How To Hire A Great Product Marketing Manager

A Product Marketing Manager is a key position. A great one can be invaluable. A bad one can set your marketing back by at least one year. Therefore you must be choosy and try to get a good one. I suggest 3 things need to be investigated : ideally through 3 different interviews. If not , there different people can ask these 3 types of questions.

1. Knowledge of Product Management : Estimating. Business Modeling, Marketing Data 
2. Leading : Customer Leadership and communication, Team Leadership
3. Working cross-functionally : within the org chart, in difficult situations

Knowledge of Product Management:
Whether the candidate can solve problems and think critically

Estimating skills (15 Minutes ) 

Product Managers should be able to process a wide variety of data and hypothesis quickly

using making assumptions and simple back-of-the-envelope estimates. Questions
 

1. What is the total annual revenue of a snack stall at a railway station.
2. What is the total annual revenue of a typical movie theater in Mumbai?
3. What must be the total manpower cost of each of these ?

How Business Model Ties Up Everything (15 Minutes )
Product managers must know that the success does not lie only in features, technology, pricing and communication but also in how all these operate within the context of Business model as a whole. Questions

a)      Based on what you know, how would you identify and validate the best business model for us to pursue for one of our products? Then, for each of the following as “Why did you choose this model? What other alternatives you considered and discarded?

i)        Revenue model

ii)      Gross margin model

iii)    Operating model

iv)    Working capital model

v)      Investment model

Based on the answer you can conclude ( trainee level : focuses only on product features, price and communications, Junior level : uses “ business model” as a checklist, Expert : understands various components and how they interact and  reinforces each other. Master : capable of disrupting )

Marketing Data for Problem Solving (15 Minutes)
Smart product managers use data effectively to make better decisions.

c)      Ask open ended question like “Tell me about how you use data to make decisions”. What you want hear is if the candidate talks of how decisions are linked to what you want to find, quantitative and qualitative research, interviews, questionnaires, discussion guides, focus groups, cross tabulations, dashboards, actionable metrics (not vanity metrics).

d)     If the candidate cannot figure this out alone, ask direct questions : How to build a dashboard for XYZ?  What metrics would you track for ABC decision?   What you want to hear is lifetime value, per-customer metrics, events, funnel analysis and cohort metrics.

e)      Can you walk me through how you might do a funnel analysis for one of our products? Rapidly and clearly doing this exercise will tell you a lot about the candidate’s ability to think on-the-fly and how smart he or she is about data analysis.

Leading through communication and interpersonal skills

To evaluate the ability to influence and motivate, advocacy for customers and key stakeholders, confidence and assertiveness, Attitude and pace, Sociability and team skills, Honesty and integrity

Customer Leadership & Communication Skills ( 15 minutes) 

a)      Can we talk about how you interacted with customers in your most recent product role? What you expect to hear is the readiness to “get out of the office” to talk  directly to  customers, running experiments, and iterating to improve the product and selling nas quickly as possible,

b)      Imagine you get this job and I am a prospective customer for the product XYZ and I know nothing about your product or your company. How would you interview me about my “must have” problems and whether or not your product solves them for me.

c)      Your customer feedback shows that they prefer a particular feature but it does not align with your company’s long term strategy. How do you respond to your users – what would you exactly say? Make sure the candidate can say no to a customer when necessary: Can you talk to me about a time when you had to say no to a customer? Why did you have to say no? How did you handle it?

d)     If the candidate will manage an existing product, ask : imagine you’re taking over a mature product and you find out that customer issues are being dealt with reactively and much of the team that built the product is no longer with the company. What would you do to be more proactive about prioritizing fixes and enhancements?

e)      Test the candidate’s customer communication skills under pressure: Imagine you have recently deployed a major release of an enterprise software-as-a-service product. Unfortunately, you have found a bug that was missed in testing. Your QA group tells you this will impact less than 1% of users, but for those 1% it will be very bad. What do you do? Ask to actually write the email (during the interview).

Team (Engineering and Design) Leadership Skills (15 Minutes)
Find out how the candidate would interact with engineering in different situations:

a)      Imagine you give your engineering team requirements for 8 features for a product release. Engineering tells you 2 of your requirements are not possible, but they can implement the other 6. They also say they would like to add two additional requirements of their own. How do you respond? (You want a candidate  who is open to ideas from engineering, especially if they are good ideas and would make the product much better). How does the candidate deal with requirements engineering says are not possible?

b)      Ask the candidate to give an example of when he or she had to influence engineering to build a specific feature: Can you talk to me about a time when you had to influence engineering to build a particular feature? You are looking for evidence that the candidate can influence engineering and earn their respect: How do you earn respect from the engineering team? How do you get a team to commit to a schedule? Get a sense for the candidate’s breadth of experience in working with engineering teams: Can you talk to me about some of the challenges of working with product development teams?

