Self-Development on Konstantin Zavarov

10 Deadly Sins of a Junior Product Manager

Sun, 29 Sep 2024 15:17:01 +0300

This article was originally published on habr.com.

These «deadly sins» can serve as a self-assessment checklist for both new and more experienced managers.

Here are the mistakes — and how to fix them.

1. Believing in Multitasking

Every product manager faces enormous flows of information — countless initiatives and product ideas that no single person can process in the time available. Stakeholders push their agendas, users complain, the calendar is packed with meetings, and the Product Backlog keeps growing day after day.

Thinking Through Writing

Tue, 24 Sep 2024 15:17:01 +0300

I came across a fascinating interview with Andrei Styskin (Director at Amazon, former CEO of Yandex’s search portal), in which Andrei talks about some interesting aspects of Amazon’s internal culture — in particular, its «document-centric» approach to meetings and decision-making.

Every work meeting is a collaborative exercise in which participants work through a pre-prepared document on a specific problem. Part of the time (10 to 20 minutes) is spent reading the document independently; the rest is used for discussion and commentary. If open questions remain after the meeting, another one is scheduled in the same format. The process continues until requirements are unambiguously defined and agreed upon by all stakeholders.
Requirements for any product or feature are worked out using the «Working Backwards» method, through two documents: a «Press Release» and a «FAQ.» The product manager writes the press release well before the launch, establishing a vision of the ideal outcome that the entire product team can use as a north star throughout development.
All decisions are made through document reviews — not in casual verbal conversations during meetings or at the watercooler, as so often happens elsewhere.

Reflecting on my time at Yandex (a great company, though not quite on Amazon’s scale — in 2024, Yandex’s market cap was around $10 billion, compared to Amazon’s $2 trillion), I can say that the company’s internal culture actively encouraged employees to express their thinking in writing: Yandex had a strong tradition of maintaining detailed wiki documentation, writing thorough task descriptions in trackers, discussing issues in comments, and keeping internal blogs — both public and anonymous. The more senior the employee, the more convincingly and concisely they wrote and communicated.

On Getting Certified as a Certified Scrum Product Owner

Sat, 13 Feb 2021 12:00:00 +0300

In his book Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products, Marty Cagan recommends that aspiring product managers get CSPO-certified early in their careers. I want to share what you can actually expect from this training and certification — beyond collecting yet another badge (and a rather pricey one at that).

The training runs for two full days. The first day covers the fundamentals of Agile and Scrum through group exercises, with a brief overview of other product development methodologies. For those just entering the profession, this day is genuinely valuable — it builds a deeper, more grounded understanding of Scrum. That knowledge serves as a useful foundation for evaluating and comparing the processes at your own company or within your product.

More experienced product managers will find it helpful for formalizing and structuring what they already know. Most of us work directly with development teams, and a fresh infusion of ideas can bring new creativity and engagement to the team.