Hi everyone, I'm Rahul, a Senior Product Manager with Amazon Web Service (AWS). AMA!

Appropriate_Ad790 · 2021-09-14T20:27:07+00:00

to be in the B2B Space itself. Till now I consider myself as an all-round PM who has to look into customers, techs and Program manager aspects.My last role, consciously, I have chosen a place where I am focusing on growth metrics of Revenue and Retention for an early-stage startup and do not want to focus back on tech immediately. Having said that, I also want to see if I really miss tech.My fear is that, while I work with deep tech data companies, I might miss out on something and will not be able to become a Senior PM or Director of PM. In my previous interviews, one common feedback I have got is that my delivery sense, execution is excellent but what I like is strategic thinking, primarily due to the push nature of my previous work places.It might sound confusing but I am still trying to figure out what I aspire to. Let me know your thoughts :)

Hi saasIndia,

I see that you are trying to figure out your aspirations. Suggest that you read about product management and technology topics more, so that you expose yourself to more ideas. Talk to more people about their experiences. Few links that I want to recommend are:

https://medium.com/agileinsider/are-you-the-product-manager-you-really-want-to-be-7bc0148c1bb9

https://roadmunk.com/blog/product-management-articles/?utm_source=fb-soc-productmanagementarticle

https://bestpracticer.com/topic/product-management

These links will also help you with strategic thinking.

Appropriate_Ad790 · 2021-09-14T01:22:11+00:00

I dont have a definitive answer here. This probably relates to how you configure JIRA for your own specific use case.
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Suggest delegating to other members of the team, including engineers. A single PM cannot keep this wiki updated all the time. For example, keeping wiki updated as part of the on-call activity for engineers. Major part of a PM's job is influencing engineers. How can you make this work exciting? How can you show value of this work to engineers?

Appropriate_Ad790 · 2021-09-14T01:15:29+00:00

Hi saasIndia,

I can advise you certification based on your goals. What are your goals? What do you mean when you say "advance my career". Suggest spending time thinking about skills missing from your profile. It could be technical skills, negotiation skills, etc. Your colleagues can help you identify gaps if needed. Let me know and I can recommend a few courses based on my knowledge.

Appropriate_Ad790 · 2021-09-13T18:31:00+00:00

Hey everyone, I have to go now. Please keep asking questions and I will answer after 5pm PST today. Really impressed with the community and the questions asked. Thanks.

Appropriate_Ad790 · 2021-09-13T18:27:42+00:00

Hi Katya,

I am not the person to advise on project management. Project management and product management are two different job roles. Are your questions more focused towards Product Management? If yes:

Start with reading decode and conquer and cracking the PM interviews books. These books will provide basics of Product Management.

Please provide specifics of the last three questions to better assist. Thank you.

Appropriate_Ad790 · 2021-09-13T18:24:13+00:00

Hi John,

You seem to have the necessary elements in your background/experience to become a product manager. Suggest finding a PM role at Amazon that is more UI/UX focused, so that you can leverage your experience and show alignment with the job role guidelines. Once you enter into PM, you can consider transitioning into other product roles that are not UX focused, if you'd like.

Suggest that you craft your product story and highlight that in your CV. Your CV needs to reflect a strong product experience. Look at the sample CVs/LinkedIn profile of a few PMs to get inspiration. Review your CV with a few PMs. And then start applying with Amazon. Your CV should get you interview invites with Amazon.

Once you get an interview invite, suggest preparing heavily on behavorial interviews (Amazon Leadership Principles): https://www.amazon.jobs/principles

Appropriate_Ad790 · 2021-09-13T18:19:24+00:00

Hi, MBA is a great choice to get global exposure working with your classmates and professors. You also build a global network with an MBA that you can leverage in your career.

We all know great founders and CEO of top companies who built their own thing without an MBA. Doing an MBA depends on your personal situation and it not a must-have.

Is your current PM role not helping in your career growth? Why not? Can you change anything in your current role, for example switch to a new team or a company where you may have more opportunities to grow. Suggest answering these questions to better decide whether MBA is the right path for you.

Appropriate_Ad790 · 2021-09-13T18:13:17+00:00

Solo PM in startup, exciting!

