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Mastering PM Challenges, Bug Resolution, and Fair Interviews

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) What area of being a product manager is the toughest?

2) What should one do if a bug cannot be reproduced?

3) What kind of interview do you think is fair to assess your credentials?

Top Learning Resources:

1. Technical knowledge that PMs must have

2. 6 Product management trends to watch in the rest of 2022 and beyond

3. 10 Impactful teaming mantras

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Top Discussions

Question 1What area of being a product manager is the toughest?

Since I created it five years ago, I’ve served in a somewhat product management capacity for an internal automation testing tool that enables our non-technical QA Engineers to create test scripts and carry out previously impractical production automation tests (with all the power of code, but no need for knowledge outside of Selenium IDE and SoapUi).

The most difficult component, in my opinion, is keeping up with consumer feedback and feature/enhancement requests, determining if they are the consequence of a tier 1 issue for the market or customers, are merely nice to haves, or are wholly superfluous.

– Natasha Martin

Discussion

A] Developing social capital that will aid in developing the following:

  • Social abilities
  • Both verbal and nonverbal cues, such as body language
  • Being straight forward while being assertive and courteous
  • Learn the skill of writing since we frequently fail to express our feelings in words, which can lead to inaccurate perceptions from others.
  • Active hearing (this is the hidden gem)

– Heather Kurtz

B] Hello everyone. I’ve just joined Prowess and am trying to get the hang of it.

It seems like many don’t follow active listening with “asking why.” One stakeholder group has frequently thrown a feature at the product team, and you need to ask why in order to go back and identify the issue. Only after that is it possible to create a solution that benefits all parties involved.

Although it seems simple, it’s the most difficult part. Well, that’s what I think.

– Brandon Milne

C]  Welcome @Brandon.

The toughest part of being a product manager is saying no without hurting egos. Product management is a tough role. On one hand you want to say yes to every opportunity, on the other you have to know when to say no to requests. It’s hard not disappointing people, but it’s also hard knowing when enough is enough and the product can’t handle any more features.

– Carolyn Miles

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Question 2) What should one do if a bug cannot be reproduced?

Hello everyone,

I’m a newbie, on this platform as also in this field (Product Management). I had a query and wanted to know how you guys track things. We have an internal tool, and occasionally while the user is using the tool, one or more bugs appear. However, it becomes quite difficult to identify what caused the bug. What route the user took, so that our tester can duplicate the error and fix it. Can somebody explain how you handle this? (Is there any reasonably priced or free tool?)

– Brandon Milne

Discussion

A] In the gaming industry where I work, bug management is crucial. Because we accept that not all issues can be fixed and that we must prioritize what needs to be fixed, we refer to bug backlog management as “Bug Triage.” Engineering can add more logging around issues that are difficult to reproduce but have significant risk or effect so that they can be found when they recur. If it has a minimal effect, poses little danger, and is challenging to replicate… It might be closed as Cannot Reproduce or moved to a later release for retesting.

The secret is to work quickly but thoroughly, and to prioritize problem fixes in our milestone plan. Bugs are almost always present in games, even with competent software because they are often quite complicated.

– Bethany Grey

B] Have you produced something for other industries? Like, it doesn’t seem like games truly follow Agile because I’ve never heard of bi-weekly releases, with the possible exception of some MMOs where they occasionally just stealthily repair stuff and there’s a new, megabyte-sized version to install. Are the Agile ceremonies Kansan?

Additionally, I’ve heard that it’s difficult to work as a developer in the video game industry, so I was curious if your own experience matched that perception.

No worries if I ask a lot or if you’re too busy, I’m simply interested, lol.

– Richardson Eva

C] Happy to respond! My entire career has been in gaming. Despite the fact that my job title of “Producer” is more delivery-oriented than an idealistic Product role, I interact with users, user data, and the larger market frequently enough to have the impression of being a non-gaming PM.

It’s important to keep in mind that although PM positions are frequently available in the mobile gaming industry, they are nearly exclusively focused on owning the revenue output of a product. This division is intriguing. And those are just the technical, UI/UX features. For instance, there is a multi-milestone waterfall process to ideate, concept, model, animation, polish, add FX, and release a new character or class in a shooter game. Large Gantt charts are incredibly useful when you’re making multiple of those types of updates at once because that can be broken down into iterations or stages but is still primarily a waterfall approach.

