On the 11th of January 2021, I was one year old as a product manager.
You know, it gets confusing sometimes. As a PM, it’s hard to tell if I became a PM the first time I started working on a product or the first time I got a job. Do designers or developers wait till their first full-time jobs to bear the title? I think it counts from the first project so I’m actually 16 months old in product management. But that’s not the point of this.
One of the things I want to do this year is document what I have learned monthly. You can read what I previously learned in some months here.
I currently work as the Product Management Lead at a startup, most times I don’t feel like it, but I do think I’m doing a good job contributing to the business and helping the developers do their best work. This month, I hired a person. That’s one lesson I want to share. Hiring is not easy at all.
I needed help, but some part of me kept saying I could handle everything myself. I mean, my company is operating a new market in Nigeria, I barely understand the target audience very well. How was I going to handle this?
Before going on, let’s note that I’m just sharing my lessons, not giving advice.
So, I put out a posting on the best product community I belong to, People in Product, and some people sent in their CVs. Hiring managers are doing such a great job! It took weeks for me to look at these applications with focus, but I did it. Yatta! Did some interviews and it was a battle choosing the perfect candidate. It felt weird being on the other side of the interview process.
So, lesson learned: when applying for a job, note that the person assessing your profile is also putting in some work. Try to put in a good application, do some good research on the company and the role, so it doesn’t feel like you both wasted time.
The second lesson I learned: build what management says you should. That’s it.
This month, I finally started a personal project I have had on my mind for a while. My dream is to help product managers in anyway that I can. The designs were done by me and this project is currently in development. Excited is a word that doesn’t do justice to how I feel, I hope it’s worth it in the end.
Also, I recently rebuilt my portfolio. Let me know what you think.
Ciao!
