Clement Kao

While nearly every software company relies on product managers, many of them are still learning more about what a product operations team does and what value it provides Product...
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Over the past few years, we’ve interacted with thousands of product managers and aspiring product managers in our community Every time we speak to our members, we ask them...
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While many product managers know how to use Jira (a ticket tracking tool), they may not have mastery over some of the finer nuances of Jira, including JQL What is JQL JQL is...
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The best product managers treat themselves as products, and that means that they have a deep understanding of which market segments they target and which pains they solve within...
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Whenever a candidate applies to a new company for a product manager position, she must signal her value through multiple mediums While the resume is the most well-known part of...
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As part of the product manager interview process, you’ll find that you’ll be interviewing with engineering managers quite regularly After all, product managers work closely...
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As a product manager, your objective is to create products that solve user pain To solve the pain of your users, you need to understand them first - and user interviews are a...
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Nearly every product manager I’ve ever spoken with has the exact same situation - calendars filled entirely with meetings There’s a reason why we have so many meetings as...
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Product managers who build B2B products have all faced the problem before: a large customer needs the product to work in a particular way that isn’t currently supported So,...
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Interested in learning about the most traditional and foundational software development processes    The waterfall methodology is a linear project management approach that...
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As product managers, the one question that we get asked every now and then is: "What does a product manager do, anyway" Unfortunately, many of us still stutter while answering...
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  What's the difference between product manager vs project manager It certainly doesn't help that both are named so similarly, and I can't tell you the # of times I've...
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Product managers win when their products are adopted Therefore, half of the battle is building amazing products, and the other half of the battle is selling amazing products...
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Product managers are multiplicative, not additive In other words, we set the direction for others to take - and if we take them in the wrong direction, then we put the company at...
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In our previous article, we discussed how to shadow your sales team to uncover new insights about your product While shadowing your sales team can be incredibly valuable, you...
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Throughout this series of articles, we’ve provided frameworks for how to work effectively with your sales team: how to shadow sales calls, how to partner on sales calls, and how...
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In our previous article, we talked about the costs of context switching, and how to generally prevent context switching However, product managers don’t usually have the...
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As product managers, we only succeed if our products are adopted That means that we need to know both how to build amazing products as well as how to sell amazing products And...
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Since product managers fill the white space between departments and have so many tasks to juggle, we’re constantly switching between different contexts For example, one...
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When I work with product managers, I strongly believe that the most valuable product they ship is themselves In other words, product managers are also products In fact, I'd go...
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Product managers aren’t just responsible for shipping a product We’re also responsible for building the engine that builds great products In other words, we build processes,...
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Every product manager builds their product on top of some set of technologies (commonly known as a tech stack) As customer needs and organizational needs continue to change,...
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As you continue to grow in your product manager role with new responsibilities, you’ll find that you’re entirely in charge of your career trajectory and professional...
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It’s hard to find stellar product managers Due to that scarcity, employers are eager to attract product managers through generous compensation The software product...
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Product managers are fundamentally non-essential to the creation of a viable product - that is, we enable functions to collaborate and prioritize to provide 100x the impact they...
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Product managers deeply about the engagement of their users After all, engagement is an indicator that their product is providing value to users Of course, engagement can be...
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Whether you're an aspiring product manager or a senior product manager, you'll always need to have a fantastic resume Every hiring organization uses the resume to evaluate how...
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Product managers provide value to their customers through their product offerings Our primary objective is to create so much value for customers that they choose us, stay with...
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An efficient product roadmap is an integral part of any successful product Effective product managers lead their teams towards a vision of the future, and to do so they lean on...
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I can’t count the number of times I’ve been asked: “What is a product manager, and how do I become one” I’m always fascinated by this question, because the person...
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This article is a sequel to our popular post, Day in the Life of a Product Manager There are many different flavors of product management, especially since product manager...
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The role of a product manager is to fill in the white space between departments, to ensure that the customer receives a product that produces value, and that the has a product...
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As product managers, we work with many stakeholders from many different departments within our organization Our stakeholders rely on us to inform them on what’s happening with...
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Product backlogs are an invaluable way to gather ideas and capture inbound bugs from other stakeholders in the organization Not only that, as product managers, we heavily rely...
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As a product manager, you might work at a product organization that works with remote teams For example, I’ve worked with software development teams based out of India and...
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If you’re reading this article, congratulations! You’ve pulled together a compelling resume, you've studied your behavioral questions, you’ve practiced your case questions,...
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In the PMHQ Slack community, we regularly get thought-provoking questions that we feel should be explored in-depth and documented for future reference We're starting a new set of...
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As a product manager, you will be expected to know quite a few different areas of knowledge Not only are you required to become a domain expert in the product that you'll own, but...
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One of the most common questions I get asked is, “do you recommend that I get an MBA (Master’s of Business Administration) to become a product manager” My answer is,...
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Members of the PMHQ Slack community regularly host awesome events for product managers to swap tips and learn from one another In San Francisco, Vinay Melwani (Product Manager...
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One of the most critical value multipliers that a product manager can bring to the table is the ability to empathize with their engineers  A product manager who deeply...
