As Product Managers we often need to take on tasks that we haven’t done before (this is probably true for many who aren’t PMs as well). When learning something new in such scenarios, when unsure of how to get started, I have usually found it very helpful to build a toolbox for this new task/skill….
Category: Career management
My Thoughts on Leadership Without Authority
Recently, the topic of Leadership without Authority came up time and again in my various conversations, so I thought to write about some thoughts and learnings in having these conversations. I believe most people need to practice Leadership without Authority at some point in their professional and personal lives. Product managers is a good case…
5 Years Later, I Became a Remote Product Manager After All
When I first started my career as a Product Manager almost five years ago, it seemed like a common belief that a PM job cannot be done remotely. Where I was, remote work was generally frowned upon, but the PMs didn’t even get the bit of leeway that developers did: the argument was that you…
4 Tips to Manage Career Risks During Tumultuous Times
Many often think of the tech industry as an ever-growing job haven filled with endless opportunities, but the recent months have certainly reminded us it too is not immune to economic downturns. With large-scale layoffs and offer rescissions frequenting our feeds, you might be wondering how to best manage career risks in such raucous times….
Networking is part of the PM job
We all recognize the importance of networking, but we often think of networking as a “career”-focused activity, instead of part of our “job”. However, what I have gradually learned in my career as a product manager is that, networking is indeed part of my job description, and I strongly believe this is also true for…
How to tell stories in interviews
We all need to tell stories in job interviews. The question might be a casual “How did you do X?“, or a more formal invitation of a story such as “Tell me a time you led a product innovation!“. But for many people, the challenge is that there are too many ways to tell stories,…
3 Principles to Maintain Work/Life Balance when Life Gets Busy
Work/Life Balance seems to be an important concept that’s on the mind of many workers and employers these days — and rightfully so. But the discussion around Work/Life Balance seems to generally focus on one direction — namely, how to maintain a healthy Work/Life Balance when Work gets demanding. A huge fan of that topic,…
How to request Peer Feedback
Having been on my current team for 9 months, I recently started asking for feedback from my colleagues. My goal is to get a 360 view of how I am doing my job and use these perspectives to keep growing my skills. In this short article, I share how I do this. (Here, by “Peer…
Writing more clearly with The Pyramid Principle
Producing clear writing is an essential skill. Yet, many people feel their writing isn’t clear enough, and struggle to improve that skill. In this article I would like to share my learning of a method that can help you write more clearly – a method called The Pyramid Principle (“TPP”). It’s easy to use The…
Getting promoted: The importance of working with your manager
TLDR: I believe the ability to work with your manager to advance your career is a key skill for professionals. It may be an uncomfortable topic due to reasons like workplace culture, but there’s no harm and a lot of goodness to work with your manager to identify career goals clearly and build concrete plan…
See you later, USA!
(Image source: US Embassy & Consulate in Canada) I recently left the US to move back to Canada. In this article, I share my thoughts and reasoning on this move. I came to the US at the end of 2019 on an H1B visa, which I got on my 3rd attempt towards the H1B “lottery”….
Transcending storytelling
As a PM, I always see storytelling as one of the most important communication tools. Whether I am trying to get buy-in, build alignment, explain a strategy or share my learning, stories are usually a powerful way to retain attention and elicit empathy. But as I keep practicing storytelling, I am gradually realizing that as…