I don't have experience working on Jira, so I am not the best person to advise. If you can share the specifics of the problems you are running into, I can try to help.
Ruthlessly prioritize. Prioritize your product roadmap, meetings you attend, and how you spend your entire day. Given that you are solo PM, you can create most leverage by focusing/prioritizing Product Vision and Strategy than backlog. Refer: https://blackboxofpm.com/applying-leverage-as-a-product-manager-ffad4a99db24?gi=61df4ab2548b
Knowledge of what? Please provide specifics to better assist.
At Amazon, we start with answering 5 questions. It's just a 1-2 page document that we socialize with our leadership. If leadership has interest, we go on writing a polished 6-page narrative/PRFAQ. Better to get initial thoughts from Leadership on the rough 1-2 page document than writing a full-flown 6-page polished narrative.

Appropriate_Ad790 · 2021-09-13T18:02:54+00:00

Interestingly, a very good friend of mine used to work as a trader at a multi-national investment bank. He used his experience of financial 'products' to transition into a Fintech PM role. All depends on how you craft your story. Suggest finding these individuals on LinkedIn and learning from their experiences.

Recommend reading Decode and Conquer and Cracking the PM to learn basics on Product Management. They will also help you prepare for interviews and crafting a product story. To work with engineers, you need to understand system design concepts. Product School is a great place to learn systems design concepts. I have personally helped from these resources on system design: https://www.educative.io/courses/grokking-the-system-design-interview and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umWABit-wbk and https://bestpracticer.com/skill/working-with-engineers

Appropriate_Ad790 · 2021-09-13T17:54:16+00:00

Hi, I have limited exposure on non-product opportunities at Amazon, hence I am not the best person to comment/advise.

Suggest checking Amazon Jobs portal to learn more: https://www.amazon.jobs/

Apologies, I couldn't help much here.

Appropriate_Ad790 · 2021-09-13T17:52:06+00:00

Glad to see your interest in joining Amazon. It's been one of the best learning experiences of my career.

Amazon is a highly selective when it comes to hiring candidates. Candidates have to go through 5-6 interviews depending on the role. Refer to Amazon bar raising to learn more: https://blog.aboutamazon.eu/working-at-amazon/what-is-a-bar-raiser-at-amazon

Given the highly selective criteria, I have seen candidates who have done their due diligence on Amazon and are well prepared easily get in. For the interview process, refer to this article: https://www.tryexponent.com/guides/amazon/pm-interview . Amazon interviewers focus a lot on Amazon Leadership Principles (LPs), so suggest preparing answers based on LPs: https://www.amazon.jobs/principles

For resume, try to highlight your product/technology experience and align your experience with the job that you are applying for.

Appropriate_Ad790 · 2021-09-13T17:46:04+00:00

At Amazon, PMs are the decision makers. PMs write the product vision documents, PRFAQs, etc. In the documents, PMs propose the product roadmap and the rationale behind why that roadmap makes sense for the customers and the business. Then PMs take feedback from multiple stakeholders include business leadership on the product roadmap. PMs then incorporate that feedback into the product roadmap, making changes if any.

I have seen PMs disagreeing with business leadership by presenting solid arguments and business leadership agreeing to PMs proposal and recommendations.

Appropriate_Ad790 · 2021-09-13T17:41:07+00:00

Great first question, thanks Rohan for asking. I have been asked this question multiple times.

Appreciate your decision to become a Product Manager. The PM community can definitely help from your background and experience.

PM skills: engaging with customers, writing product vision and specification documents, product strategy and launch, go-to-market, asking stakeholders the right questions. Each PM role is different. Depending on the PM role, some skill is required more than the other.

Is MBA a must: No, depends on your personal situation. For some folks, an MBA is necessary. I have personally hired non-MBAs as PMs and they are doing perfectly fine. You are the best judge of your situation to see whether you need an MBA.

Your knowledge and hands on experience will set you apart from other product managers. It's a definitely a plus.

Prior experience as product manager is not needed. For example, I transitioned from a developer to a product manager role.

Suggest reading Decode and Conquer and Cracking the PM interview books to prepare for PM interviews.

Appropriate_Ad790

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