Product
Management
Starter Kit
EDITION
2022
A beginner's guide
to the world of
Product Management
Table of Contents
I
From the Coordinator's Desk
1
II
What is Product Management
2
III A Day in the Life of a PM
4
IV
Books for Reference
6
V
PM Communities
8
VI
Top YouTube Channels
9
VII Blogs
10
VIII PM Case Competitions
11
01.
From the
Coordinator's Desk
"Not all those who wander are lost"
- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
Dear readers who have spent the time to give our starter kit a chance,
Thank you. Thank you for taking a moment in your jam-packed, demanding
PGP1 journey. This starter-kit is made for you. The ones with passion who,
one day, will shape the next generation of products.
In our mission to create capable product leaders from IIM Ahmedabad, PM
starter-kit removes the clutter from PM through simplicity. Through offering
direction in different windows of Product management, PM starter-kit gets
right to the point on what to learn, where to find your network, and where
opportunities arrive.
And this is just the beginning. A gentle nudge. A simple guide. A clear
direction and a collection of useful information fast-tracked to you.
The publication cell of the ProdMan club has some of the most talented
folks that I've seen in IIMA, which is why I'm so sure that there is more to
come. More learnings, more relevant networks, and more opportunities
built on top of the starter-kit that you're reading today.
I hope you enjoy this and find clarity in your PM journey.
Arvindh Subramanian V
Club Coordinator
Page - 01
02.
What is Product
Management?
Let's talk about WHY first
The world is always changing, more so in the tech
world. In a fast-paced world, new opportunities from
technological breakthroughs, and new problems
from shifting customer expectations arise begetting
a need for Product Managers who are continuously
adapting and solving problems.
Product Management as a Job Role
Google's Product Manager Job Role description
reads, "In this role, you will work cross-functionally
to guide products from conception to launch by
connecting the technical and business worlds."
Well, that's a fairly simple description, but in the real
world, the lines get blurry as product managers
operate in overlapping diverse fields.
Product Management as a Function
Product management is an organizational function
that guides every step of a product’s lifecycle —
from development to positioning and pricing — by
focusing on the product and its customers first and
foremost. To build the best possible product,
product managers advocate for customers within
the organization and ensure the market's voice is
heard and heeded.
Page - 02
Product Management as a Process
Driving execution
There is no single “right” way to manage a product.
But the discipline has developed some consensus
regarding best practices.
With a viable product concept, a scalable feedback
management system, and a sound strategy, it’s time
to turn ideas into reality. This means prioritizing
potential development items and plotting out the
product roadmap, and drive execution with
engineering and design teams
Defining the Problem
It all begins with identifying a high-value customer
pain point. Product management turns these
abstract complaints, wants, and wishes into a
problem statement looking for a solution.
Quantifying the opportunity
With a target in mind, product management can
now thoroughly investigate how they might solve
customer problems and pain points. They should
cast a large net of possible solutions and not rule
anything out too quickly. Then comes validation.,
While there are no guarantees, getting confirmation
from potential customers that the idea is something
they’ll want, use, and pay for, is a critical step in the
overall process and achieving product-market fit.
What isn't product management?
Enric Dunray, Product manager at Google
throws some light on what Product
Management isn't.
Product Management isn't:
Being a HiPPO (Highest paid person's
opinion)
Being the only idea generator
Being
a
copywriter,
designer
or
developer
Being accountable for quality and
assurance
The same thing as project management
Being a mini-CEO
Building an MVP
After validating a particular solution’s appeal and
viability, it’s now time to engage the product
development team in earnest.
Creating a feedback loop
While customer feedback is essential throughout a
product’s life, there’s no time more critical than
during the MVP introduction. This is where the
product management team can learn what
customers think, need, and dislike since they’re
reacting to an actual product experience and not
just theoretical ideas tossed out in a conversation.
Page - 03
03.
A day in the life
of a PM
Product Managers in different companies,
teams, and roles have different calendars.