c)      Has the candidate worked with rock star engineers before? Does the candidate know how to work with great engineers, stand up to them when necessary, and get out of their way when they’re doing what they do best? Talk to me about the best engineer you’ve ever worked with. Why was the engineer so good? What results did you achieve together?

d)     You have provided your design team with a set of initial requirements, and they have turned around a first set of mocks. Unfortunately, the mocks are not what you had been hoping for. In addition, the design team added a bunch of features that were not in your requirements. How do you respond? You want to see how the candidate’s skills in leading designers. Does the candidate dictate to them? Or does the candidate listen to suggestions with an open mind? Does the candidate get results by raising concerns and asking questions about issues that the current mocks don’t address? With both engineering and design, it is usually more effective for the product manager to define the problems and let the respective team come up with a proposed solution.

Cross Funacitonal Leadership and Management

 
Cross-Functional Management (15 Minutes) :
A good product manager must provide leadership, advocacy and support to the executive team, sales, business development and any other stakeholders that your company might have. To succeed, product managers needs  interpersonal skills and leadership of key company stakeholders.

1)      Can you draw a quick org chart for a position where you played a key leadership role?

c)      Talk to me about a time when the team was not working well together. Why did this happen? What did you learn?

d)     Can you give an example of you coaching others on your team?

e)      Is consensus always a good thing?

f)       What kind of people do you like working with?  What kind of people have you had difficulty working with in the past?

g)      What about an example when you were being coached? What did you learn? How did you improve?

h)      In your mind, what is the difference between management and leadership? Some things you should be looking for: A solid understanding of how to achieve results by working with and through others . How much process the candidate expects (and if this is a good match for your company). Good negotiation skills. Now spend some time on a scenario where the candidate disagrees with a boss or senior executive:

i)        Imagine you and the design team have come up with the interaction design of a new feature. Unfortunately, your boss doesn’t agree and believes it should work differently. You and the design team are confident in your opinion and think the suggestion from your boss will be inferior. What do you do? Follow this up with the scenario of when a senior stakeholder or boss demands more in a given time frame than the candidate can possibly deliver: Can you talk to me about a time when a senior stakeholder or boss demanded more of you than you could possibly deliver? How did you handle the situation?

2)      Can you talk to me about the sales model of a product you have managed? How did you find prospects for the product? What did you do that made it easier for the sales team to sell the product? Can you talk about a situation where you were instrumental in closing a sale? What did you do? You want to know that the candidate understands what it takes to sell products and that he or she can work effectively with your sales team. Did the candidate “get out of the building” frequently and interact actively with customers? Did the candidate take the time to really understand and internalize the sales team’s pains? And while engaging with customers and the sales team is critical, a product manager must be very careful about being non-strategic and reactive. Imagine you are nearing code freeze on a release, but the sales team tells you a key customer will not buy it unless you add a specific feature. What do you do?

3)      Similarly, a product manager has to be very cautious about over-promising: Imagine the VP Sales has been pestering you to send her an updated product roadmap before she talks to a very desirable prospect. You have a draft, but haven’t prioritized it or built internal consensus around it yet. How do you help your VP Sales?

4)      When a company is cash-strapped and a sales team is under extreme pressure to deliver revenue, it can be easy to become sales-driven and non-strategic. This is a sign of a serious problem in the company, and usually happens when a company is scaling prematurely and has hired senior sales and business development people too early. An important role of the product manager is to help the sales team not sign the company up for things that can’t be delivered, shouldn’t be delivered, or that are not strategic.

Holland's "Personality Types in Workplace Environments"

Realistic—Realistic types are practical, "hands on," and  like to work with things, machines, or equipment.

Investigative—Investigative types like to work with ideas and problem-solving. They tend to be analytical, intellectual, and enjoy math and/or science.

Artistic—Artistic types tend to be independent, expressive and creative. They enjoy using their imagination and creative expression in areas such as art, music, drama, or writing.

Social—Social types prefer to deal with people, and enjoy helping, informing, teaching, inspiring, counseling, or serving.

Enterprising—Enterprising types tend to be persuasive, energetic, sociable, adventurous, ambitious, and risk-taking. They enjoy leading, managing, and organizing.

Conventional—Conventional types prefer to deal with data and things. They tend to be careful, conforming, conservative, conscientious, structured, and pay attention to details. They often enjoy an office environment.

Selling High End Services Through Customer Dilemmas

Having to sell intangible services is bad enough. But having to sell a complex and high end service like consulting or advertising is a nightmare. If you provide outplacement service, what do you tell and what do you sell ? How do you position yourself ?

