Pragmatic Leaders Blog and Newsletter

Product managers are individuals who are responsible for guiding the development of a product from conception to completion. Their responsibilities may necessitate a mix of soft and hard talents. If you’re interested in this position, it’s a good idea to know what all these skills are and how to improve them. We’ll go over the …

Top 7 skills you need to be a product manager Read More »

Project Management is the use of processes, techniques, skills, understanding, and experience to meet particular project objectives within agreed-upon parameters while adhering to project acceptance criteria. Final outputs are bound by a finite timeframe and budget in project management. Why should this course be a must-do for you? Even if project management isn’t in your …

What Product Management Certification Would Look Like In 2022? Read More »

Business Analyst to Product Manager may not be an intriguing career transition, but it definitely has its highs and lows, ebbs and flows! I was just as perplexed and overwhelmed when I first started. Coming from a business analyst background, being a Product Manager sounded intimidating, but that’s where the story becomes interesting. I was …

Business Analyst to Product Manager: My Career Transition Story Read More »

Ever wondered what it takes to be an office Chandler? some cool and funny out of office emails to start with! Everything is a lot more chirpier and merrier during Christmas and New Year. People are high on sugar & brownies, astonished with the lights & well just straight-up looking forward to the long weekend. …

10 Funniest Out of Office emails you’ve got to use this holiday season! Read More »

The perennial myth in education being subject to classroom learning has been debunked. Witness the surge in Alternative Credentialing for working professionals and adults who want to bridge the gap and resume education after years of break. Alternative credentialing has caused a paradigm shift in the way higher education is seen. Despite its recency, this …

Alternative Credentialing: From Lamestream to Mainstream Read More »

how to get shortlisted for Interviews and how to improve your resume to catch the attention of the recruiter.

The Recent Job Trends in Product Management salaries have encouraged many aspiring product managers in the country. The career path has a broad scope and provides excellent opportunities for advancement for those who work in it. Do you know what’s common among successful CEOs like Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Marissa Mayer (Yahoo), Susan Wojcicki (Youtube), and …

Recent Job Trends in Product Management Read More »

How do Product Management Statistics contribute to better organizational dynamics? Is your product perfect? Or do you fail to meet customer’s needs? Are you also facing the common problems faced by all Product Managers? There’s no black or white in Product Management. The room for improvement is wide and there are countless skills that you …

Recent Product Management Statistics for Gap Analysis Read More »

Cricket exemplifies life at its best. Be it the thrill, the stress, the yearn or the need to rise like a proverbial phoenix from the ashes of the recent defeat- Cricket is a life lesson. Cricket teaches you there is always a second inning. Winning a particular match is a point in the graph, but …

Key Takeaways for Product Managers from Cricket Read More »

Do you have transition to product management on your mind? Career change can seem stinking hard, overwhelming and bemusing until you know you are just plain ready to become a Product Manager. A stable job, in the ultimate rollercoaster of life, is a security blanket that promotes a growth mindset and tenacity to traverse on …

How to Plan your Career Change to become a Product Manager Read More »

The definition of Product and Brand Management vary across organizations, but simply put, a PM is nothing but everything, a necessary evil for any company. As the popular adage goes, PMs are the CEO of the product- they look after the technical attributes, design aspect and make the product comprehensible to the customers through product …

Why is Product and Brand Management the Right Move For You Read More »

Switching careers with Product Management? You’ve put your blood, sweat and tears, not to mention time and immense efforts into your career. It’s been a few years since you started your professional journey and gained some name for yourself. But now you are wondering how to switch careers to another field. Back to Square 1? …

How to Switch Careers without Starting at the Bottom Read More »

Yes, I switched my career path from Finance to Business Analyst to Product Manager and I have an interesting story to tell. Working as a finance analyst had been a natural fit. I loved crunching numbers, and enjoyed the challenges that my job role brought along. My job responsibilities included finance analysis, risk assessment, analyzing …

How I Transitioned from Business Analyst to Product Manager Read More »

Be it vinyl music records, VHS tapes and mix tapes;  land line phones and cordless craze; clunky fax machines or the popular Premier Padmini car- we have all witnessed that all products do have a product life cycle. Managing highly complex products and interplaying between product generations is a legitimate challenge for companies. Product managers decide …

Stages of Product Life Cycle Read More »

Why Product Managers and Business Analysts Don’t Get Along Well? We spend nearly 1/3rd of our life at work and face several challenges that we cannot always compartmentalize. Difficult product manager, Staying ahead of the curve, and competition for promotion are comsit at workplaces even in a perfect world. However, ball games where employees who …

Why Product Managers and Business Analysts Don’t Get Along Well Read More »

The applications for this term for the Product Management Job guarantee program are closing on 19 July 2020 (Sunday). Applications will reopen in October. Story so far We launched Product Management Job Guarantee Program via the Income Share Agreement in the month of February 2020. We received over 1000+ applications for this Job Guarantee Program …

Application closure Announcement for Product Management Job Guarantee Program Read More »