Your day may look very different depending
on which stage the product you are working
on is.
PMs spend their time across three broad
buckets:
2.Decisions & Deliverables
1.Analyze & Adapt
Product Managers analyze external data like
customer surveys, sales numbers, and
competitors, and also look at important
metrics and KPIs of the product and learn.
They adapt to the market by pivoting the
product vision or prioritizing the product
backlog.
Product Managers are responsible for
deciding what to build, and this decision is
manifested in documents like Product
requirement documents, and functional
specification documents. They also prioritise
what to build first and manage a whole set of
other activities that are tied to the product
launch, these are often manifested into tools
like Jira in the form of roadmaps, kanban
boards and product backlogs.
Page - 04
Justin Belmont, Uber
3.Communication & Co-ordination
Product Managers work with multiple teams
like sales, marketing, design, engineering,
and senior management simultaneously.
Moreover, it is important to note that they are
not their supervisors, so a good product
manager must be able to influence other
teams without having any authority over
them.
"I lead a group of product teams and manage
some of the world's best PMs to scale the
Carrier side of the Uber Freight marketplace.
In the first half of my day, I usually take part in
extended working sessions with my design
and engineering leads and Design teams. I
set aside a little desk time too, for business
models, slide decks, and roadmap planning.
Later in the day, I catchup with a lot of
stakeholders from marketing, legal, customer
service either in 1-to-1 meetings or in team
sessions"
Let's understand this better through two
examples:
Annu Bansal, Amazon
"My work is to improve the delivery experiences
of the Amazon drivers in 3 countries, through
tech (showing them accurate places on maps to
deliver). It involves a lot of deep dives around
country specific metrics for root cause analysis
and experimentation (such as AB testing) to
conclude our hypothesis. This requires meeting
with country POCs to understand the painpoints, tech teams to devise the solutions, and
operations team to do the ground work."
Page - 05
04.
Books for
Reference
Must Read
Decode and Conquer
Lewis C. Lin
Decode and Conquer is the first book every PM enthusiast must read to
grasp the types of questions asked in the PM interview. It covers questions
related to product design using the CIRCLES framework, metrics using the
AARM Framework, new market entry, competitive landscape and roadmap
planning. The book also offers a dialogue-style format for answering the
example questions. It is worded simply and easy to understand even if you
are a complete novice in the field.
Must Read
Cracking the PM interview
Gayle Laakmann McDowell
Product Managers work at the intersection of technology, business,
and design. The book guides on how one can prepare to crack the PM
interview by explaining product strategy, prioritization, and execution.
The book will help you in understanding what interviewers look for,
and how to frame your answers better.
The Lean Product Playbook
Dan Olsen
The big idea from ‘Lean’ (inspired by Toyota Production System) is to align
activities around customer satisfaction by cutting elements that don’t
create value. The book covers multiple aspects of Product-Market Fit,
measuring customer value, interactions among PMs and other
stakeholders, Minimum Viable Products (MVP) and personas. The book
deals with increasing your breadth of knowledge but covers less in depth.
Page - 06
Inspired
Marty Cagan
This book outlines the skills needed to be a great PM, how to organise
teams, and the tried and tested processes to follow. For those with more
experience, there’s a tonne of great context explaining why the practices
used work and commonly believed alternatives don’t. It provides insights
about user experience design, Product Opportunity Assessment (POA),
and what causes different product efforts to fail.
The Product Book: How to Become
A Great Product Manager
Josh Anon, Carlos Gonzales and Product School
A quick-read, The Product Book provides approachable, practical, and
real-life insights into the world of product management. It provides
suggestions on how to work with engineering and design teams while
bringing your product to the market. For a quick summary, people can
read the chapter summaries mentioned at the end.
Must Read
Futuristic Outlook to
Product Management
The ProdMan Club, IIMA
The ProdMan Club’s flagship publication, Futuristic
Outlook is the go-to book for the aspiring Product
Manager and anyone interested in understanding the
technology around us.
