Arvind Ganesan
Career Milestones
Organization and You
Core Competencies
Go to food for thought
Favorite Products
What accomplishment in your product management career has brought you the highest level of satisfaction and joy? Can you narrate why?
Building a product offering for a crowded market that is differentiated enough to win a patent, is definitely one of the highlights of my career. While a patent is more the means to an end, being able to add business value by solving unique problems in a way that customers relate to the solution is a very gratifying journey.
Overall, the journey of building products in the growth phase of 1 - 10 M ARR and the scale phase of 10 - 100+ M ARR has been very enriching.
What aspect of product management did you struggle the most with? How did you overcome it?
I think a lot of engineer turned product managers suffer from a solution-first mindset instead of a problem-first mindset while transitioning into product management. I am no exception to this rule and it took me conscious effort to pivot in my approach. The best way to overcome this problem is to internalise the unique value add that PMs bring to the table. Basically, what job would not get done if a PM weren’t a part of the team? Engineers (developers and QAs) are very effective in crafting solutions. Designers do a great job of figuring out aesthetics, interactions, and experiences. Marketers are adept in spinning narratives that get customers hooked. But there really isn’t anyone in the team whose primary job is to understand the problem space and prioritise the ones that will deliver maximum business and customer value. This is the job that would not get done in the absence of a PM. When PMs own the problem space instead of giving into the urge to wade into familiar territory, there’s room for magic to happen.
What's one common myth about product management that you find common among aspiring PMs?
There’s a common myth about Product Management - that it’s all about building products. That’s not the whole story. Building products is easy. Building products at scale such that they have a wide reach and large adoption by virtue of solving a sizable need is the hard challenge. So Product Management is more about staying relevant than it is about building a feature factory.
What are some common pitfalls that product managers must be aware of?
1. Schlep blindness: It implies the urge to stay away from potentially great ideas because they are tedious or unpleasant in nature, and require a lot of grunt work. While Paul Graham defined this at the startup level (http://www.paulgraham.com/schlep.html), it can be applied at an individual module level too.
2. Analysis Paralysis: This implies the urge to aim for perfection and a 100% coverage in everything that needs to be thought of. Chances are, there may still be some details that get missed. At 90% thoroughness, perhaps we can make 10 decisions and still get a few of them wrong. At 75% thoroughness, perhaps we can make 50 decisions and make up for the missing details by collaborating within the team and still get most of them right. Best to move fast, fail fast, and fix fast - and not try to “boil the ocean”.
3. Writer’s block (in context of starting troubles while picking up large projects): Starting troubles are common especially while undertaking large projects. “Don’t break down, break it down” is one of the best pieces of advice I have received in this context.
If not product management, what career would you have picked? Are there any complimentary skillsets that you see between being a PM and your alternate choice?
I get a lot of gratification by bringing in structure and growth to under-optimised environments. So perhaps an IAS stint in the government would have been hugely gratifying. Finding relevant problems to solve, prioritizing among them, allocating limited resources, rallying stakeholders towards a common goal, measuring success, and getting buy-in from leadership and peers based on projections and social capital - all sound quite relatable :)
What is something about product management that you wish you knew when you started out?
To succeed in Product Management, social capital is key. Having genuine relationships with peers from teams across the org and helping them succeed will go a long way in creating lasting impact.
What accomplishment in your product management career has brought you the highest level of satisfaction and joy? Can you narrate why?
Building a product offering for a crowded market that is differentiated enough to win a patent, is definitely one of the highlights of my career. While a patent is more the means to an end, being able to add business value by solving unique problems in a way that customers relate to the solution is a very gratifying journey.
Overall, the journey of building products in the growth phase of 1 - 10 M ARR and the scale phase of 10 - 100+ M ARR has been very enriching.
What aspect of product management did you struggle the most with? How did you overcome it?
I think a lot of engineer turned product managers suffer from a solution-first mindset instead of a problem-first mindset while transitioning into product management. I am no exception to this rule and it took me conscious effort to pivot in my approach. The best way to overcome this problem is to internalise the unique value add that PMs bring to the table. Basically, what job would not get done if a PM weren’t a part of the team? Engineers (developers and QAs) are very effective in crafting solutions. Designers do a great job of figuring out aesthetics, interactions, and experiences. Marketers are adept in spinning narratives that get customers hooked. But there really isn’t anyone in the team whose primary job is to understand the problem space and prioritise the ones that will deliver maximum business and customer value. This is the job that would not get done in the absence of a PM. When PMs own the problem space instead of giving into the urge to wade into familiar territory, there’s room for magic to happen.
What's one common myth about product management that you find common among aspiring PMs?
There’s a common myth about Product Management - that it’s all about building products. That’s not the whole story. Building products is easy. Building products at scale such that they have a wide reach and large adoption by virtue of solving a sizable need is the hard challenge. So Product Management is more about staying relevant than it is about building a feature factory.
What are some common pitfalls that product managers must be aware of?
1. Schlep blindness: It implies the urge to stay away from potentially great ideas because they are tedious or unpleasant in nature, and require a lot of grunt work. While Paul Graham defined this at the startup level (http://www.paulgraham.com/schlep.html), it can be applied at an individual module level too.
2. Analysis Paralysis: This implies the urge to aim for perfection and a 100% coverage in everything that needs to be thought of. Chances are, there may still be some details that get missed. At 90% thoroughness, perhaps we can make 10 decisions and still get a few of them wrong. At 75% thoroughness, perhaps we can make 50 decisions and make up for the missing details by collaborating within the team and still get most of them right. Best to move fast, fail fast, and fix fast - and not try to “boil the ocean”.
3. Writer’s block (in context of starting troubles while picking up large projects): Starting troubles are common especially while undertaking large projects. “Don’t break down, break it down” is one of the best pieces of advice I have received in this context.
If not product management, what career would you have picked? Are there any complimentary skillsets that you see between being a PM and your alternate choice?
I get a lot of gratification by bringing in structure and growth to under-optimised environments. So perhaps an IAS stint in the government would have been hugely gratifying. Finding relevant problems to solve, prioritizing among them, allocating limited resources, rallying stakeholders towards a common goal, measuring success, and getting buy-in from leadership and peers based on projections and social capital - all sound quite relatable :)
What is something about product management that you wish you knew when you started out?
To succeed in Product Management, social capital is key. Having genuine relationships with peers from teams across the org and helping them succeed will go a long way in creating lasting impact.
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