Discover the Ideal Receipt Book Format in Word for Product Management

Receipt book format in word for Product Management

how do you write a product manager resume hi there my name is josh vector i'm one of the founders of product manager hq i'm also the head of product and founder of a software company called squibbler and many people are interested in this subject because getting a product manager job is not easy to say the least it's one of the hardest jobs to get and a big component of getting this job is how your resume looks so whether you're an aspiring product manager or senior product manager or any other project management position for that matter knowing how to craft a solid resume will always be a valuable skill that will serve you for the rest of your career so let's get right into things but first be sure to hit that subscribe button so you can get direct notifications whenever we post new videos just like this one that way you can always get your fair share of high quality product content from product experts before we get into all the various elements that make up a great product manager resume as well as the angle we recommend you take when preparing it it's important to break down a few things that you ought to bear in mind as you watch this video the first thing this guide is discussed from the perspective of someone hiring a product manager rather than the perspective of someone looking for a job in product management the logic is simple each and every employer has different needs thus they all look for different traits and skills from potential candidates for that reason it's easier to have a general understanding of what potential recruiters expect of different candidates as opposed to framing a resume around one single job advertisement that way we can build a flexible framework that you can adapt to suit the position you're applying for and secondly it's important to remember at all times the fundamental purpose that a resume serves to showcase your value proposition to a potential hirer who's sifting through a crowded market of potential talent therefore we'll look at the ways that will help you to optimally position your skills in product management and then track the format that will make the difference between a recruiter simply lumping your application into the no pile versus contacting you as a possible prospect all in all the approach we adopt towards resume creation is almost the same as we would use in product development in general at the end of the day your resume is a product therefore its creation is just like that of any other product that means you'll be prioritizing ruthlessly you'll need to iterate rapidly and you will need to look for product market fit that includes conducting analysis on your customers and pitching yourself differently to each and every employer with this as your baseline let's take a look at the framework we use to build a product manager resume as mentioned we're going to approach creating a product manager resume in much of the same way that we do product management therefore the steps parallel closely with what you would do when creating any software product the first step we dub self-reflection this entails identifying your company's key strengths weaknesses and competitive position in the market the second step is called market research which involves discovering as much as you can about your target audience the third step we call prototyping in this specific context you'll be creating drafts of your resume so you can iterate quickly and lay the foundation for your advertisements we've named the four step narratives this is all about crafting your value proposition and paying the story that will show recruiters why you and your unique profile should matter to them the fifth step we call quantifiable impacts here you'll be backing up the story that you tell in your narrative with hard facts that prove you are who you claim to be up next we have the design phase which covers the entire experience that you offer to potential recruiters when they come across your resume from color choices and formatting right down to the type of language you use the seventh and final stage is your go-to market strategy which is your action plan that dictates how exactly you will be reaching potential recruiters now that it's clear that we'll be treating ourselves as products let's master the game plan that will be using each and every step listed as a product manager the first thing you need to do is understand the value you bring to an employer this is a concept that quite a number of product managers can get wrong usually when i ask a candidate what value do you bring to an employer they typically rattle off a list of skills and experiences they might tell me how many years of project management experience they have or their computer science degree or that they've been a product owner at three different companies that's all nice to hear but really when i ask what value do you bring to an employer that's not the response that i'm looking for the value of a product manager isn't their list of skills and experiences rather your value has to do with your decision of making capabilities after all as a product manager you're in charge of the product life cycle in its entirety from the product vision down to the product roadmap in doing so you're in charge of thousands of decisions every day such as determining how to tackle a product sprint how to address customer requests how to price your product and also how to respond to competitive action among others therefore when we talk about the value of a product manager what we are looking at is how your unique decision making skills can have a positive impact on a company by helping them to solve their respective pain points usually the decision making process you use may resemble something like the framework that we've included here beginning with initial assessment phase followed by a period of planning