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Transitioning from Business Analyst to Future Product Manager

Welcome to our Product Newsletter, a biweekly email highlighting top discussions, and learning resources for product managers.

What We Will Cover In This Edition:-

Top Discussions: 

1)  Is being a business analyst beneficial for being a future product manager?

2) How do you evaluate company culture in a product based company?

3) Product manager to engineers ratio.

Top Learning Resources:

1. ChatGPT prompts for scrum practitioners

2. How to hire a product manager

3. 5 Skills every product manager can learn from Elon Musk

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Top Discussions

Question 1Is being a business analyst beneficial for being a future product manager?

Every job I’ve ever had Business analysts specialize in data and use heavy SQL and dashboarding, frequently to support executives or business operations. I’ve read some posts that refer to it as more of a junior PM function, or at the very least as having some product component. What does that appear like in real life? How do you recruit that kind of person? Is it a wise decision? We are a small startup with a bottleneck in both our product and analytics; potentially, a hybrid of these could greatly free us up.

– David Mercy

Discussion

A] Being a business analyst can be beneficial for becoming a product manager because it provides a solid foundation in understanding the needs of a business and its customers, as well as experience in analyzing data and making data-driven decisions. Additionally, business analysts often work closely with cross-functional teams, including product managers, and have a good understanding of how different departments work together to achieve business goals. However, being a business analyst alone doesn’t guarantee becoming a product manager, other skills such as leadership, strategic thinking, and communication are also required to be successful in a product management role.

– Michelle Plowman

B] In practice, a business analyst in a product-focused role may be involved in the early stages of product development and may help shape the product strategy and roadmap. They may also be responsible for gathering and analyzing customer and market research to inform product decisions. Additionally, they may be involved in creating and maintaining product requirements and specifications, and working with cross-functional teams to ensure that the product meets the needs of the business and its customers. In some cases, a business analyst may also be involved in product testing and validation, and may work closely with a product manager to ensure that the product is delivered on time and within budget. Overall, the role of a business analyst in a product-focused organization may be more hands-on and may involve more direct involvement in the product development process, as opposed to a traditional business analyst role which is more focused on analyzing data and making recommendations to stakeholders.

– Elvin Henriques

C]  Hiring for a business analyst with a product focus can be a good idea for a small startup that has both a product and analytics bottleneck. Here are some key steps you can take to hire for this type of role:

Define the role clearly: Clearly define the role and its responsibilities in the job listing, including the specific skills and experience required. Highlight that the role will involve both product and analytics responsibilities, and that the ideal candidate will be comfortable working with cross-functional teams and have experience in both areas.

Look for relevant experience: When reviewing resumes and conducting interviews, look for candidates with relevant experience in both product and analytics. This could include experience in product management, business analysis, data analysis, or a related field.

Assess skills and aptitude: Assess the candidate’s skills and aptitude for both product and analytics. This could include asking about their experience with customer research, data analysis, and product development, as well as testing their ability to analyze data and make data-driven decisions.

Consider soft skills: Soft skills such as communication, leadership, and problem-solving are also important for this type of role. Assess the candidate’s ability to work well with cross-functional teams and communicate effectively with stakeholders.

Look for a good fit: Finally, look for a candidate who is a good fit for your startup culture and who shares your company’s vision and values.

It’s worth noting that hiring someone who can unblock the company by being a “hybrid” of product and analytics is not always a guarantee. It’s important to evaluate the candidate’s skillset and experience to see if they align with the role and the company’s needs.

– Dan Coelho

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Question 2) How do you evaluate the company culture in a product-based company?

I recently started working for a new company, and throughout my interviews, they were able to persuade me that they understand what product management is and that they practice it well.

But when I started working there, I saw that product managers weren’t actually conducting product management. Here are some additional findings I made and verified:

  1. There are no data insights and customer feedback for the product. Customer feedbacks are premature and too early to be done, according to the head of IT.
  2. Clients just provide the scope of work, and project managers break it down into user stories.
  3. PMs track the number of hours that developers put in during a sprint. No narrative pointing. Overtime is the norm.
  4. Typically, Sprints are cancelled because the client has a higher priority, and the PM has no control over this. T-Debt is therefore at its highest point.
  5. The Scrum Master, who doesn’t even understand how scrum works, tells everyone what needs to be done.
  6. Lack of discovery and problem validation.

Any other signs or scenarios you’ve encountered? Please contribute.

– Amy Walker

Discussion

A] There are several ways to evaluate a company’s culture in a product-based company, including:

Employee surveys: Surveying employees on their perceptions of the company culture can provide valuable insights into how well the culture is aligned with the company’s values and goals.

Observation: Observing how employees interact with each other, how they approach their work, and how they handle challenges can provide a good sense of the company culture.

Interviews: Interviewing employees, managers, and leaders can provide a more in-depth understanding of the company culture and identify any areas of improvement.

