I recently watched this talk by Shreyas Doshi on Product Management. I have no plans to move to PM but the following Shreyas holds on Twitter and the threads of wisdom on his timeline made me follow him and watch the video.
The entire video was pretty relevant to any career path, be it PM, Cybersecurity, or Development.
- High agency – ability to prioritize and execute projects despite the odds
- Be an entrepreneur of your product/project
- Expand your circle of influence
- Attention to details in everything you do
- Invest time in personal projects and learn from them
- Work cross functionally and expand transferable skills
One of the questions asked during the talk was the deal breakers for him when he does PM hiring. Shreyas mentioned 3 things – High Agency, Product Sense, and the lack of major ego.
Though the first 2 are understandable that you want people to make good decisions at the macro and micro levels and achieve goals while wrestling through ambiguity, the third one puts a lot of emphasis on putting the company first before your own self-interest.
I have seen this first-hand at various organizations when people dedicate a lot of time circulating their agendas and put themselves first before the higher goals of the team and mission of the company. And these are quite evident in the hard times for a team/company.
It’s not always possible to identify the above trait in a 45 min interview with someone you’re speaking with for the first time. For me, one thing that I observe is the usage of ‘I’ vs ‘we’ throughout the interview. Anyone who has remotely worked on a major project knows that it’s impossible to achieve successful outcomes for a project without the help of a lot of team members.
I am still expanding the interviewing skills toolkit and learning more about the people themselves and not only the technical skills.