post

Footer About

Footer Contribute

Footer Get Involved

Footer Links

Mind the Product

Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML)

Microsoft lays off 3% of workforce while renogiating partnership with OpenAI

Podcast

How to build the right product culture during transformation – Joca Torres (Product Consultant)

B2B product management

Building Product Teams

Business Strategy

Data Driven Product Management

Digital Transformation

Diversity and Inclusion

Minimum Viable Product

OKRs

Prioritisation

Product Design

Product Research

Product Development Process

Product Ethics

Product Discovery

Product Leadership

Product Management Career

Product Strategy

Stakeholder Management

🌎 <a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/world-product-day/" style="color:#FFFFFF;text-decoration:underline;">Happy World Product Day!</a> Be sure to celebrate product, yourself, and your peers today! 🎉

Context, intent, change, purpose, constraints – a model for communicating requirements

5 difficult conversations and how to have them

DoorDash eats Deliveroo while OpenAI makes its biggest buy: This week’s news roundup

Why great product managers think like therapists

Tools and techniques to scale product teams – Charlotte King (Lead Product Manager, eBay)

Eira is an editor for Mind the Product. She's been a business journalist, editor, and copywriter for longer than she cares to think about.

Eira Hayward

<p><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://uk.linkedin.com/in/karen-velasquez" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Karen Velasquez</a></span> is a product manager who has been working at electronic signature provider Signable for the last 18 months. <a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/tag/how-i-got-my-job/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Here’s how she got her job in product.</a></em></p>
<hr />
<h3>How did you find out about the job and why did the role appeal to you?</h3>
<p>I saw it advertised on LinkedIn. It was local, I felt I could provide what they needed and also grow with the company.</p>
<h3>What professional and academic experience did you have prior to this role?</h3>
<p>I studied leisure and tourism management which has nothing to do with Product! Some of the management concepts have been useful. I’ve been a product manager for under two years, but I have a background in front-end development and project management.</p>
<h3>What was the job application process like?</h3>
<p>I applied for the role by sending my CV and a cover letter in the first instance. This was followed by an informal chat via video call first to assess cultural fit. Then I had a project to complete. I had to create a plan for implementing a new product  &#8211; we were told what the product was. We had to describe how we would go about making it a reality and why, and also  describe any assumptions we had made</p>
<p>Finally I had a more in-depth interview to present the project and the reasoning behind it.</p>
<p>I prepared for my interviews by researching common interview questions and answers. I studied my own CV and skills and had in mind what I wanted to make sure the company knew about me. I researched the organisation and my interviewers.</p>
<h3>What are your key roles and responsibilities?</h3>
<p>I report to the Head of Product, who is also responsible for Engineering, Design and QA.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m very hands-on with delivery, attending all scrum ceremonies and fulfilling the Product Owner role. I spend quite a bit of time evangelising the work we are doing and why internally. And I spend the final third of my time on analysis and strategy.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s a young startup. We lacked basic PM tools/processes to be able to run experiments, do user research, gather data, and monitor the product outcomes. There has been a lot of initial setup and groundwork &#8211; and learning on my part. The product works, but we need to be much more purposeful in deciding our product direction.</p>
<p>Because Signable is a startup, my work has a big impact on the whole organisation and the product. We&#8217;re full of ideas on where to head. The team is also amazingly kind and friendly, there is a big emphasis on mental health and making sure we strike the right balance.</p>
<p>I work remotely. I&#8217;m a mother of two, for years I had to send the kids to after school clubs. Working remotely allows me the flexibility to pick them up at the school gate which is priceless. Against that, one of my favourite morning routines was to catch up with each engineer in person, checking in on them and how the work was going. It&#8217;s much harder to build trust and relationships remotely, but not impossible. 🙂</p>
<h3>Tips for landing a product management job</h3>
<p>Start acting like a product manager even before you get the official position and title.</p>
<p>Read product management articles.</p>
<p>Attend product management conferences.</p>
<p>Speak to any product managers you know.</p>
<p>Join Mind the Product!</p>
<p>Go to ProductTanks.</p>
<p>Be a sponge and learn, experiment, fail, win, experiment again and keep going.</p>
<h3>How did you get your job in product?</h3>
<p>Not all career paths are forged the same. If you would like to share your story about how you landed your job in product we’d love to help you share it. <a href="https://mindtheproduct.typeform.com/to/uZkQg7?typeform-source=www.mindtheproduct.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Take this quick survey to get started!</a></p>


core/freeform

How do you avoid burnout in product management?

Susana Lopes: Embracing a dual-track career ladder in product

Career clinic for product managers by John Cutler

Hiring product managers by Kate Leto

Identify and manage imposter syndrome by Phyllis Njoroge

From PO to CPO: How to drive your product career by Namrata Sarmah

Learnings from London: The secret sauce to hiring great product people by Kate Leto

Building the perfect product manager: A model for professional development by Greg Prickril

Fireside chat with Marty Cagan

From engineering to product management at Google

How I got my job in product – Karen Velasquez, Product Manager Signable

ProductTank Valencia

ProductTank Auckland

ProductTank Helsinki

ProductTank Barcelona

ProductTank Lomé

ProductTank Wellington

ProductTank San Diego

ProductTank Canberra

ProductTank Perth

ProductTank Hong Kong

ProductTank Bangkok

ProductTank Doha

ProductTank Tel Aviv-Yafo

ProductTank Baku

ProductTank Reston

ProductTank Raleigh

ProductTank Charlotte

ProductTank Washington

ProductTank Richmond

ProductTank Cluj-Napoca

ProductTank Zagreb

ProductTank Amsterdam

ProductTank Edinburgh

ProductTank Paris

ProductTank Hamburg

ProductTank München

ProductTank Buffalo

ProductTank Manchester

ProductTank Bristol

ProductTank Oxford

ProductTank Madrid

ProductTank Des Moines

ProductTank Dallas

ProductTank Portland

ProductTank Curitiba

ProductTank Chicago

ProductTank Austin

ProductTank Philadelphia

ProductTank Montevideo

ProductTank São Paulo

ProductTank Los Angeles

ProductTank Gdansk

ProductTank Stuttgart

ProductTank Pittsburgh

ProductTank Bangalore

ProductTank Chennai

ProductTank Mumbai

ProductTank Fribourg

ProductTank Norwich

ProductTank Zürich

ProductTank Newcastle Upon Tyne

ProductTank Jacksonville

ProductTank Florianópolis

ProductTank Tallinn

ProductTank Buenos Aires

ProductTank Denver

ProductTank San Francisco

ProductTank Sheffield

ProductTank Tokyo

ProductTank Valletta

ProductTank Bologna

ProductTank Vancouver

ProductTank Milano

ProductTank Columbus

ProductTank Belfast

ProductTank Montréal

ProductTank Seattle

ProductTank Rotterdam

ProductTank Lausanne

Product Management Foundations BST

Product Management Foundations ET

ProductTank Reading

ProductTank Bielefeld

Communication & Alignment BST

Communication & Alignment ET

ProductTank Frankfurt

ProductTank Bonn

How I got my job in product – Karen Velasquez, Product Manager Signable

Eira Hayward

Read more