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A deep dive into internal product management

Lessons from my first year as a Prod Ops Manager

It’s the Strategy, stupid – Andrew Martinez-Fonts (VP Product, Honeysales)

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Andres is a freelance writer and digital marketer with a background in engineering and a keen interest in the latest technology advancements. He currently helps tech companies and startups tell their stories by turning their complex ideas into easy to understand material. You can reach out to him on LinkedIn

Andres Phillips

<p>In this ProductTank London talk, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisonhickson/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alison Hickson</a>, head of product at Linktree, talks about the changes she made as she moved from being an external product manager to becoming an internal product manager. She shares some tips to help product managers understand and thrive in an internal product manager role.</p>
<p><strong>Watch the video to see Alison’s talk in full, or read on for an overview of her key points:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Define your PM goals</li>
<li>Be the expert in your problem area</li>
<li>Influence without authority</li>
<li>Grow products with little bets</li>
</ul>
<h2>Define your product manager goals</h2>
<p>Once Alison became an internal product manager, the first thing she discovered was that for many externally facing products, customers are external, and user reach is only limited by your company’s reach. When she became an internal product manager, she discovered that her reach shifted from thousands to hundreds of internal team members.</p>
<h2>Be the expert in your problem space</h2>
<p>As an internal product manager, it’s important to remember that your users are on your team. This allows you to refine and grow your research skills as you test out different options and discover what works for you.</p>
<p>Another thing to note is that captive users are a fallacy. While some may think that your users don’t have a choice but to use your products, this is incorrect. However, you can take advantage of the fact that users are internal and shadow their experience to get a first-hand view of their product experience. Product managers need to monitor adoption rates. While external product managers may rely on Google Analytics and other tools, internal product managers need to get creative with the metrics.</p>
<p>Alison suggests monitoring channels like Slack to get customer feedback and discover when things aren’t working so that you can iterate and continue growing adoption rates.</p>
<h2>Influence without authority</h2>
<p>To influence as an internal product manager, you need to build social capital. To do this, start by identifying a representative for each user group. Empathize with users but don’t make promises and finally create aligned measures of success so that everyone knows what you are trying to achieve.</p>
<h2>Grow products with little bets</h2>
<p>Rather than building a product that you think everyone might like and then discovering that they don’t, it’s better to release little bets iteratively. Make the most of lower-stakes releases and do things so you can think about what to do next by building fast feedback loops.</p>
<p>The key takeaways are to become the expert in your problem space, find ways to influence without authority, and use feedback loops to grow with little bets to achieve success as an internal product manager.</p>
<h2>Enjoy more from ProductTank</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/producttank/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ProductTanks</a> are informal meetups, created by Mind the Product, to bring local product people together and to enable speakers to share amazing product insights. Today we have ProductTanks in more than 200 cities across the globe and there’s probably one near you.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/producttank/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Learn more about ProductTank – find your local meetup, explore more ProductTank content, see the latest ProductTank news, and discover ways to get involved!</a></p>

core/freeform

Susana Lopes: Embracing a dual-track career ladder in product

Career clinic for product managers by John Cutler

Hiring product managers by Kate Leto

Identify and manage imposter syndrome by Phyllis Njoroge

From PO to CPO: How to drive your product career by Namrata Sarmah

Learnings from London: The secret sauce to hiring great product people by Kate Leto

Building the perfect product manager: A model for professional development by Greg Prickril

Fireside chat with Marty Cagan

From engineering to product management at Google

Be the best imperfect product manager you can be by Osaseri Guobadia

Sharpening your product craft as an internal product manager by Alison Hickson

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