I came into this class only knowing what a Product Manager does through hearsay of friends who themselves had never managed a product. I had heard that it was a much more fluid role, but even still I thought there would be some structure that more or less all PMs fit under. I specifically thought this class would address such a structure and have us walk through examples of historical products and the thought processes behind their creation.
These are all good ideas for what this class would do, but it instead took a different route, and looking back on it, I am proud of what I did. The class taught us how to find needs, create a product for the need, and then finetune the product so that it actually fits the need. My team went from one idea to the next in our search for a good product. I took some time today to go over the assignments I did over this past quarter. I chuckled as I saw our pitch for a campus rally rental company as well as an AirBnB-style storage platform. Some times I was spearheading a new direction, other times another member of the team was pushing us forward. It was hard to stay on the same page, but we managed swimmingly. I had the special role of being the glue guy between the two friend groups which composed the team, so I became the de facto spokesperson, if you will, trying to make sure both sides were aligned. We outgrew this role quickly as we became really good friends by week four.
In its own strange way, I feel like this class taught me exactly what to expect as a PM. The first half was a bit crazy: we had multiple assignments twice a week and no clue where our product was going. But then things got more steady as we went to potential customers to validate our product. But then, again, things picked up as we had to create a one-pager doc and summarize all our work for the pitch deck. I am a surfer. I learned that being a PM is like surfing. Waves are always coming. They may not come all at once, and they may differ in magnitude. Sometimes you are not in the right place and the wave crashes on you, sending you right to the ocean floor. But if you can place yourself and your team well, you can have some of the best rides of your life. Proper situating before the crest of the wave takes the forms of market analysis, user validation, assumption testing, OKR setting, roadmapping etc. Then fast iteration on the chosen path is the kickstart to get the wave propeling the board and your feet up on the board. The rest is learning to ride what the wave gives you.
If we had more time, I would have liked to have gone over historical examples of product iteration in detail. To become a PM, one must pass a series of case study interviews. I my limited studying of these, I feel like I have learned what questions to ask and how to keep my mind broad. I would have loved to have gone deeper into this. Much of that was in fact covered in class in its own way, and for that I am so grateful for my team and what we accomplished as well as the teaching staff and Nina!