The book provides in-depth information about what the field of Product Management
entails and the different new-age concepts used by PMs and industry experts. It also
contains comprehensive app critiques of Apps belonging to eCommerce, FinTech,
Music, Food Technology, and many more. Post the conceptual understanding, the
book gives questions and cases about Guesstimates, Product Design, GTM Strategy,
Metrics, and Pricing to prepare you for the interviews.
Page - 07
05.
PM
Communities
StellarPeers
Crawl, Walk, Run
Crawl, Walk, Run helps you understand
different concepts related to pricing, new
product ideation, building MVPs, and also
provides guidance on preparation for PM
interviews.
[Whatsapp] | [Medium] | [YouTube]
Product School
With more than 100,000+ slack community
members, you have the opportunity to pick
the minds of PM thought pioneers from
companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook,
and Netflix. They have incredible free
resources, and students can apply for
globally recognized certifications.
[Website]
StellarPeers brings professionals together to
prepare for the most challenging interview
questions so they can land their dream jobs.
StellarPeers contains vast content covering
frameworks, solved cases, and coaching
videos. They also have mock interviews with
experts.
[Website]
PM Exercises
With more than 100K+ community members,
PM exercises contains 2000+ interview
questions and 100+ hours of courses. As with
Exponent and PM School, Students can apply
for coaching. The content is excellent but is
behind a paywall.
[Website]
Exponent
PM School
An all-in-one platform for interview prep,
which also provides certifications. PM
enthusiasts can also participate in peer-topeer interviews. They also have expert
coaching in the form of 90-day coaching
plans.
PM School, an Indian community, offers
courses and certifications in product
management. They also offer live projects
and challenges wherein students can view
the winners' solutions and learn.
[Website]
[Website]
Page - 08
06.
Top YouTube
Channels
Recommended
1. Exponent
Exponent has detailed playlists on Product Design case interviews, Go To Market
cases, Metrics cases, Root Cause Analysis, and Product improvement cases,
which cover all the major cases you are asked in a PM interview.
The channel also has company-specific interview questions such as Microsoft,
Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn, where product managers who have cracked
these companies tell you how these questions are answered in a real interview
setting. Overall, this channel is one of the best places to learn from real product
managers.
[YouTube]
2. PM School
This is a channel better suited for learning popular PM frameworks, creating
mockups, solving PM case studies, and answering behavioural questions in PM
interviews. In a PM interview, you are judged not just on your knowledge of
Product Management but also on important questions like ‘Why Product
Management’, which is where this channel is useful. This channel also has a
plethora of mock interviews covering Product Design, Root Cause Analysis, and
Product Improvement.
[YouTube]
3. The Product Folks
Where this channel shines is in simulating Product Management interviews of
firms which are not available on other channels, such as Ola, Razorpay, PayTM,
Groww, PhonePe, and Meesho. Apart from these firms, interviews from giants like
Microsoft and Amazon are present too. The channel also does thorough product
teardowns to determine what works and what does not work in a product,
discusses the latest technologies like Web 3.0, and explains fundamental PM
concepts like Metrics as well.
[YouTube]
Page - 09
07.
Blogs
1. PM Exercises
The blog is an excellent resource for learning about best PM practices, book reviews, interview preparation,
and PM concepts. How you can inculcate the latest technologies into your solutions is also elucidated.
A PM's common dilemmas, such as how to interface with all the stakeholders efficiently, keep them on the same
page, and whether to work in big tech or a startup environment, are also explored. Interview experiences and
recommendations of Product Managers who cracked the biggest firms such as Meta and Google are also
available.
Articles on developing your Product strategy for long-term success can also be found. Overall, this is an
excellent blog for those looking to get into Product Management or even trying to improve as Product
Managers who are already working in the field. [Website]
2. Product Coalition
One of the world’s largest independent Product Management communities, with 1m+ readers and 3,500+
articles, this is a blog every PM has heard of. The platform aims to help you understand product development
concepts, experiences, and lessons learned by professionals over their careers. This platform is more likely to
help you once you have gone through the basics of PM and are looking to deepen your understanding of the
field. [Website]
Page - 10
08.
