Google and Microsoft PMs on strategies to improve skills
š One major challenge I faced as an aspiring Product Manager was improving my skills without a PM job. Here are practical ways of improving your PM skills:
š Hey, itās Valentine. Welcome to my weekly newsletter where I share resources and tips to help you become a product manager. If youāre not a subscriber, hereās what you missed previously:
4 case studies I submitted to hiring managers got me offers from different companies. (Join 16+ people who have access )
Solutions to 7 popular PM interview questions using frameworks from PMs at Google, Microsoft, and Amazon PMs (Join 7+ people who have access )
Free resources (worth at least 3500$) that helped me transition from customer success to Product Management (liked by 500+ people
Sample resume used by PMs to land a Microsoft offer. (Liked by 2000+ people)
An obvious action is to take PM courses. However, you need practical ways to apply the knowledge from the courses,
Here are practical ways of improving your skills:
1. Shadowing PMs
2. Volunteering
3. Podcasts and free resources
4. Product teardowns
5. ā Technical skills development
6. ā Side Projects
PS: Comment āfree templateā if you want an editable template to build your side project and land your first PM role
Letās deep dive
1. Shadowing PMs:
If you currently work in a company with PMs, with permission you can shadow and learn from (Snr) PMs while In your current role. You can help with tasks like collating and analyzing data and talking with customers.
ā If you donāt have PMs in your company, with permission you can carry out PM tasks like user research in addition to your current tasks.
2. Volunteering:
Volunteering on tech or NGO projects is another way to practicalise your skills. This allows you to build skills while looking for a paid role.
3. Podcasts and free resources:
YouTube has valuable content relating to product management. Here are some channels I find useful
Product School: learn from product leaders in big tech companies like Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Spotify, Amazon, etc.
Lenny Ratchisky: Learn from the hard-worn experience of tech leaders and founders like Oji Udezue, Christian Idiodi, etc.
Diego Granados: gain tips from Google AI PM for transitioning into and excelling as a product manager
ā Exponent: Helps with PM, developers interview preparation, and mock interviews from
RocketBlocks: Helps with PM and consultant interview preparation
4. Product Teardowns:
This would help improve your product sense. You can build product sense by analyzing and improving successful products. Your goal is to think as a PM would to improve the product
Here are the steps for a product teardown:
Identify the problem the product solves.
ā Identify an underserved user segment.
Identify 2-3 pain-points
ā Suggest 2 or 3 tech features that you would add to the product to solve the pain points of the user segment
Document your findings
Share with senior colleagues or online
5. ā Technical skills development :
Another way is to improve your technical skills. You can do this by learning SQL, Technical concepts, or the basics of coding. You can take a coding course on Codecademy and build projects
6. ā Side Projects:
Another way is to solve an intresting problem around you where you can practice core PM skills.
Here are steps to build a side project:
Identify problem
ā User research
Prototype solution
Iterate Prototype
Letās deep dive
Identify a problem worth solving: Look around or online for an unsolved or under-solved problem.
User research: talk to people about this problem: Find people around you who face this problem. Ask 5 times WHY? until you reach the root of the problem. Get data that supports your hypothesis that the problem you found is, indeed, a problem worth solving. Remember, PMs solve customer problems, not their own problems.
Prototype solution: There are several no-code apps for building side productd. Some examples are Carrd, Bubble, etc After that, share your product with users with this problem for feedback. Update the prototype leveraging feedback from users.
š Launch your project: Share your product on social media to find potential users. You can include the experience on your resume
Finally, these are not silver bullets. Transitioning into product management is a marathon, not a sprint. I hope this helps someone today!
When you are ready, I can help you in four ways:
4 case studies I submitted to hiring managers got me offers from different companies. (Join 16+ people who have access )
Solutions to 7 popular PM interview questions using frameworks from PMs at Google, Microsoft, and Amazon PMs (Join 7+ people who have access )
Give you free resources (worth at least 3500$) that helped me transition from customer success to Product Management (liked by 900+ people
Give you a sample resume used by PMs to land a Microsoft offer. (liked by 2000+ people)
Free Resources
Product School: What is Product Management and How to Break Into It by Google PM, Pratik Thaker at
Growing as a PM in the Course of Your Career by Google PM Director
Lennyās Ratchisky: What it takes to become a top 1% PM | Ian McAllister (Uber, Amazon, Airbnb)
Mastering product strategy and growing as a PM | Maggie Crowley (Toast, Drift, TripAdvisor)