The technique of  differentiation based on some elements of "marketing mix" - product, price, place, people, process, or physical evidence, does not work well in high end services. 

That is where the technique of selling based customer's dilemma comes in. A dilemma is defined as a choice among options that seem equally unfavorable or equally favorable. Dilemmas are not problems - because problems have solutions but dilemmdeas do not.  Dilemmas are not solved but resolved - by properly weighing competing options.   

If you sell your service as a solution to a problem, the client may say “I can do it better myself" or "I know someone who can do it as well as you". But say the same thing as an answer to his dilemma and he may get interested. For example, take the outplacement service mentioned above. Don't say "we are in the business of outplacement". Say "We help management fire one of their friends.”

Similarly, don't say "We are business lawyers" - so what is so great? Say;  “We are retained by corporate clients who are caught in a dilemma - if they move too quickly, the company may not be acting in shareholders' best interests but if they don't they may fail in their fiduciary responsibility.”

Positioning based on dilemma captures several messages at once. It conveys what you do and also the special way in which you do it.  

Dont say "we are PR consultants". Saying "We help align the company's message with its strategy" is better. But saying “we help companies develop communications in situations where communicating facts is a risk but not telling them is also a risk". 

Dont say "I am a financial planner". Say “I work with senior executives who don't trust experts but are simultaneously afraid that the world is complex and if they don't take an expert advice they may forego  opportunities.  

An HR consulting firm may say "we help clients who do not know whether to take a rigid approach to treating talent and see their best people leave or whether to treat people on a case by case basis"

"Vital Few" Profit Improvement Techniques ..

Most CEOs unleash too many profit-improvement initiatives. I recommend a simple exercise to gain perspective and create a sharper focus. Look at your current P&L and classify costs into the following four costs.

1. Costs embedded in the materials - Material cost as % of sales ( Techniques : waste reduction, vendor development, negotiations, value engineering and segmentation ) ( Segmentation is probably the best technique as it enables you to incur only those costs that are valued by the target customer and hence possible to become compensated by better prices ).
2. Time costs - Fixed Costs of facilities (1) rents and running costs of  offices /spaces (2) depreciation and running of the cost of the equipment for facilities ( Techniques : productivity improvement, scheduling, more throughput, peak-weak demand adjustment )
3. Fixed Costs of people : salaries, perks and travel ( Techniques : Motivation, Aligning, Competency development, organization roles and structure planning, selection, recruitment and on-boarding, career path planning, compensation, incentives, PMS, continuous education etc)
4. Interest costs on your working capital (inventories and debtors)( Techniques : Supply chain management, range planning, channel management)

Are you crawling, walking, running, flying ? 4 Stages of change implementation

Most CEOs are impatient to see their ideas "fly" and their decisions fructifying into business results. They must understand that any significant and cross-functional change goes through the following 4 steps : Crawl > Walk > Run > Fly

Crawling: Preparing Minds of People and Processes : The first stage of evolution is publicly admitting within the company that you have a problem and acknowledging it cannot be solved by "allocating" it one person or to the marketing function. Preparing for organizational changes to match the new strategy you need to educate internal teams and listen to them actively and seek their opinion on processes you need. 

Walking:  Marinating : Defining your engagement strategy across multiple departments and platforms. What needs to be done by whom, for whom and how. Such meaningful content "marinated" for some time is better than over-engaging too quickly.

Running: Everything is in place and functioning but yet to become a habit. By now you will have external and internal organization ( structure, systems, skills, mindset) in place and in a connected fashion. 

Flying: Becomes a second nature. By now the change you want is integrated in everything the organization does and becomes a second nature: It is reflected in all touchpoints and business functions.

3 Talent Management Tasks in front of the CEO / CPO

Recruting at entry level & also laterally

Identifying where can you find sufficient number – and right kind - of employees you need to meet your needs of organic and inorganic growth. 

• Linking business plans with manpower needs
• Entry level specifications to match available pools
• Creating a value proposition for potential recruits
• Unusual sources : temporaries, interns, people in “second careers”
• Identifying where to find “Target Employees”
• Accessing them and communicating the value proposition
• Testing,  Selecting and appointing them

Readiness for the intended role

Identifying capability gaps - knowledge, behavior, competencies – and planning to round off  these gaps and create the necessary bandwidth. 

• Inputs for determining gaps 
• Performance Management System : individual / collective
• Business Heads to identify ext shifts : Industry / competition
• Internal assessment : where are we weak ? 
• What should be our future organization
• Internal data : on competencies, 360 degree feedback system
• Trigger / Occasions
• Induction : "topping up" exercise
• Correction of performance / person
• Before / After Promotion : new role, new outlook, new skills
• Refresher and Update : rejuvenate established executives
• Preparing for Job Rotation - going into a new function
• Preparation for being a "lister" : in the "Leadership Pipeline"
• Preparing for EOL (End of Life) : Retirement, unwanted roles
• Major changes external to the organization 
• System : Design and execute OD action plan

Maintaining Organizational Readiness

Estimating attrition and taking proactive and corrective action so that sufficient number – and right kind - of employees are available to meet the needs of organic / inorganic growth. 