PM Case
Competitions
PM Engage
Amazon ACE
PM Engage is the flagship competition of Microsoft,
which presents an opportunity for selected students
to get mentored by Microsoft Program Managers by
competing in their flagship case study competition.
Team Size: 4
Team Size: 2
Competition Structure:
1. Online Registration
Form a team of 2 and register.
Deadline: Late September
2. Submission of Case Study Proposals
Think like a product leader & solve the case
Challenge assigned to your respective school.
Case Study Announcement: Late Sept
Submission deadline: Early October
3. Top 3 Teams from PGP1 & Top 2 teams from
PGP2/PGPX/1-Year MBA get shortlisted for
mentorship.
Mentorship Timelines – Mid Oct – Late Oct
4. Top teams compete in the PM Challenge
national round in November.
Competition Structure:
Registration (deadline August 1st week) > Quiz >
Case Release > 2-page document submission
(Writing at Amazon) > Campus Round Case
Submission > Campus Round Case Presentation >
Grand Finale Case Release > Grand Finale Case
Submission & Presentations (September 1st week).
Rewards
1. Winners will receive cash awards worth INR
2,00,000, pre-placement interviews (PPIs), and
Amazon products/devices.
2. The first runners-up will receive cash awards
worth INR 1,50,000, pre-placement interviews
(PPIs), and Amazon products/devices.
3. The second runners-up will receive cash awards
worth INR 50,000, pre-placement interviews
(PPIs), and Amazon products/devices.
4. 6 teams on each campus (3 from 1st year and 3
from 2nd year/PGPX courses) will win preplacement interviews (PPIs) at Amazon.
Rewards:
Mentorship from Microsoft PMs & PPIs for summers
and laterals. Chance to participate in PM Challenge.
Page - 11
PM Inside
Product Management Case Competition by The
ProdMan Club, IIMA, usually held in the 1st week
of August.
Eligibility: PGP1 only
Team Size: 2-4
Competition Structure:
Round 1: The team selects one of the given
problem statements, critically analyzes them and
submit a presentation.
Round 2: The top 8 teams from round 1 will be
shortlisted for the 2nd round. They will have to
work towards fine-tuning and wireframing the
solution.
Rewards:
CV points for all finalists.
Flipkart Wired 6.0
Flipkart launched WiRED to give B-School students
a first-hand experience of challenges in the Indian
e-commerce ecosystem. Flipkart Wired 6.0 will take
place from 30th Aug to 19th October.
Team Size: 3
Competition Structure:
Round 1:
Quiz (Business, HR, Supply Chain, Product)
Round 2: Case Study Challenge. Top teams from
each track proceed to 3rd Round.
Round 3: Semi-finale submission to senior Flipkart
leaders.
Round 4: Finale presentations for each track
Rewards:
National winners (all tracks) : 2 lakh Rs.
Runners Up (all tracks) : 50,000 Rs.
PPI opportunity for semi-finalists.
Techzards
Product management case competition by Sigma,
the Product Management Club of IIM Bangalore,
held during the International Business Summit
Vista in early August.
PM Live
Product management case competition by The
ProdMan Club, IIMA in The Red Brick Summit
(TRBS) to challenge your Product Management
acumen to design the best product
Team Size: 2-3
Competition Structure:
Round 1: Quiz
Round 2: Live business problem in case format
Round 3: Top 10 teams present submissions to
judges.
Team Size: 2-3 members
Competition Structure:
Round 1: Quiz
Round 2: Product Management Case Submission
and Presentation
Round 3: Final Presentation before judges.
Rewards:
National winners - Rs 20K
Rewards: Prize money worth 1lakh.
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Thank you !