Anyway, it’s difficult for games to be truly agile. Here are a few causes for this: before a final product is ready for distribution, game products may require the creation of several layers and dependencies. Internal CI/CD, internal testing, and internal prototyping are all encouraged, but it may take longer cycles to polish something for external release.

– Bethany Grey

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Question 3) What kind of interview process do you think is fair to assess your credentials?

I’m planning to recruit a new product manager soon, so I’m eager for suggestions, stories, and resources to enhance the interviewing process.

What kind of interviewing procedure did you think fairly examined your skills?

Have you ever declined a job because of the interview process?

What are the communities’ thoughts on homework? On portfolio/process presentations? On design challenges?

What in your opinion is an excellent interviewing process?

– Ana Rodriguez

Discussion

A] I’ll admit that years ago, when engagement decreased 10%, I utilized this for an analytical inquiry. The boxes for external influences, internal factors, product changes, etc., were things I wanted to check.

It used to be a well-known interview question type that provided some insight into the candidates’ thinking; however, these days it’s more of a test of whether they’ve watched the framework on YouTube and a less reliable indication of whether they will ask the right questions, put on their boots and dig through the data (or persuade someone else to), or carry out the actual task.

If you inquire about experience, at least, they will either have had to do it or they will be a very good liar (and a couple of thoughtful follow up questions exposes that a lot).

– Dhiraj Mehta

B] The hiring tactics at some larger companies, which were copied by the minions of the gig economy, have turned the PM job category into a non-contact professional sport. An entire cottage industry has now emerged to assist candidates in preparing for these messed-up interviews, which have completely altered the recruiting procedures of the traditional companies.

The job description is a wordy mess. An environment that was perfectly balanced was completely destroyed by the glorification of the PM role. Some big company (don’t want to name them) messed up the dynamics of the industry, not raised the bar. A whole generation of recent college graduates who were training for the PM post were destroyed by another giant. In an attempt to outdo this giant, another big company managed to destroy both the hiring process and the pay scale.

In the past, a PM was also the PMM, who was knowledgeable in the sector. i.e., they spent a number of years in a non-marketing position, such as engineer, before switching to a product role. They therefore had a strong base, whether it was technical or a general awareness of the value chain of the industry in which their particular product fell. The standard 3C’s, 4P’s, STP, and Five Forces analyses were performed as part of the detailed market analysis that was a key component of the job description for GTM. Everything they did was governed by this structure and philosophy. In order to carry out a program, they wrote MRDs and PRDs and collaborated with Tech Leads and Program Managers as the three equal legs of a coffee table.

They would find the job descriptions of the present crop of PMs unrecognizable if you brought someone back from retirement who was the product manager for the original Sun OS, Mac OS, Windows OS, or Pentium CPU.

– Naomin Wosu

C] Gratitude for this. I adore how straightforward the task is, giving the candidate flexibility while also giving everyone a taste of what it would be like to collaborate in real life. Very astute!

The risk I encountered by just inquiring too much about their current offering is that I may receive false positives as a result of having worked under a capable manager or leader in the past. In other words, they are repeating prepared talking points. Did you experience this?

– Ana Rodriguez

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Top Learning Resources

Technical knowledge that PMs must have

When I say Tech, many PMs seem to be imagining information going over their heads and jargons floating around. In this article, I list and explain the topics which PMs need to have a basic understanding of.

6 Product management trends to watch in the rest of 2022 and beyond

As the pandemic has tapered down, people are experiencing an altered version of life as it was before. Society is also finding that the norms have changed in many regards. For example, the rise of working from home, e-commerce, useful tools such as Salesforce and Zendesk, and regular Zoom meetings have replaced the old ways of doing business.

10 Impactful teaming mantras

From more than a decade of innovating — startup-ing & venturing across various industries and organizations — I‘ve developed 10 mantras that are simple, playful and fun, to quickly put both rookie and veteran innovation teams on the path of product enlightenment, and project success!

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Who’s Prowess? We are optimist product managers, engineers, and educators working on creating a world where merit meets opportunity. On Prowess, aspiring and experienced product managers showcase skills, learn from the community, and connect with employers to advance their careers.

How can you grow with Prowess?

    1. Learn from curated learning resources and community
    2. Work on curated projects or join expert-guided group projects
    3. Receive personalized feedback from product leaders
    4. Build a portfolio to stand out as a product manager
    5. Access and apply to curated jobs
    6. Prepare for interviews with Q&A from top companies

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