Have you ever considered a role in product marketing vs product management?
I have. If you are in the that boat here is more on how the roles are similar and yet very different and what could be best for you.
1/n First the similarities, both roles in some capacity has Influence on
Features
GTM
Strategy
Product packaging

They are also both very customer centric.

2/n

Today is day 1 @OnThatJob it was also day 1 for my job search ;).
Im going to thread below few useful things that help me think about my next job and also why what OTJ is important! - Your career should not ever be one promotion to another. Dont switch because someone is giving you a senior role.
It is absolutely unnecessary & if you look at most people who are now at say FANG, they all had big roles, but end up just having PM title here.

Diving into some interesting product growth hacks I have read/seen around.
Thread: Not my favourite because of my own ethical view of the world, but a here is one - "Faking it".
Showing increased supply ( Like lyft/uber) by paying initial drivers a LOT of money so the users could see how easy it was to book.
1/n

I don't really tweet relationship stuff. But incase you're one of those long distance lovers during this tiring times, here is some advice? Over communicate in the beginning, communicate what you feel like if you are comfortable with each other.
There is always an optimal level of conversation you want/like keeping. Learn your line :)

Since I interact with early stage startups usually hiring their first PM in india, here is my thinking behind that gig.
Look for
1. Founder who will be a mentor
2. Your keen-ness of the industry
3. Growth of the company and your growth with it. D

https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1306640960282001408

1. Founder - as a young team you learn most from this person. You have to know who your captain is. You've to find things you love about their work, their craft and most importantly find things you want to learn from them.

Been talking to a lot of early stage folks, and I have noticed some patterns, that I think you should avoid when you are trying to build a product first company.
1/n You are subject matter expert on a field, doesnt necessarily mean you are an expert at understanding the behaviour & motivation of your users, understand this before you build.
2/n

When I work with early stage startups, I often remind them there are some decisions that are reversible and some that arent. Focus on the latter. I know it sounds obvious, but lot of folks cant differentiate one from another. If you are spending too much time on logo & name instead of what your product will be, you are wasting capital/time and effort all at once. Ofc, if you're building a brand just focussed on the former it makes sense to do that, however very rarely is that true.

Often times come across PMs that have this air about them, from knowing too much.

"Hey, what is the CAC to LTV here, do you think this churn is acceptable? " They translate this into all meetings they have -

To designers - "Do you think this will increase my CTA, because only then this cohort retention will net increase by 5%"

Few days ago, I asked folks here how did they write their PRDs, then I collected them & wrote an article about it.
In case you are interested/curious :) (1/6)

vindhyac.com/posts/best-prd… I found some interesting things while doing this.
1. Bigger companies had different PRDs across teams
2. A lot of legal/risk/regulations needed to be thought through
3. Most PRDs had similar things(so dw your way of writing is probably not too bad) (2/6)

Since about 10 people sent this tweet to me. My article will just collect templates, it doesn't have best. But that said - I love how people are out in SV helping folks and everyone in Bangalore is DMing me asking what I have and not sharing their own 😂 (1/n)

https://twitter.com/lennysan/status/1287862995268206592

It's okay. I am just as curious but it's completely telling that most folks belong to bigger companies themselves but don't want to share their stuff however casually check in to see who has given some input. (2/n)

Ever wanted to break into product management and wondered how? Well I wrote something that might be helpful. As always it is short and to the point. (1)
vindhyac.com/posts/how-to-g… Structured as something I would say if you called/messaged me this query. I think there are a lot of guides out there, even books that teach you this, I have read most of them & they simply came down to this. (2)

If you have ever wondered how I got people to read/ engage with me on twitter. Here's how the twitter thing began. I didn't join twitter until 2 years ago. I worked at a company tat was primarily in media, I thought now is the very best time to get into this twitter business and all my colleagues could teach me how it's done.
Wrong. Lol.

Okay I never do this, but I'm trying something new.
When I was out of job, I know every single person that shared the message, put me in touch with people etc. I owe you all one, and if you ever need me to do something, you have to know I'll do it. I know who exactly these people are, because I messaged every one of them back thanking. Your support meant so much. Thank you so much for believing in me. Anyway now that I've an income I want to help further. So this.

A thread on how to stop 'ums' 'ahs' 'like' 'right' or wtv your filler word is.
What triggered this : watching too many talks and I'm churning from them because I keep hearing these fillers.
Why this - I taught communication and public speaking for years. I think I can help What does this have to do with PM? Which is where I want 80% or more of conversation here to be about! It is mostly a job that involves lot of communication and we all need to be mindful of how we convey things. And obviously this isn't just for PMs but wanted to set context

Gamification - quick thread!
Whats the difference between game vs gamification
Game : used to entertain, largely & maybe improve some skills. (think motor, concentration, strategy etc.)
Gamification : Using game mechanics outside game mechanics What is game mechanics?
- Leaderboards
- Badges
- Challenges
- Scores
Although games & gamification uses game mechanics, they are very different. For example, if you simply have a leaderboard in your app - it does not mean you have gamification

Put together a spoken word few hours before I had to perform it. Classic example of how I generally write. Someday, my long distance relationship will be a book :P today it is just this video. :D

For over half a decade of doing distance and understanding the nuances of difficult communication really be, my biggest learning is - you work the things you really want to.

When people often tell you bigger DAU numbers but you barely have seen anyone use this app/service, you should know a thing or two about growth. It is the most useless kind of number twisting there is. If you study the playstore closely you will see that 10M users on an app is nothing anymore, yet people are always bragging about this.

Okay just quick thoughts on this. This is a rather difficult time for being employed if you lost or quit during this time. Quick advice from me, aka someone in this situation.

https://twitter.com/Gaurav1105/status/1264380375251382272

Firstly, make an effort. Effort does not equal clicking the "Apply" button. Please do more than that if you're applying to startups, if you are applying to bigger places write to ppl for a referral but also tell them WHY they should.

@srijancse turns a tad older today, it seemed like the perfect time to celebrate him :)
So we did a little thing and donated to his favourite internet cause @internetfreedom & turned his fav logo to this :)
1/n
#morethanaclub #morethanabirthday #FCSrijan #FCBarcelona I have know @srijancse for less than a year now, but the impact he has created in my life I will be really grateful for. He found me on twitter when I barely was active. I am so glad he thought I was worth a conversation.
2/n

In time of Covid, I am intrigued at companies that were able to close a round(in,probably deal was discussed before all this.) Anyway looked at companies that did raise, saw this - pulse2.com/spend-manageme…
So naturally the next step was to listen to @thejo &gain some learnings 1/n - Talk to lot of folks before building, keep iterating on what needs to be solved.
- Check milestones before you raise
- Got decent adoption
- Asked customers to prepay if they liked trial(dont ask money unless they like product)
2/n

So I am now a job-less person. It didn't come out of the blue for me, it is infact something I suggested - because even though times are hard on us, I would like every startup to have a fighting chance to survive through this :) However, if you know someone that is looking for a product consultant/remote product person Id love to get an intro. You can read things I have done & some other brag stuff here - vindhyac.com/about/