The Spotlight

Survival Tips for Early-Career Product Managers


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On this episode of The Spotlight Podcast, we were joined by award-winning Product Manager, Elizabeth Ajao.

Follow her on LinkedIn and Twitter

We talked about:

Shooting your career shot

How she went from customer support officer to product manager

What product managers do

Why product management probably shouldn't be your first job and the importance of internships

Transferable skills from other roles and skills every product manager should have

Giving valuable feedback and accepting feedback

Measuring success and the importance of being people-driven

Breakdown:

0:00 Intro

1:44 Icebreaker

6:34 Elizabeth's background

8:21 Going from customer support to product management

12:42 How customer support prepared her for product management

16:17 What media is Elizabeth consuming?

17:30 Elizabeth's career highlights

19:53 Being impact-driven

23:04 What being a product manager entails

27:30 Can one be an effective product manager with little leadership experience?

32:28 Skills every product manager should have

35:20 Working with UX designers

39:20 Tools every product manager should master 

45:23 Is product management as glam as people make it out to be?

49:02 Elizabeth's perspective on product management interviews 

51:29 Challenges Elizabeth has faced as a product manager and how she handled them 

54:42 Dealing with problematic stakeholders 

57:35 Measuring success as a product manager 

59:55 What you should know before getting into product management 

1:01:49 Resources and advice for aspiring product managers 

1:07:33 Elizabeth's socials

1:08:09 Other things Elizabeth is working on

1:09:35 Outro

We referenced:

No-Code Tech Summit

VFD Group

Enyata

Polaris Bank

People in Product

The Builders Summit by Founders Connect

The 7 Perspectives of Effective Leaders: A Proven Framework for Improving Decisions and Increasing Your Influence

Jira

Trello

ClickUp

Azure

Miro

Whimsical

Confluence 

Notion

Google Analytics 

Mixpanel

Amplitude 

MySQL

The Product Book by Product School

Lenny's Newsletter

Become a Product Manager | Learn the Skills & Get the Job

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If you have any suggestions or questions, please complete the ⁠Q&A intake form⁠ or send me an email at [email protected] 

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The SpotlightBy Iwalola Sobowale