Rick Jarrell πŸ‚ Profile picture
Feb 2 β€’ 13 tweets β€’ 14 min read
First product hire at a startup?

I've been there.

Here's 9 tips for your first 30 days.

🧡
1/ Know what you signed up for.

@Jenyangwong has 5 things to expect.

@Jenyangwong 2/ Understand WHY you were hired.

You might think you know already. Time to confirm.

@shreyas's product leader categories can help structure the conversation, even if you aren't in a people leader role.

@Jenyangwong @shreyas 3/ Define your scope.

@jackiebo has 3 PM career stages. At an early-stage startup, you'll be doing all 3.

Figure out which area needs the most attention right now.

(Hint: 99% chance it's shipping products)

@Jenyangwong @shreyas @jackiebo 4/ Define personal objectives and goals.

Your success is highly correlated with the success of the startup.

But having something more personal and tangible will be helpful for job satisfaction. Even if they're vague and qualitative.

@Jenyangwong @shreyas @jackiebo 5/ Bring organization to the chaos.

As @kennethn points out via @lennysan, you're probably there to help with these internal complaints.

Install just enough progress to help remove bottlenecks.
@Jenyangwong @shreyas @jackiebo @kennethn @lennysan 6/ Spend 1:1 time with your key stakeholders. Especially sales and customer success.

Building trust and personal relationships in a small work environment are super critical.
@Jenyangwong @shreyas @jackiebo @kennethn @lennysan 7/ Spend a lot of time with your users and customers.

Startups lack documentation and process.

The best source of information is going to be the people who use your product.

@Jenyangwong @shreyas @jackiebo @kennethn @lennysan 8/ Find some early wins.

β€’ Document and share learnings from time with users
β€’ Find low-hanging fruit - high impact, low effort bugs
β€’ Benchmark product usage
β€’ Turn sync work into async work - engineers will love you

This builds trust with the team and drives momentum.
@Jenyangwong @shreyas @jackiebo @kennethn @lennysan 9/ Don't change too much too fast.

This could feel counterintuitive because startups need to move fast.

But be cautious about adding too much process.

#1 priority is to ship and measure.
@Jenyangwong @shreyas @jackiebo @kennethn @lennysan Tying it together...

β€’ Know what you signed up for
β€’ Know why you were hired
β€’ Define your scope
β€’ Define personal goals.
β€’ Bring organization to the chaos.
β€’ Spend time with users, customers, sales, and CS
β€’ Find early wins
β€’ Don't change too much too fast
@Jenyangwong @shreyas @jackiebo @kennethn @lennysan @LisaZane15 Want more early-stage startup #prodmgmt insights? Follow me @hey_rick__

β€’ β€’ β€’

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More from @hey_rick__

Feb 1
Product Twitter is very vocal about the downsides of #prodmgmt.

Every job has its frustrations. But it's not all bad.

Here's 9 reasons why product is a great career path.
1/ Challenging

You don't get into product to coast.

The challenges make it rewarding. This makes it fun.
2/ Collaborative

You get to work with every business function.

A lot of the time, that's rolling up your sleeves to get hands-on.
Read 10 tweets
Jan 31
Imposter syndrome is common in #prodmgmt

Here's 5 ways to fight it ✊

A thread 🧡
There is no one thing that triggers impost syndrome.

I've been in #prodmgmt for 5+ years.

In my experience, it usually comes from a lack of confidence related to a fear of

β€’ The unknown
β€’ Being wrong
β€’ Failing
For me, this can be triggered by our lack of concrete deliverables

@idamezhim hits the nail on the head.

Read 11 tweets
Jan 31
I agree with @alsterfalter. It's Nice to see the mental health talk in #prodmgmt

Here's a few of my favorites.



🧡
@alsterfalter Like @ProductChapter says, product is hard.

You're not alone in thinking or feeling that.

Read 6 tweets
Jan 28
Why Product Discovery?

It's been a popular discussion topic on Product Twitter recently.

But most of the focus is on the what, not the why.

A thread
First, let's start at the top.

You've just been hired as a Product Manager. Congrats!

Follow @jackiebo's advice on your first 90 days.

@jackiebo In my experience, there are 3 things you need to quickly learn:

- Product Strategy
- Product Goals
- Product Roadmap
Read 20 tweets
Jan 27
After some time off, I'm kicking off my #prodmgmt job hunt.

It's a great job market. There's 256,000+ Product Manager roles on LinkedIn alone.

It's fun to start fresh and explore, but easy to get trapped in analysis paralysis.

So I thought I'd share my approach in a thread 🧡
First, let's lay some foundations.

I enjoy sharing and teaching.

But as @epatt6 said recently, context matters.

@epatt6 Everyone's own situation is unique.

Hunter S. Thompson's essay on finding purpose and meaning drives this home very well.

I think about this anytime I'm providing personal guidance.

fs.blog/hunter-s-thomp…
Read 22 tweets
Jan 21
Product Twitter continues to deliver the hits πŸ”₯

Whether you're new to product or a seasoned pro, there's so much great conversation.

Here's the 10 most insightful #prodmgmt threads I've read this week.

🧡
Product sense is a powerful thing. But as @jackiebo points out, it's much more than just a gut decision.

@jackiebo A simple approach to evaluating a Product Manager's performance from @shreyas.

Insight. Execution. Impact.

Read 13 tweets

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