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Product-building articles by PMs at major tech companies

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Re: Product-building articles by PMs at major tech companies

#41

Post by munchbunny »

captain_crabs wrote: post #5

General question I've been wondering tangentially related: Engineers: is working [edit: replacing 'under' with 'with' due to replies! good clarification, didn't mean under] with a non-technical product manager a dealbreaker for you? (Do you look to filter out places you'd work at while job searching?) Conversely, have you ever worked under a non-technical product manager you loved? Would you mind sharing details abou…

CS degree and am an engineer now, but I was a PM for ~6 years and hired/managed PM's.

I split technical background into two things: domain expertise and engineering experience. I value domain expertise most, engineering experience second.

Whether it's a dealbreaker really depends. In adtech, I wouldn't consider either matter a dealbreaker even for senior PM's. In cybersecurity, lack of technical background would absolutely be a dealbreaker, and except for junior hires, I would consider lack of domain expertise a dealbreaker too.

One problem domain is much trickier than the other and much more prone to paying the cost later for shortcuts taken earlier. I want to know my PM can navigate that with nuance.

Re: Product-building articles by PMs at major tech companies

#42

Post by aerophilic »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #22
mud_dauber wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a good reason to release an HN clone for PMs - or use the r/ProductManagement or r/prodmgmt forums on Reddit in a more consistent manner. I'm all for sharing best practices too - but they're locked in my Google Keep without real sharing capability. SMH.

I can spin a clone up tonight if there is enough interest, cause it's something I think would be valuable. That said, we tried this before specifically for longer form hacker news discussions [1] and it died in less than a year. Not sure how to guage interest without seeming spammy, people can email me or just upvote this comment I suppose. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17091262 [2] https://hackerforums.co…

What would a potential url be? Suspect it would be useful to keep the ycombinator “brand”.

So maybe a sub-site like “pm.ycombinator.com”? Mentioning it here to see what others think...

Edit: Another thought: what if there was a way to “set” an option which would “filter” ycombinator depending I your background interest? When submitting you “tag” of relevant to an area (such as pm, software dev, testing, etc). If you set your interest levels at the top, it will automatically prioritize items based on interest, but allow general interest items to remain on top. (Also avoids issue of second website to visit)

Re: Product-building articles by PMs at major tech companies

#43

Post by 3into10power5 »

carchase wrote: post #11
polote wrote: post #2

There is clearly a lack of boards/forums/websites dedicated to product managers. But what I miss the more is a website, when we can get valuable insights about best practices. On HN you can get super useful information about any stack/language/framework by reading the comments, but when you are a PM you have nowhere to get that kind of information

A couple of sites that have been useful to me, in no particular order (not affiliated w/ any): - productmanagerhq.com - productschool.com - mindtheproduct.com - roadmap.com - departmentofproduct.com

productmanagerhq.com has been a let down for me. Its mostly people sharing articles and tool recommendations. No real or deep discussion. No one points flaws in others thinking/products. I was very disappointed with the community.

That said, the article recommendation in weekly newsletter are good .

Re: Product-building articles by PMs at major tech companies

#45

Post by no6inbash »

I had high hopes for /r/ProductManagement/, but it's not very active. That said, here are a few of my favorite product management resources: - https://medium.com/@johnpcutler - https://www.productplan.com/blog/ - http://firstround.com/review/ - https://www.kennorton.com/

Re: Product-building articles by PMs at major tech companies

#46

Post by dawhizkid »

polote wrote: post #2

There is clearly a lack of boards/forums/websites dedicated to product managers. But what I miss the more is a website, when we can get valuable insights about best practices. On HN you can get super useful information about any stack/language/framework by reading the comments, but when you are a PM you have nowhere to get that kind of information

Has anyone noticed how few "Who's Hiring?" posts are looking for PMs. In an avg month with nearly 1000 comments, I see maybe 10-15 instances of the word "Product Manager"

Re: Product-building articles by PMs at major tech companies

#47

Post by clairity »

adpirz wrote: post #3
polote wrote: post #2

There is clearly a lack of boards/forums/websites dedicated to product managers. But what I miss the more is a website, when we can get valuable insights about best practices. On HN you can get super useful information about any stack/language/framework by reading the comments, but when you are a PM you have nowhere to get that kind of information

My partner is struggling with this very thing at her work, I'm curious: what are go-to resources for PMs in terms of professional development?

there was a spinoff professional networking/mentoring group whose name is escaping me at the moment, but she can find such resources via women in product: https://www.womenpm.org

yc’s ffc ( https://blog.ycombinator.com/?s=ffc ) is also useful for the more entrepreurially minded.

Re: Product-building articles by PMs at major tech companies

#48

Post by pault »

SysINT wrote: post #9
polote wrote: post #2

There is clearly a lack of boards/forums/websites dedicated to product managers. But what I miss the more is a website, when we can get valuable insights about best practices. On HN you can get super useful information about any stack/language/framework by reading the comments, but when you are a PM you have nowhere to get that kind of information

Are you looking for domain or technology specific project management (PM) information, or referencing best practices for PMs in general? E.g., is https://pm.stackexchange.com/ what you are looking for or more developer and technology-centric planning techniques?

Project manager is not the same role as product manager

Re: Product-building articles by PMs at major tech companies

#49

Post by NearAP »

dawhizkid wrote: post #46
polote wrote: post #2

There is clearly a lack of boards/forums/websites dedicated to product managers. But what I miss the more is a website, when we can get valuable insights about best practices. On HN you can get super useful information about any stack/language/framework by reading the comments, but when you are a PM you have nowhere to get that kind of information

Has anyone noticed how few "Who's Hiring?" posts are looking for PMs. In an avg month with nearly 1000 comments, I see maybe 10-15 instances of the word "Product Manager"

I believe companies have more software engineers than PMs which invariably means there will be more software engineering vacancies than PM vacancies

I also think the attrition rate for PMs are much much lower than that of Developers.

Re: Product-building articles by PMs at major tech companies

#50

Post by rchaud »

polote wrote: post #2

There is clearly a lack of boards/forums/websites dedicated to product managers. But what I miss the more is a website, when we can get valuable insights about best practices. On HN you can get super useful information about any stack/language/framework by reading the comments, but when you are a PM you have nowhere to get that kind of information

The challenge in building such a community is that PM is a highly sought after job in the tech sector, so any forum or website built around PM discussion is inevitably going to turn into something like Medium, which today is a list of poorly written thought pieces by (mostly) amateurs.
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