Storytelling for Alignment, and the Essential Interview Questions that PMs should ask to find out what they're Getting Into
The biggest lie in software development is that all the tickets in the backlog are going to get done.
Now, we have to call out that product managers and developers already know this, but often this implicit assumption may be made by the more commercially-focused parts of the business. The backlog becomes a dumping ground for every single customer support query. Every account manager and every salesperson has something in there from conversations with customers and prospects.
There’s nothing wrong with feedback, of course, but some people can be very attached to the fact that the feedback is still there, waiting to be done… one day. That day will almost certainly never come (and if it does, it’ll be because of an escalation, not because it was put on the backlog 6 months ago). It’s tempting to see “length of time in backlog” as some kind of vector for prioritisation, but it really isn’t. It’s quite the inverse, in fact.
So let’s all try to get comfortable, embrace the idea of getting rid of old stuff in our backlogs, and give people a “no” rather than a “one day”.
A word from My Mentor Path
I’m passionate about mentoring and, in 2022, mentored 76 product managers and product leaders. I’ve benefited from mentoring in the past, and I genuinely believe it to be an essential part of the support network that helps people navigate their careers and understand what’s OK and what’s not.
However, I realised that I could not scale to mentor all the people I’d like to, so I co-founded My Mentor Path, a free mentoring platform that allows mentors and mentees to connect and help each other flourish. We ran our first matching cohort last week, and are already starting to connect people. If you want in, come on over and sign up as a mentor, a mentee, or both.
New podcast episode: The Power of Storytelling for Cross-Functional Alignment
I recently had the pleasure of a chat with Ronke Majekodunmi, Director of Product at Promevo and featured Product School speaker. Ronke is passionate about the power of storytelling, and we shared some stories from her career as well as her recommended approach to getting everyone on the same page.
Check out the episode on your podcast app, or get it right here.
Product leaders should be Chief Storytelling Officers
Storytelling is one of the best ways to drive cross-functional alignment and get everyone in the company on the same page. You should craft an inspirational story and ensure that everyone from top to bottom knows it.
The Essential Interview Questions that PMs should ask to find out what they're Getting Into
One of the things Ronke spoke about in her interview was her experience going into jobs for the wrong reasons and regretting it afterwards. This spurred me into thinking about some of the pros and cons of decisions I’ve made (either to take or not take a job), and whether I could have known more upfront.
For the most part, when you go into a job interview process, you’re very unlikely to be able to ask something like “Hey, so are you going to micromanage me and override me all the time?” and have the CEO fess up. They know why you’re asking that question! Aside from the general information that you’re getting through the interview process, you’re also looking for hints and clues as to how the company does business and how this will affect your role.
I’m not currently interviewing for jobs, nor do I plan to any time soon (consulting life is so glamorous!) but here are some thoughts about things that I would want to know when going into a company, and why I want to know them.
Can I have face time with the founder/CEO?
In bigger companies, substitute “CEO” for general manager, managing director, or head of the business unit. Whoever’s the CEO of the area you work in. But, you need to speak to the person in charge.
Why? Because so much of the company’s culture, its strategy and the values it holds dear come from that very person. Other senior leaders may be a proxy, but there’s nothing like getting it straight from the horse’s mouth. What’s on their mind? How do they see the future? What are their plans? Are they happy with how things are going? What’s keeping them awake at night? Are they frustrated? What do they want out of product management?
The answers to all of these questions will give you hints about how much they’re still expecting to lead from the front, how focused they are and how much leeway you’re going to get to actually make decisions.
What’s your ARR?
Knowing a company’s annual recurring revenue is a must for me. It helps you to understand a few things. Obviously, the biggest thing it helps you to understand is how much money the company is making from recurring product sales. If they’re making money from services, it’s important to know that too.
An interesting exercise is to work out how much the company is making per employee. There are stats about what good looks like in ratio terms but, obviously, these are context-dependent. There may be very good reasons the company is set up like it is. But, if they are out of whack then you should at least ask follow-up questions.
Is the service element of the business much larger than you expected? Are they using the same developers that are supposed to be building the product? Is the product actually capable of standing on its own or does it need substantial manual effort to get customers onboarded, or supported throughout their lifecycle?
These answers may give you valuable clues about the amount of work you’re going to have to do to just keep things running, let alone build cool new things.
How’s your revenue distribution?
By “revenue distribution”, I simply mean “how much of your revenue is concentrated in a few customers?”
It’s not uncommon for B2B firms to land a few large customers, maybe pretty early on, and have a large proportion of revenue tied up in these accounts. Sometimes, these numbers can get pretty large. On the one hand, you’re getting loads of lovely money from these people. On the other hand, they’re liable to have an outsized impact on your roadmap, the “customer specials” that you have to do and your ability to push back on unreasonable requests. It can make sticking to a coherent strategy hard. No one wants to kiss goodbye to 15% of their revenue because they didn’t give their biggest customer care and attention. But, as product people, we want to give everyone care and attention at the same time!
Another interesting wrinkle is when companies actually have quite good revenue distribution, but the revenue isn’t enough to meet their goals and they start to think about targeting those big customers as well. In these situations, be careful of trying to spread your bets too thin (somehow trying to build something for both sides of the equation simultaneously with the same size team).
What’s your runway?
Obviously, this is less relevant in established companies that are self-sufficient. But, in startups and scale-ups, it’s very relevant indeed. Runway simply refers to the amount of time the company has left before it runs out of money. Companies can extend their runway by selling more stuff to customers, cutting costs or raising more funding. If they’re doing the latter during your interview process, remember that funding ain’t funding till it’s in their bank account.
The reason that this is important is that it can give signals about how much sheer panic there’s going to be in the company. If you are walking into a wartime situation, you should know it. If you’re expecting a team of 20 people and you have a team of 10 people by the time you start, you should know it. It can also dramatically increase pressure to generate revenue, any revenue, whatever it takes to keep the lights on.
This tends to end up with the product management rulebook being thrown out of the window (not necessarily a bad thing), cutting corners or accepting bespoke work just because it’s the easiest way to inject cash into a flailing startup. All of these will affect how you do your job.
Can I have face time with other cross-functional leaders?
If you’re spending your entire interview process speaking with product people, that is probably nice, friendly and fun. But, you’re going to be working with a lot of people outside the product team and you should meet as many of them as you can. There’s a limit here (no one wants 25 rounds of interviews!) and you might not get to meet them till late in the process, but it’s important to ask some of these key stakeholders (engineering, marketing, sales, CS) some of the same questions you would ask the CEO. This can give you valuable intelligence on what the company’s like to work for, what other people’s priorities and what sort of issues are going to arise in month one.
There are no right or wrong answers
You might look at the above and think that it’s a lot and that there should be some kind of checklist or formula. There isn’t!
The most important thing to realise is that the answers to these questions are in no way instant disqualifiers. Everyone has their own appetite for the type of environment they want to work in or the challenges that they enjoy tackling.
Also, no company is perfect. They all have pros and cons. There could be very good reasons for answers that concern you. This can hopefully prompt further questions to get you closer to the truth. Try to uncover as much about how the company works before you sign on the dotted line.
An interesting caveat is that some people in these companies may feel uncomfortable giving some, or all, of this information. In this scenario, it’s important to find out why. My personal preference always leans heavily towards openness and transparency. If theirs doesn’t, why is that? And if they really won’t give you the answer, what do you do? Just accept it and move on, or assume the worst? I’d do the latter, but your appetite will vary. Just try to find out what you can and make an informed choice.
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