• Creating the right value propositions - for various employee groups - through a combination of tangible factors like compensation and facilities and intangibles like climate, motivation, collaboration, vision etc.
• Succession Planning for key positions
• Retaining Tacit knowledge / relationships from outgoing employees
• Stemming mid-career departure of future leaders 
• Creating organizational paradigm shift from “Let HR hire from outside” to “Let us build from within” 

Can Training Really Improve Business Performance ?

Is training a “necessity” or a good-to-have “commodity”? 

The answer is difficult. In their hearts, Business and HR Heads think that the training is of the former kind but if you see the way training is planned by them training seems to be more of the latter. In the board room and in the budget books – where the resources get allocated – the training is treated as being discretionary - nice to have - but only if you can afford it.  This is evident in the way the targets are set for training.

The targets are set mostly in terms of the effort : like number of days spent in training. Less frequently they are linked to evaluations - like the number of people passing the test - or the evaluation of the usefulness of the material or of the faculty.  Only in a few exceptional cases, people set training targets in terms of  measurable business results. 

This was borne out by a recent McKinsey survey which showed that 90% executives were undertaking training because of their belief  that capacity building is their priority. 25%  executives felt that  “our training has produced measurable results”. Only 8% actually tracked business results from training.

The following is an interesting case of a social sector organization called BGCA (Boys & Girls Clubs Of America) which was compelled to measure the effect of their training expenditure because, otherwise, the donors would not fund it ! 

BGCA’s Problems

Its objective was  to impart athletic and life skills to local youth through (1) Local organizations ( 1000 ) who are self-managed – they manage their own resource development, strategic planning, programming, and fund-raising (2) Clubs (4000) where BGCA runs all these activities for them. The “business” obviously depended on availability of  local and  capable leadership and, on this crucial aspect, they were facing a problems in 2008 : on the one hand they wanted to expand the number of club locations but on the other hand a lot of their existing leaders would retire soon.

Discovering correlation   

BGCA used “50 aspects of leadership” model to map the capabilities of local leaders and plotted it against the performance of the respective club and discovered correlation between which capabilities of the leaders were correlated with which aspect of performance (KRAs like member mobilization, funds raised..). They found that it was mainly 4 (out of 50 aspects) that were primarily responsible for the local performance (1) Leader’s ability to build an effective board from the local community (2)   Find and pursue effective fund raising strategies (3) Use an investor’s mind-set toward programs and resource development (4) Lead with personal tenacity and persistence.

Strategy Formulation   

These 4 objectives – with demonstrated correlation with performance – was used to build training  programs around them - and incorporated into classroom work as well as projects chosen by each local team. By  2009, over 650 leaders from approximately 250 local organizations had been trained. Since the outcome of the training was linked to improve business outcomes,  the  impact assessment was straightforward :  BGCA compared pre-post results and they also compared post-training business results with the places where the leaders were not yet trained.  It was seen that the leaders bettered their own  “pre” scores and also were better than the control group where there was no training. 

It was thus possible to make a business forecast that - if all 1,100 organizations had matched the level of success achieved by the program participants – they would see more than 350,000 new members and more than $100 million in annual incremental revenue! They also found that the gains from training in the highest quartile were 3-5  times the average  The high performers focused on aspirational projects and set clear and quantifiable goals  and took the extra step of teaching what they’d learned to the rest of their organizations.

How can this be used by you ?  

1. Pick the right business metrics in your setting. Assess your current performance against industry benchmarks or against your own  preset goals. Decide what kinds of skills are tied to different areas of performance and which performance-enhancing skills the employees lack. This is continuous process : link between skills, performance, and training programs.
2. Make appropriate comparisons within peer groups defined by preexisting performance bands or market types. It is not so easy – because it is crucial to control for the influence of external factors (for instance, the opening of new retail competitors in local markets) and of extraordinary internal factors (such as a scheduled plant shutdown for preventative maintenance) – but it can be done.

Example 1 :  A retailer – instead of just measuring the managers’ time allocation or employee-engagement data – began using hard metrics such as category wise department wise sales, basket size, and conversion rates. Managers started giving  real-time coaching and role-modeling customer-engagement techniques.

Example 2 :  A manufacturer – decided to not measure the training given to plant supervisors of lean-manufacturing -  but began tracking downtime,  overall effectiveness of equipment.