Transitioning to a PM Role by Google Product Leader, Deepti Gupta

Why PM? Am I the right fit for PM?

What is your motivation?

"-"

• Higher salary

• CEO of the product

• Lead and manage the teams

"+"

• Love building products

• Customer empathy

• Strong collaboration

Self reflection

• Strengths and weaknesses

Evaluate your fitment

• Transferable skills

• Relevant practical experience

Imposter Syndrome

• You are not the only one!

• Not even 1% doubt in your abilities

• Practice makes perfect

  • Develop product thinking muscle - self practice and practice case studies with peers

• Spiritual/Motivational groups

  • SGI - Buddhist Organization

  • Sadhguru - Inner Engineering

Developing the relevant skills/experience

• Leverage your network

• Reach out to PMs/PM Managers

• Build your own product

• Other projects

Acing the interviews

Practical tips for interviews

• Never jump to answering the question

  • Take time to structure and organize before answering

• When explaining the solutions, tie them back to the goal/vision

• Be crisp and concise - rule of 3

• Take the experience to + and ++

• Always state your assumptions and explain the rationale, especially in estimation questions

• Make sure you state your prioritization criteria clearly and evaluate each option before picking one.

Deepti Gupta, Google Product Leader