and implementation before bringing it back full circle with evaluation the framework you use to make decisions one of your selling points something that makes you a highly differentiated product reflect on other elements about what makes you different take the time to consider who you are and what you do that's better than anyone else in doing so you will establish the core value proposition that you bring to any organization that hires you now that we've looked at the self-reflection phase of resume creation we now move on to the second part market research this is one of the most important steps if you want to have any margin of success creating a product manager resume yet you would be surprised at the number of product manager hopefuls who send their resume to all sorts of companies without actually doing any research you're probably asking well why is that a bad approach let's explain with an analogy everyone knows what a telemarketer is those sales representatives who call you over the phone to get you to buy their product we also know that nobody likes telemarketers and the reasoning is simple they try to sell you something with a generic sales pitch without ever considering whether you actually need the product or not evidently product manager should not be like telemarketers your goal is to solve an organization's pain points not to create them by sending an untargeted resume the way to avoid ending up like a telemarketer is to conduct research to understand what a prospective hire is looking for in doing so you are free to choose a research methodology you find most appealing here we have a framework that can be used which covers crucial facets of market research the first step involves brand awareness this entails being aware of the kind of work culture and image that the organization projects and encourages this is important and it will help you to know how to use language and formatting to align with the company's personality then you can look into other areas of market research such as product differentiation and customer satisfaction of both of which will help you fuse a unique value proposition with the pain points an organization is dealing with once you've done so you can then look into the pricing strategy of your target market in order to get a deeper understanding of the kind of compensation organization is willing to offer you so that you can in turn know how optimally you ought to position yourself once you've conducted market research prepare yourself to craft a customized resume for the organization you want to apply for in other words if you're applying to five different organizations you need to have five different resumes after all you'd never sell your product to a prospect without modifying your sales pitch therefore you need to do the same when you apply for product manager job opportunities you must target each organization with a unique approach is it hard yeah is it time consuming sure but consider this by spending a couple of hours now to conduct your research you're saving yourself months of fruitless job searching great product managers do the hard work up front and that hard work pays dividends over the long run plus if you aren't excited enough about a particular product manager role to spend hours customizing your resume you're probably not passionate enough to join that company and succeed in the long run with them think of this customization task as an initial test of your interest and your motivation to apply just like in product development once you're done conducting the necessary market research then you can move to the prototyping phase of your product manager resume by prototyping i refer specifically to the importance of drafting your resume before you dive all the way into a full-blown finalized resume here's how you could do just that select one employers that you would love if they hired you any of them it doesn't matter which one you select just pick one once you've done so open a document in that document lay out every relevant experience you've had from your previous positions and product to your volunteer work side projects and your education among other things think about your accomplishments what are you proud of how do those accomplishments align with the company that you've targeted put down everything and anything that might be irrelevant for the company that you're applying to it doesn't have to be neatly organized or well formatted it can look just like the resume draft of leelah lewis you'll see on the screen after all it's just a draft and drafts are meant for ideation your draft will never be perfect nor should you aspire for it to be as you add in all of your experiences don't worry about formatting or mistakes or even the length of the resume itself we'll get to those soon if you find that you have nothing to say that would impress impressive company you've chosen think about applying to a different one product market fit is a two-way street you have to like the company in order to be truly inspired and motivated to work there once you have your initial resume drafted and all of its imperfections we can now move on to converting that draft into a real resume product that will show off your unique value proposition as a product manager with your resume draft in hand you now have raw materials that you can work with it's important to convert those raw materials into a truly usable product to do so you will need to use a structured process that will help you during the transformation process this process can be broken up into two parts qualitative narratives and quantitative impacts let's start off by taking a look at what qualitative narratives are qualitative narratives are all about storytelling as you know all products have a story therefore you as a product manager are no different there is a particular narrative that your story follows that is unique to you and you alone usually your narrative is centered around a personal mission