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One of the best ways to break into the field of product management is to as an associate product manager (APM) After all, the associate product manager role is set up as an...
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Self-awareness is a critical trait for all product managers to have So, it makes sense for companies to test for self-awareness as part of the interview process One way to test...
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Regardless of background, we as product managers are obligated to know how to ship effective B2B (business-to-business) products After all, technology continues to evolve...
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This article is a sequel to our popular post, Day in the Life of a Product Manager There are many different flavors of product management, especially since product manager...
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Your product’s value to the customer is your benefit-to-cost ratio, also known as return on investment (ROI) Whenever you can provide more benefit through your product, or...
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Previously, we dove deep into creating a value proposition that is based on both meaningful customer research and thoughtful consideration of the benefits and costs that your...
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In our last post, we discussed how to select new technologies for your tech stack As a reminder, this decision is critical to the long-term health of both the product and the...
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In the PMHQ Slack community, we regularly get thought-provoking questions that we feel should be explored in-depth and documented for future reference We're starting a new set of...
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One of the main benefits of working in an Agile fashion is that you can shift your product priorities as the landscape around you changes While this benefit enables you to be...
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I’ve found that no matter what, part of the product manager interview process involves asking the failure question to prospective candidates The popular failure question...
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In the PMHQ Slack community, we regularly get thought-provoking questions that we feel should be explored in-depth and documented for future reference We're starting a new set of...
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As product managers, it’s critical for us to understand the lasting impact that we have on our users - and one of the easiest ways to do so is through cohort...
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In our previous article, we discussed cohort analyses in the business-to-consumer (B2C) product space We first broke down how cohort analyses enable you to see the difference...
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As product managers, we solve problems for users - both new users and existing users One of the best ways to get to know existing users better is to work alongside customer...
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One of the core responsibilities as a product manager is to determine the long-term strategy for their product To do so, product managers create product roadmaps to orient...
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One reason why product management is so complex is because context matters Different product distribution models fundamentally change the way that products are built, validated,...
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One core responsibility of a product manager is to analyze the performance of her product After all, by analyzing product performance, product managers can drive impact by:...
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In the PMHQ Slack community, we regularly get thought-provoking questions that we feel should be explored in-depth and documented for future reference We're starting a new set of...
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In the PMHQ Slack community, we regularly get thought-provoking questions that we feel should be explored in-depth and documented for future reference We're starting a new set of...
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During our last post of the PMs & Metrics series, we covered the details of retention rate In today’s post, we’ll be going over another important metric that PMs should be...
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As a product manager, you’re guaranteed to come across at least one large product-related crisis at work, if not multiple ones Therefore, crisis management is a core skill for...
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One of the biggest gifts I've received in my life is product mentorship Honestly, without mentorship, I would not be who I am today Regardless of your seniority, product...
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In the PMHQ Slack community, we regularly get thought-provoking questions that we feel should be explored in-depth and documented for future reference We're starting a new set of...
Read more

In the PMHQ Slack community, we regularly get thought-provoking questions that we feel should be explored in-depth and documented for future reference We're starting a new set of...
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In the first and second article in this series on value propositions, we discussed how to craft a value proposition, and how to execute on it For our final article in the series,...
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In our previous article, we discussed the three core categories of switching costs: financial, procedural, relational How might we use switching costs to drive more value from...
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Product managers are always juggling lots of initiatives at once, so it’s crucial for product managers to know how to effectively manage projects and deadlines In my own journey...
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Over the past few years as a business-to-business (B2B) product manager, I’ve learned when it comes to the success of a B2B product, process matters far more than technology...
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Many product organizations have stopped focusing on being data-driven, and are pivoting towards being data-informed instead What’s the difference between the two Let me...
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Members of the PMHQ Slack community regularly host awesome events for product managers to swap tips and learn from one another In San Francisco, Vinay Melwani (Product Manager...
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In the PMHQ Slack community, we regularly get thought-provoking questions that we feel should be explored in-depth and documented for future reference We're starting a new set of...
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What’s an objection As Merriam-Webster defines it, an objection is “an expression or feeling of disapproval or opposition” - and too often, our customers will have...
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As product managers, we’re responsible not just for performing customer research and writing user stories, but also for the performance and the behavior of our product Ensuring...
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In the PMHQ Slack community, we regularly get thought-provoking questions that we feel should be explored in-depth and documented for future reference We're starting a new set of...
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I’ve noticed that more and more people have been asking, “what is growth product management” and “is growth product management right for me” These are fantastic...
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We compiled this official guide based on conversations with hundreds of product managers in our PMHQ community who revealed the most popular product management tools and product...
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Product managers seek to find and address the pain of others - so it’s no wonder that some of the most altruistic and philanthropic people I know are product managers! In...
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While north star metrics are incredibly valuable for creating focus and alignment, they provide even more value when paired with a counter metric What’s a counter metric A...
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Because product managers fill in the white space between customers, the business, and the development team, product managers are always flooded with qualitative information -...
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One question I’ve regularly encountered as part of the product manager interview is the superpower question This question usually looks like the following: “What is your...
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One of the most frequent questions I get is, “how can I find a product manager job” I have good news for you: as software continues to eat the world, the need for talented...
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