Peppercorn.ai hosted a conversation focusing on the journey to being a product manager with Braxton Bragg, moderated by Lirui Li.
Braxton Bragg is a consumer tech product leader with experience in mobile freemium gaming, media platforms, and the website editing/hosting space.
He is Co-author of "Product Sense: How to Solve Problems Like a PM, Ace Your Interviews, and Get Your Next Job in Product Management." https://productsensebook.com/. For anyone looking to get into product management, this book is a great starter to understanding the function and knowing what to learn about. His co-author and he wrote the book to help folks learn the basics. He then recommends that you then also reach out and network with people to learn more about their journey and what skill sets and experiences have made them successful as product managers.
Braxton leads Product at Laika, a platform that helps companies manage their compliance functions. Previously, he was Director of Product at Slice for the consumer experience, including iOS/Android apps, web, and Google Food Ordering. Before that, he was Product Portfolio Lead at McKinsey & Company in the Technology and Development group focusing on continuous improvements to McKinsey .com, the Insights app, A/B testing, and other miscellaneous projects intended to increase our audience size, visitor experience, and overall engagement with McKinsey content.
Overview of Product management in technology can be different across companies.
CEO of the product. Advocate for the user and present the business case to build out the product.
The product manager is the arbiter of what to build and why. They manage the road map of how the product will be built. Product management can be related to websites, applications and even operating systems today.
What are some skills to being successful in product management?
Having a mindset of "Satisfying the customer will help you reach your end goal" and creating an MDP - Minimum Delightful Product (vs MVP - Minimum Viable Product)
Being extroverted helps as you will be interacting with a lot of different constituencies (working with coders, designers, business team and customers)
A quantitative background is helpful as product managers do a little analysis
User empathy is critical to success. Identify and incorporate their perspective to what you want to build.
What delights your customer and what needs and wants can you provide them those then they will pay you for it.
Intellectual curiosity
Communication, consulting and presenting skills
Where do I start?
Read the book he co-authored "Product Sense: How to Solve Problems Like a PM, Ace Your Interviews, and Get Your Next Job in Product Management." https://productsensebook.com/
Read Books by Marty Cagan
Talk to other PMs to learn what they do day in and day out. What excites them, what are their challenges, what are their long-term goals.
The more people you talk to the better understanding of the space you will have since it is a vast functional space.
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