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Pritika Goyal shares valuable, actionable tips on everything from how aspiring Product Managers should approach the job search, to the attributes of high performing Product Managers and the learnings that have had the greatest impact on her growth as a Product Manager.
Pritika Goyal is a Group Product Manager (GPM) who leads the ads demand team at Doordash. In conversation with Co.Lab, she classifies her duties as a Group Product Managers into three broad categories. First, is being a north star for your team. That involves ensuring that the team has the right vision and are working towards the goals of the company.
The second task is building a team. It is the GPM’s responsibility to find the right Product Managers as the only way to scale is to grow the team and put people in charge of tasks which eventually feed into the bigger picture.
The last part is unblocking your team. “How do I prioritize A versus B?” What are the trade-offs you want to make?
Recalling the above, a major duty of the Group Product Manager is finding the right people to work on your team. What does Pritika look out for when picking out these people?
One thing is their story. “Why do they want to be Product Managers and what have they experienced that makes them think that they’ll be good at it?
However, what convinces her more is the ability of the candidate to tell the story of a product that they shipped. Where most people start with “I shipped XYZ”, a good Product Manager will start with “Here is what I changed in the metrics to suit it to the customer I was shipping for/here’s what changed in their life because of this product/here’s how the thing that I did made a difference/here are the things I could’ve done but instead I chose this and here are the results/here’s what I could’ve done better.”
A customer-obsessed explanation of what you did and how you did it, using impact metrics, is the best way to discuss your product because the ultimate goal of the Product Manager is to understand the consumer problem and the way that solving it changes their world. If you can articulate your role in that, even if it wasn't a huge role, you will stand out in the interview process and are well on your way to becoming a successful Product Manager.
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Yet Pritika understands that the biggest challenge for aspiring Product Managers at the moment is macroeconomics. Unfortunately, as an individual, there just isn’t much that one can do about this but until the tides turn, here are some of the ways that she recommends dealing with it.
A person with no exposure to business might find an MBA useful to learn how businesses work so that they can become better Product Managers. But one must learn to analyze things based on their own individual circumstances – who you are, where you are and what you want as opposed to going into things simply because that’s what others are doing.
The best hack to assess yourself on these three attributes is working on a product. As you gain real experience and receive feedback from a team and from stakeholders, you build muscle in the role. Get into the data of your product, no matter how little the number of people you’re shipping for is. Practice breaking down complex issues into four/five sentences for your stakeholders that are less familiar with the technical side of things.
In the meantime, be honest with yourself, and humble too, understanding that you don’t know the job, while staying open to learn. Look for an internship, side project, or a ‘product-adjacent’ role. Ship something, grow your network and upskill. Anything to put you on the track of Product Management if you’ve decided that’s what you’re going to do.
And finally, at the back of your mind, store these three learnings that have had the biggest impact on Pritika’s growth as a Product Manager:
Programs like Co.Lab that allow you to ship a real-life product are an excellent opportunity to develop Product Management skills. Apply now to join our next cohort.