“Listen to this episode on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts So many of us chase promotions as if they’re the ultimate career milestone—but are they really the best goal? In this conversation, Petra Wille and Teresa Torres unpack why promotions can be a tricky (and sometimes misleading) target, what to”
Lenny Rachitsky answers a reader moving from a solo startup PM role to a large company, arguing that communication, influence, and data-driven decision-making matter most in that shift. He also notes the shared core of…
Lenny answers a new PM's question about how to judge day-to-day performance by proposing three priority-ordered checks: whether the team delivers business impact, whether the individual contributes to strategy and team…
Teresa Torres argues that job seekers should evaluate a prospective employer's continuous discovery habits before accepting a role, since most companies are still early in adopting them. Drawing on interviews with…
Melissa Perri argues that product leaders should deliberately invest in "the product of you" and plan their career path toward product leadership. Beyond building core skills, aspiring leaders need to decide what kind…
Teresa Torres argues that product managers and hiring managers often chase breadth, trying to be good at everything and ending up mediocre. She proposes a three-tiered approach: build foundational attributes that make…
Marty Cagan continues his coaching series by describing how managers can help product managers close specific skill gaps identified in an earlier assessment. He covers product knowledge (users, data, industry, business…
Lenny Rachitsky answers a question from a newly minted product manager by describing five common early-career pitfalls: acting as a coordinator, a dictator, a dreamer, a feature factory, and a shield failing to filter…
Marty Cagan argues that great product managers are rare but identifiable, and that the best way to find them is to screen for a specific set of traits and skills. He stresses that traits like product passion, customer…
Marty Cagan and Bob Baxley argue that in the Generative AI era, strong product managers and product designers become more essential, not less, but only when those roles are defined by their specific, demanding skill…
Torres argues that job seekers should treat themselves as a product, defining a few clear value propositions that differentiate them, much as successful products focus on a specific use case. She shows how to map those…
Marty Cagan argues that when looking for a product job, the most important factor is not the company's name but the manager you would report to. Before leaving a current feature-team role, he suggests first trying to…
Marty Cagan lays out the product operating model, in which a product manager sits on a small cross-functional team alongside a designer, a tech lead and engineers, and is accountable for solving customer problems that…
Marty Cagan, after noticing that more than half of the 'rock star' product managers he knows are women despite women being a small share of the field, offers personal, non-statistical theories about why. He argues that…
This interview-style post profiles Zaz Harris, a software engineer who moved into a product management role at her own company after her supervisors noticed her interest in product work and needed to fill a gap. The…
Executive coach Joe Hudson argues that as AI commoditizes knowledge and effort, the scarce advantage becomes emotional clarity. He lays out a "wisdom stack" of four traits (discernment, productive conflict, willingness…
Teresa Torres proposes a draft list of seven foundational traits that underlie strong product management, arguing that developing these core abilities would fuel progress across the many specific skills PMs need. She…
Marty Cagan argues that many feature-team product managers and delivery-team product owners are actually doing project management or backlog administration, and that companies are beginning to recognize this. He calls…
Teresa Torres and Petra Wille argue that individual contributors can build real leadership skills before receiving a title. They suggest first clarifying what leadership means in your own organization, since official…
Teresa Torres shares the four opening questions she uses when screening candidates for product management roles, drawn from her consulting work recruiting PMs and designers. The questions probe a candidate's mental…
Marty Cagan uses the question of whether a product manager is the 'CEO of the product' as a revealing interview prompt. He finds candidates typically fall into three groups: those drawn to the power and influence, those…
Teeba Alkhudairi, a product manager, used continuous discovery skills during her job search by mapping each target company's revenue model into business outcomes, then breaking those into product outcomes and…
Cagan asks how much technical competency a product manager really needs, noting that managers and candidates alike are unsure where the bar sits. He argues technology knowledge matters because great products pair a real…
Teresa Torres and Petra Wille address how product managers can choose a coach in a crowded market where thousands of self-described product coaches compete for attention. They argue that red flags such as overpromising…