Career is a lifelong journey. Sometimes you think you are driving it and sometimes career metastasises itself in random directions. In the past 12 years I have guided, mentored and trained over few thousand of colleagues, employees and learners in their career. I have developed this simple rule to guide pretty much any career inflection …

Career planning – Tal’s 3 Axis Rule Read More »

In this article, we will go over some of the basic agile interview questions focusing largely on Scrum, the most popular form of Agile. We will cover agile interview questions and answers for experienced practitioners as well as novice candidates, touching on agile methodology interview questions along with agile project management interview questions. I will …

20 Top-Notch Agile Methodology Interview Questions Read More »

There is one burning question in the tech world today and that is: “How can you strategize AI in your product?” This applies especially to product managers because we manage the day to day decisions on our core products and we can understand how to apply technology and other functions to these products. As a …

How Will Artificial Intelligence Transform Product Managers Read More »

Almost every job hunter dislikes the need to craft a resume for product manager job searching process. You know you can do the job well, so you don’t want to waste your time creating this application document. However, other people aren’t aware of your skills and achievements. Your product manager’s resume is the only way …

How to Write A Killer Resume for Product Manager Role Read More »

If you are currently a business analyst and want to move up in your career, then it is ideal if you pursue the field of product management. One of the great reasons why it is recommended is that both fields focus on solving problems. However, as a business analyst, what it requires you to become …

How to transition from a Business Analyst role to a Product Manager role? Read More »

If you are hoping to begin a career in product management, especially in a technical industry, you may be wondering whether it requires having a technical background. Truth be told, it helps to have a technical background or at least an understanding of the engineering side of things. But do you really need to be …

Is Technical background necessary to get into a Product Management role? Read More »

People often get confused between product management and project management. Both are different job titles with some similarities and some dissimilarities (like, there’s a difference between a product and a project). If you are a project manager interested in switching to a product manager’s role, you need to understand that it is a vast area …

How to Transition from Project Manager to Product Manager Role: Differences, Similarities Read More »

How I transitioned from a Software Developer to a Product Manager While product management is still a nascent field, it has become a staple of effective development teams, establishing a strong foundation for design, engineering, marketing, and customer success. As a part of our ongoing Product Conversations with industry experts, We recently had an interview …

Product Conversation with Sr. Technical Product Manager at Amazon Read More »

What does it take to be a product manager? Product management is an essential organizational role that functions within a company and deals with the designing, forecasting, production, marketing, and termination (if required) of the product(s). In the present scenario, there are numerous professionals preparing for their transition to product management from a different job …

Product Conversation with Senior Product Manager at Better India Read More »

To make the future happen, one needs to build the company’s vision and then discover practical and viable plans. For middle and senior management and executives, orientation towards the future is especially crucial because it provides focus, determines the culture of the company, creates robustness, adaptability and engages employees. A vision of the Company: the …

How to Build and Execute a Vision Read More »

A critical part of Product manager’s role is to identify the right problem to solve and define “what” part of the problem really well, so that that engineering team can work on “how” part of the problem. From the very moment I stepped into this role, I was told that the product manager should ideally …

Influencing design as a Product Manager Read More »

As a product manager, one of my primary goal was to identify primary persona, identify primary persona needs, define features around this persona and iterate the product features around this primary persona. Secondary persona needs are always de-prioritized. In short, the use of a minimum of two personas in the design process is what connects …

Can design be both universal and personal? Read More »

Disclaimer: Luring but the sarcastic headline. Humanity has been plagued with thoughts of machines taking over the earth. The ruling species could hardly get past insecurities of getting ruled out. I live in a developing country that is not at the forefront of the cutting edge technologies we keep hearing around, and I am not in any way …

The Scary Era of Artificial Intelligence (or Is It?) Read More »

Product Management is arguably one of the most demanding and overreaching areas in today’s tech-driven world. A Product Manager (PM) has to remain on today’s cutting-edge of technology, not just understanding technology but deploying something actionable and creating a sustainable impact. The first and foremost question on any PM’s mind would be : How then …

Product in Action Part 1 : Omnia Dei Scientia Read More »

Product Manager (PM) is a very broad role and varies into anything remotely related to it like Projects, Programs, Analytics and even Marketing. Every PM has a certain style of working. Each style has its own approach, process and deliverables. Below I outline some of the approaches PMs follow and some points to keep in …

The Curious Breed of PMs Read More »

A Product Management role is similar to colors : They come in all hues with varying breadth and depth. The objective of this article is to understand how Product Managers (PM) typically work in different organizational setups. 4 years ago, I started off my career as a PM for a Product organization known for its …

Product Management Landscape in a Dynamic World Read More »

Its been more than 3 years since I delved into Products role. And it has been one heck of a learning curve. Product Management is kind of a tricky role-you are called the ‘CEO of your Product’ but then, you have to get things done without authority and purely through collaboration. A PM is often …

Ps & Ws : Turning Chaos into Value Read More »