if you are not sure what your mission is you can use a number of techniques to help you discover it once you've done that you can then flesh out the story behind who you are as a product manager feel free to start off with a brief summary about yourself just as you would in an elevator pitch and once you've done so follow up with a more comprehensive narrative that builds upon your elevator pitch don't worry about pigeonholing yourself when you create this narrative after all the resume you're currently working on will only be sent to one employer so you'll only be running experiments on what narrative fits you the best when you apply to a different employer based on the pain points you've found you'll want to craft an entirely different narrative for that employer now that you have your first narrative completed run back through your resume draft and delete every bullet point that doesn't align with your narrative while this back and forth between your draft your narrative may be painfully annoying it's important part of building a stellar product manager resume every product roadmap is a set of painful trade-offs it entails identifying what really truly matters and that means prioritizing ruthlessly keep this mindset at the top of your mind you are not evaluated based on the sum of your impact rather you are evaluated based on the average of your impact the more experiences you put into your resume the more likely you will dilute your average impact it's far better for you to drill down into five or ten key initiatives you've led in the past three years and it is for you to painfully list out the dozens of initiatives you've tackled in your entire career you want depth of impact not breadth of experiences you now have a consistent powerful narrative backed up by tangible experiences now it's time to prove your worth what do i mean by that well it's too easy to say that you delivered an innovative experience or that you transformed an industry and it's another thing to prove it this is one of the areas that many product managers fall short of when circulating their resume i've read thousands of resumes from product managers and most of them throw in nice phrases such as i've been a team leader or i've had to craft a vision but very few resumes back up those stories with evidence if you want to stand out you need to prove that what you're saying is true think of it this way if a stranger came up to you and told you they were famous would you believe them no you'd ask them to prove it show don't tell show me the quantitative impact that you brought to your previous organization and to your previous users start by discarding every sentence that looks like the following worked in cross-functional teams with engineers designers and the business in an agile way it doesn't say anything about you specifically because it's a core function of the job imagine if a car mechanic gave you a resume that said fixed cars how would you feel about seeing this resume you'd be pretty frustrated right after all every car mechanic in the world fixes cars that narrative is too obvious and doesn't highlight why you should hire this specific car mechanic instead of all the other car mechanics who want to get your attention focus instead on the impact what exactly did you deliver and the example that we've included paid careful attention to how the candidates make mention of not only their role within product management but also what they delivered which was sales in excess of 700 000 a good rule of thumb is to ensure that every bullet point has at least one metric and that every bullet point tells one cohesive story if you can't find a metric for that accomplishment then consider removing it from your resume after all if you can't prove the value of your accomplishment then the hiring manager is unlikely to believe that your accomplishment was valuable another mistake i regularly see is that candidates like to focus on how they did something rather than the impact that they drove if you focus on the method you take away focus from the impact product management is about delivering impact think about it when you present to your executives or to your customers as a product manager they don't care about the hundreds of hours of research that you did they just want to know your road map recruiters and hiring managers think in the same way they aren't interested in the thousands of hours that you spent on an initiative or about the hundreds of jira tickets that you groom they are interested in how many hours you spend on google to hunt down information or how you organized your scrum team or how you pulled off your product launch they want to know what lasting impact your initiative had both the impact you had on your users as well as the impact that you had on your organization as you can imagine if you position yourself incorrectly your targeted hiring organization may decide to skip past your application entirely no matter how many years of experience you have to reiterate it pays to understand how the hiring manager thinks so that you can help them understand the unique value that you can provide you're almost at the finish line the challenge now is to thoughtfully design your product manager resume in an attractive and impactful way remember that design is about principles not about outcomes keep the following design principles in mind information architecture information density and aesthetics let's break them down in detail information architecture can best be described as the way in which you present information you must present relevant high priority information to your recruiter in a way that makes sense to them just like you would for any product take the example we've included this is an architectural pattern for a website see how everything from the search options to the user dashboard is laid out in such an organized fashion well the same applies to your resume as a hiring manager i don't need to see your