Where I've Been - Reflections on My First Product Job, Life After University, and Why I Took a Break from Writing

I've been gone. I'm back, here's some things I've thought about that I want to share with you. Wrote this as quick as possible so I couldn't back out of writing this article again haha.

👋🏽 Hey! I’m back - just updating ya’ll on life and what’s been going on! For those that have been here before and have been waiting for a new article, I’m sorry but grateful for your patience. For those that are new, welcome! I’ve probably written the below article 5 times over. Each time with different topics or tones. The article below was a one shot attempt at talking about why I’ve been gone and why I’m back :)

For those of you that are new here, here are some issues you may have missed that I think are worth the read:

1. The Most Overlooked Product Management Skill 😱: Design Principles 🎨

2. Decoding Metrics as a Product Manager 📊 | Lessons from an Intern and a Senior PM @ Microsoft

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As many know, I work at Zynga and went through their rotational product manager program. The experience was jam-packed with experiments, specs, and metrics! I cannot say it was an easy program, nor should it be. I’ve grown a lot from the RPM program and I’d love to share what I've learned in my first year of work.

If you’re starting an entry-level product manager role soon, firstly, congratulations, these jobs are competitive and you should be extremely proud of yourself. I hope these reflections can help in some capacity :) 

Reflection on 1 Year into Product:
I Learned that I Don’t Know

The title sounds like a tongue twister, but hear me out.

I wrote a lot about product management. Articles about design, metrics, engineering, and recruiting: I wrote about everything under the product sun. All that information was just a drop in the ocean of product management in the real world.

I felt extremely underprepared. Some days I would learn new topics and be asked to make a product decision with my newfound knowledge only soon thereafter. However, as I became more normalized to that feeling, I became more comfortable in not knowing. What actually improved however was how to learn new material more efficiently. Break down the problem into known parts, see what you don’t know, identify what you can do to learn the unknown, and finally ask others who are more knowledgeable if they can fill in the gaps.

I guess you could say this was the Dunning-Kruger effect. The more I knew that I knew very little, the more comfort I found.

For reference, I think I hover between the “Valley of Despair” and the “Slope of Enlightenment.”

Reflection on Life Outside of Work:
You Can Do Whatever You Want

After you graduate with your bachelor's, there’s no additional grade to go to after (unless you decide to pursue higher education, which in that case you do). In the corporate world, there’s getting promoted, but it’s not a rigid timeline. 

So the question is, what else are you working towards?

It’s an unsettling question for those just getting out of the university world, at least it was for me. 

“I want to read a book a week?”

“I want to run a sub 3-hour marathon?”

“I’m going to get really into lifting?”

“I want to meet people in the start-up world?”

You can dedicate your time to anything! In my first year out of school, I defined some areas I wanted to hone in on. That way outside of work, there were things I could point to and say, "I'm making progress." For example, I wanted to run a marathon at a certain time. Go figure that every second person in their 20s is training for a marathon. The reason is a little deeper than trying to build a healthy aerobic base.

Reflection on Writing:
Why Would People Listen?

I didn’t write for a long time because I continually reiterated that people probably did not want to hear my opinion. This hypothesis probably sprouted from two new truths I learned in the past year; I didn’t know as much as I thought I did and that life is quite busy. Who would want to hear my thoughts, people already have enough going on!

The above thoughts could be right (probably is lol). However, although I’m still very early in my career, there’s value in those experiences. Not all of my articles have to be related to pure theoretical value. Some of the advice here may be no more than comfort in knowing that someone else had a similar thought as you. If that’s the value you derive from my stuff, then I’m extremely fulfilled.

So yeah, I’m back to writing. If anything resonates, let me know. Always happy to see other people’s commentary on these topics :) 

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Resources of the Month 📕

Try Exponent: A PM website home to questions, company guides, and 1:1 interviews with other aspiring PMs.

Tech Talk for Non-Developers: A course dedicated to demystifying technical concepts for product managers in a more digestible way. (Fun Fact: I did this course and it helped a ton with my first PM job!)

APM List: APM season is here, keep up to date with PM job postings!

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Coffee Program and Thank You ☕️

Thank you for taking the time to read this month’s issue! I’ll see you next month :)

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Feel free to use the scan below to buy yourself some coffee on me at Starbucks. As always, please be respectful as to the amount you’re purchasing ❤️

It’s nice to be back!

Until next month,

~ Tyler