Analyzing company policies and procedures: Examining the company’s policies and procedures can provide insights into the company’s values and priorities, and how they are translated into action.

Examining the company’s external reputation: How is the company perceived by outsiders, such as customers, vendors, and industry peers?

– Pankaj Jain

B] Sorry to hear that, though. Inquiries you might make during interviews include:

What recent projects did you start? How did you make your choice?

What last feature did you remove? How did you make your choice?

What new information do you have about your clients? Your method of learning it

What distinguishes those who succeed here from those who fail? Give some examples.

In essence, you want them to provide particular examples of the decisions they’ve made regarding products. You can find more information on finding the right fit here.

– Naomi Nwosu

C] Doesn’t sound like Product Management… Sounds kinda like a textbook Product Owner role, where you build a backlog based on client requirements and deliver small, measurable, testable items of work every Sprint (if it doesn’t get cancelled). Other red flags I think would be:

Requirements provided with full solution or, even worse, by providing a link to your competitor and the stakeholder saying ‘I want this functionality’

Signs that your backlog is influenced by ego driven decisions rather than data or customer problems

People doing more than their job roles
Clients or stakeholders providing a deadline to you and the squad before you have had a chance to size or estimate effort.

– Herbert Warnick

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Question 3) Product manager to engineers Ratio

The ratio between product managers and engineers, according to my employer, is 1:10. To support the new structure, he said this. As a result, many PMs began overseeing two teams with entirely separate domains. Is this typical? How is the ratio in your business? And yes, there are no scrum masters here. Designers, PMMs, and data specialists do not work in teams.

– Felipe Ribeiro

Discussion

A] Depending on your setup, you can increase the ratios even further if the teams handle PO work or have dedicated POs. If the PM must handle all PO work, you will either need to reduce the number of teams or accept that there will be waste as teams will no longer be working on the most crucial issues.

– Rohit Kumar

B] I actively manage two products as an SPM, together with roughly eight other engineers, two designers, and three support engineers. By way of a different product manager who answers to me, I also oversee the management of another product.

Although I am unaware of the standard within the industry, I do find the set and the many goods difficult. Here are some tips on what I do:

  1. Instead of developing wireframes anymore, I now share interactive low-level prototypes or interactive wireframes with designers. Because of this, the designer and I both save time because discussions are more focused and center on productive points of disagreement rather than rambling discussions of everything that appears on the screen and finicky, repetitive, time-consuming tinkering with prototypes.
  2. Every day, I have separate conversations with the engineers about the sprint tickets at my 15-minute standups for both products. In this method, the discussions are brief and more interesting because the engineers have already read the tickets.
  3. I concentrate on conducting additional usability testing with the clients using the prototypes from simple conversations with clients. I currently aim to conduct two testing sessions each month. Despite the fact that the discussion is dynamic, and the questions keep changing, I frame my questions in advance. However, because I have already shown the client the prototypes, the client has specific questions before we even start talking.
    Although the feedback is more detailed, the customer is not deterred from discussing their more significant problems or pain points.
  4. More diagrams, more interactive prototypes, and less text (come on, how many engineers actually read these!)

– Michael Yoffe

C] In the business, sure. However, if it’s possible, a placemat exercise to foster commonality would be beneficial.

These positions may not be necessary depending on the product space. Make a strong case for adding those abilities if there is a gap. If you truly require PMM OR data, request a short-term contractor for a particular initiative to demonstrate the potential impact.

Like a PO, a scrum master. There are positions available to perform a job like that, however anyone in the delivery team can fill that position. A well-run pod can rotate SM responsibilities. If not, I urge my engineering manager to take responsibility for the position.

– Karan Trivedi

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Top Learning Resources

ChatGPT prompts for scrum practitioners

Last week, I ran an “interview” with ChatGPT as an applicant for a fictitious Scrum Master position based on questions from Scrum Master Interview Guide. (See below.) While the overall results were broadly acceptable, I thought that changing the ChatGPT prompts might deliver better results. So, this time, I chose to present ChatGPT with three everyday scenarios based on more comprehensive prompts. Lo and behold, it worked very well.

How to hire a product manager

Product management may be the one job that the organization would get along fine without (at least for a good while). Without engineers, nothing would get built. Without sales people, nothing is sold. Without designers, the product looks like crap. But in a world without PMs, everyone simply fills in the gap and goes on with their lives. It’s important to remember that — as a PM, you’re expendable.

5 skills every product manager can learn From Elon Musk

Elon is a consummate infinite learner, starting right from his youth. While his classmates wouldn’t describe him as a particularly precocious boy, he did absolutely love reading. It was not unusual for Elon to read 10 hours a day on the weekend, finishing up to two books a day. And this wasn’t just limited to the weekend: his favorite afterschool activity was to head to the bookstore and read from 2-6pm each day. When he felt like he’d read every book that was worth reading in his local library, he moved on to just reading entries in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

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