experience in unrelated jobs nor anything about unrelated courses i also don't need to see your objective your objective is that you'd like me to hire you your summary is another thing that i'm not interested in seeing resumes are already summaries of your professional experience why summarize a summary so what's important for hiring organizations to know about as a hiring manager i want to understand how long you worked at a company and whether you had any job gaps furthermore i want to prioritize your most recent experience and i want to discount your least recent experience therefore you need to share that information with me through the design of your resume in a way that i can easily digest this is where information density plays a role the less dense information is the easier it is to understand this leads us now to aesthetic sides of things a solid resume is not just the content itself it's also the visual presentation of the content consider your resume as a design challenge in other words your resume is a preview of your product management skills you'll have to make design decisions about font size spacing and placement you'll have to consider how you'd like to visualize your achievements and your value proposition granted you should never want to overdo your resume aesthetics after all you don't want it to be jarring on the eyes don't create visuals for the sake of creating visuals ensure your aesthetic design decisions serve the powerful narrative that you've crafted don't create noise every pixel matters now you have a targeted polished resume that highlights your value proposition as a product but keep in mind a resume is just one component of your full go to market strategy as you can see in the framework we've included there are several parts to it all of which answer important questions such as who are you targeting and most importantly how are you going to do so after all when you apply for a product manager role it takes much more than just your resume your go-to market strategy may also involve coffee chats cover letters portfolios and the interview itself you see while resumes are important they are not a good way to establish an emotional connection with a fellow employee since they don't adequately capture personality or vision so take a step back from your resume and consider your full go-to market strategy how does your resume fit in ensure that what you present your resume harmonizes perfectly with the rest of your go to market strategy your cover letter will drive stronger narratives your interviews in turn will enable you to share your hard-won experiences and learnings don't force your resume to do everything for you remember your resume is a product challenge every product should solve pain and present value in a focused way while you're at it be sure to consider your distribution strategy some companies place significant weight on referrals from their own employees some companies prefer reaching out to particularly interesting candidates over linkedin and therefore a strong profile matters some companies prefer to meet potential talent at product management events and some companies may not consider a candidate until that candidate has submitted their resume through their official job portal consider how your target prospects make hiring decisions and use that information to fine-tune your strategy to bring all of what we've discussed full circle let's take a look at the product manager resume example provided by resume genius now you'll notice this resume is not perfect it includes a resume objective which as we've stated before is something that you don't want to have on your resume however there are other areas in which this resume excels for starters let's take a look at the design used the candidate has applied a clear-cut layout that divides key areas that they'd like to highlight into easy to navigate sections and bullet points let's also appreciate the relatively simplistic nature of the resume design only two colors are used a very light shade of pink that contrasts with the white background of the resume the design does not hurt the eyes in fact it helps the reader to easily pinpoint key information also pay attention to how the candidate mentions not only the role they played in their capacity as a product manager in previous companies but also and most importantly the impact that they had they state negotiated contracts with distributors resulting in average 4.7 percent reduction in expenses that example of how to show impact you make a statement showing your value and back it up with facts in short remember one thing product managers are also products and resumes are product demos to create a successful product manager resume you need to have a clear understanding of yourself as a product after all product demos are all different how boring would it be if they all looked and felt the same the framework we've laid out can help you craft a truly powerful product manager resume use it to get ahead of your competitors while you're at it you should also start to prepare for possible interviews when recruiters get in touch with you and for that you need to be at the top of your game after all you didn't invest so much time in creating a resume to then spoil your chances in the interview process now did you that's why at product manager hq we have courses and certifications that covers the interview process and the resume process in depth to make sure that you can go through this process and be successful coming out to see how well you've been paying attention to this video and i know it was a long video i want you to answer this one question what is the name of the step we mentioned that deals with drafting resumes if you know the answer leave it in the comment and don't forget to like this video and subscribe to the channel and with that said i wish you the best of success in your career journey and i hope you land the product management job that you want cheers