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science. All these buzzwords are taking the tech world by a storm. It’s no wonder then that a startup or an established corporate may feel intimidated alike by the enormity of resources and a lack of history. I’m sure at least half of the readers may have heard of the …

Introducing Data Science in Existing Products — When and How? Read More »

Are you wondering how to create an online marketplace in today’s ‘internet era’? It helps you be at the ‘center’ of the action and benefit from the growth of the entire online ecosystem. Below are the questions that you need to ask yourself before starting out with the same. How do I Start an Online …

How to Create an Online Marketplace? Read More »

Me and my team of product owners spend more time with designers than with our developer community. My team always comes back with the concern that designer through-put is not as quick as expected and slowing down the development cycle. Hearing this feedback, I initiated an exercise of empathizing with my designers to understand their …

What do Product Designers wish that Product managers should know Read More »

I closed my startup down in 2017 after working on it for around 3 years. I won’t get into details of how the journey turned out; there are countless unique stories on the same, with nerve-wracking incidents of successes and failures. Some become unicorns and some die a slow death. However, life goes on, as …

Failed Startup to Product Management Read More »

Product Talks with Senior Product Professionals from across the globe   We recently had an insightful session with Adel Lelo, Senior Product Manager at Western Governors University. About Adel  Lelo: Adel Lelo has more than 16 yrs of experience in Product Management. He specializes in online test delivery, proctoring, and online learning, vendor relationship management, …

Adel Lelo – The Art of Product Management Read More »

Do you want to become the CEO of your company? If yes, this article is for you because the CEO is not made in a day. You work either “on” your business or “in” your business. The ones who work on their business are called entrepreneurs and business owners. The ones who work in their …

7 ways to be a Full Stack Employee Read More »

I was asked this question in a Product Management interview so I thought of sharing my view here. This post is not going to cover legal formalities for starting a food truck business in India. There are plenty of resources on the Internet that gives detailed information on how to start a food truck business …

Starting Food Truck Business in India Read More »

  A digital platform is an ecosystem designed to enable different groups to co-create value through “plug-and-play” capabilities – Wikipedia. The technology infrastructure of the platform touches customers and developers beyond the firm’s boundaries. Simply speaking, when a company finds a similar suite of technologies for a multiple of its products, it makes sense to …

Platform Products: Getting Started Read More »

Pareto analysis emerged from Vilfredo Pareto‘s observation that many activities break down to an 80:20 ratio, where 80% of production is due to 20% of contributing factors. This observation is now being used to focus business strategies, problem solving and operations on the key inputs that account for 80% of the outcome. How Does The 80/20 Rule Works? …

Everything You Need to Know About Pareto Principle or 80/20 Rule Read More »

If you’ve secured an interview for a Product Manager role, congratulations are in order. In the ever-growing competitive industry of Product Management, attending interviews can feel like a job in itself. In a market that is becoming more saturated, employers want the cream of the crop. You need to do all that you can to …

7 Tips To Help You Excel Your Next PM Interview Read More »

How to get your resume noticed? In the competitive world of Product Management, you need to set yourself apart from the rest. According to a study, recruiters spend an average of 10 seconds on a resume before moving on. Read here for a few guidelines to help you build a resume that get noticed for …

7 Tips on How to Get your Resume Noticed Read More »

Product Managers have to make choices regularly. This means that he/she has to say NO to more number of things to arrive at the final decision. You are at the centre of all the stakeholders and each of them has their way to tackle a problem. The complexity increases because these stakeholders would expect you …

K.N.O.W how to say NO Read More »

Be a broken record! I usually tell folks I am an Accidental Product Manager and there are times I wish when I was not as clueless as I was. Here are the things I have picked up along the way, some the hard way and some the easy way out about being a Product Manager. …

Things that no one tells you about being a Product Manager Read More »

The joy of doing new things or what is the difference between invention and innovation (sometimes called (“discovery and invention”). Let’s take a closer look at this topic. Innovation as a term is quoted in many diverse situations and workgroups. Another related term is Invention. While the dictionary meanings may be related, there also exist …

Innovation vs. Invention – Same Yet Different Read More »

Providing support and challenge while strengthening results and relationships What is assertiveness and why leaders need it? How to develop one? Whether you give feedback or sell a product or an idea, it requires an understanding of how your behavior affects others to influence. Yes, you can take the course and learn management skills, it’ll …

Developing Influence and Assertive Leadership Read More »

The short answer to that question is – YES! After having looked at the job search process and how to create a resume, we now look at how building a good digital profile can land you your dream job. According to a Social Recruiting Survey, conducted by the recruiting platform Social Talent, 99% of respondents …

Do You Need a Good Digital Profile to Land a PM Job? Read More »

In our previous article we looked at mastering the job search process (Read it here). In this article, we will focus on resume building. According to a study, recruiters spend an average of 10 seconds on a resume before moving on. If that holds true just imagine if all the resumes look alike. Let me …

Do you have that "perfect resume" to apply for your PM job? Read More »