure that the design of a product is good?

What is one of the best ideas you come up with?

What about the worst one?

How do you decide when you should take the shortcut to get the product on the market?

What lessons do you have in interactive interface design?

How do you decide what not to do?

What is your biggest product mistake?

What aspect of the product manager are you least interested in and why?

Do you think you are innovative?

4. Leadership is won.

Product managers are often leaders in their institutions. But they often don't directly lead other people's rights. This means that they must gain authority and leadership through influence. Leadership and interpersonal skills play a decisive role in a product manager. There are hundreds of thousands of books on leadership, so I don't want to turn this article into an article on this topic (most of them are nonsense). I found that background checks are the most effective way to measure leadership, especially when it comes to peer and individual participants working together. But don't mention these to the candidate. But here are a few questions I used in the past:

Is consensus always a good thing?

What is the difference between management and leadership?

What kind of people do you like working with?

What types of people do you find difficult to work with?

Tell me about a team with no cohesion. What do you think happened in this situation? What did you learn from it?

How do I get a team to give you a timetable?

What does someone do that will make you lose faith in it?

Do you manage different positions differently? If so, what's the difference?

What have you learned from saying no?

On line a product who should bear the ultimate responsibility?

Has your team ever let you down and let you have to take responsibility for it?

What have you changed about tolerance errors in the past year?

Do you like the good news or the bad news?

What is your method of recruiting?

5. Ability to guide diverse perspectives

Becoming a product manager needs to wear more hats. I often joke that product managers spend most of their working time yelling about who's not in the room--customers, engineers, sales, executives, marketers. This means you need to have the ability to do other people's work, but it's not necessary if you're smart enough. A good product manager knows how to steer a diverse perspective. Product managers often play the role of the devil. They have a tendency to be dissatisfied with simple answers. In a conversation they may tell you that the demand seems technically unworkable and ask how much it means to salespeople. There is an easy way to evaluate a candidate's abilities by thinking about a multi-angle problem--a lot of people will be met during the interview process. I often insist on representing engineering, design and marketing as a potential product manager at least. This list can be added based on specific roles-pre-sales, engineering, support, developer relationships, business development, law or customers themselves. Finally, the person who works with this person to be satisfied, notice I did not say need everyone to be satisfied. A carefully selected person can satisfy a key point on the line. That doesn't mean everyone has to be praised--it's hard to reach a consensus in a lot of candidates ' interviews, so think about feedback appropriately. But no one can tell that the product Manager understands the sales process as well as the sales staff. I also strongly recommend that you give the candidate detailed instructions, such as: "I want you to understand the problems people face in guiding development and how we do it in the actual scene. They will support you". Here are some of the detailed questions I used before (these are just examples that feel easy to replace the name of the feature):

Have you learned how to work with sales?

What is the best way to communicate with customers?

What makes marketing work?

How do you know the design is on the right track?

How does a product Manager support business development?

What have you learned about management?

What's the best way to work with executives?

6. Give me a man who has done something.

The last feature may be the easiest to evaluate. Unless it's a junior position, I usually hire managers who have done real products. "Done Product" here refers to the whole process from concept design to product running. There is nothing better than a successful product before, a better description of a person with the ability to make good products. Past performance is a harbinger of future success. More importantly, it is visible in a stack of intangible features that need to be evaluated. When it comes to validation, I always make sure to talk to important colleagues in the project, especially the manager of the project manager, their engineers, sales or market peers. (Incidentally, there is a reason for these rules to be sorted.) As I mentioned in the first article, I prefer to choose a project manager who is not a successful experience but is very smart and will not choose a person who is experienced but has a mediocre performance.