Srinivas Varanasi

When you say your product has Product Market Fit, it means your product has achieved PMF for specific segments of users, not everyone which you consider as your potential user. PMF is always segment specific, it is never generic. So next time you want to grow your product, understand which set of customers loved your product initially and find similar customers who have similar needs.

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Nothing hurts career growth for talented Product Managers other than over-indexing on the immediate next job move as the only important thing for career advancement. Here is how to avoid this short term thinking trap and build a career plan for meaningful career success : Step 1️⃣: Envision what you want to achieve and create your career roadmap - Think your career as a product and have a long term vision - Think roles/titles/scope you want to have in long term - Identify what PM skills you need to succeed in that role - Work backwards to reverse engineer your plan to learn those skills - Have clear short term milestones to monitor progress - Identify companies which can help you build that skill set - Identify mentors/coaches/courses/books which can fast track your learning - Plan for scenarios in case a role/company is not a good fit (eg when will you quit and what will you do next) Step 2️⃣: Find right roles as per your plan and build your reputation - Go after the role you want to start with as per your plan (always pick companies with higher growth and higher odds of success when having multiple offers) - Improve your strategy, execution, influence and communication skills as you grow - Work extremely hard and deliver strong outcomes via your product work - As you progress understand what are your strengths and liabilities - Go deep on your strengths and build your reputation around it - Work on your liabilities to bring them to median level of proficiency - Understand what environmental parameters help you thrive eg extent of manager support, fast vs slow paced environment, processes vs autonomy etc - Annually assess how close/far-off you are wrt to your short term milestones - In case you see gaps, transition to new role/company basis the extent to which things can be fixed in your current role Step 3️⃣: Learn how to be lucky than solely relying on hard work - Create your advisor council to share your journey and seek inputs - Contribute to the community of PMs to organically build you network - Support others(within/outside your team) in their career growth - Work hard to find your sponsors within and outside your company - Always give more than you seek #productmanagement #pmcareergrowth

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Your true growth as a Product Manager is least reflected in your increasing paycheck. The real win is elsewhere. For meaningful PM career growth, here is what you need to internalise : Your PM compensation growth is the lagging indicator of : The 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 you are having in your current role and impact you previously had. You might think that scope and levelling are also key inputs to compensation, but that's not the case. Here is why: Your performance will be largely judged by the impact you are having in your current role. Above-expectations impact will automatically increase your scope and comp faster than your peers and with time your levelling will also grow via promotions. Hence impact is most important input. Given the importance, here is how to think about impact as a PM : 1. Drive extreme clarity about where do problems exist and where do most impactful opportunities lie so that people understand and believe in the investment. 2. Drive clarity on what the team should focus on with right prioritization and sequencing. 3. Deliver and validate the impact via strong execution - Making progress quickly on the short/mid/long term goals repeatedly, builds your reputation as a PM. As you grow senior your focus shifts from questions like "is it right problem to solve" to questions like "are we investing in the right place, is this area, is this team, is this org the right investment?" etc. #pmcareer #productmanagement

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Product Design at its core is more about finding the ideal middle ground between the following, 1. User Needs 2. Business Needs 3. Product Wants, & 4. Tech Capabilities All of this while staying within tight deadlines. Hence it is becoming more and more important for the folks from design to be curious about learning the key aspects that matter for all the above landscapes. It’s a role that is constantly evolving, and just making Figma screens and flows isn’t how designers’ impact is assessed anymore. #productdesign #designthinking #uiux

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The product lifecycle is like a Bollywood movie: Starts with a bang, full of drama in the middle (bugs!), and ends with everyone wondering if there will be a sequel (new version) or if it's just a one-hit wonder. #productmanagerlife #productmanagement #productmanager #agile #productowner #officehumor #worklifebalance #softwareengineeringhumor #uxhumor #customercentric #productlifecycle #productlaunch #bugs #productdevelopment #newversion #bollywood #softwareengineeringhumor #productmanagerlife

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Mistakes that I make as a #ProductManagement mentor/ leader Mistake 4: Focussing to mentor only on the hard skills- problem structuring, product discovery and prioritisation. And not mentoring on the soft skills like relationship building, proactive communication and messaging for different stakeholders to build trust and credibility in the system.

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Struggling to break into product management or transition into different PM roles? After last week’s post, I received a lot of questions. This month’s FAQ answers some of the most common ones to help you navigate today’s competitive market. In this month’s FAQ, I cover: ✅ How to transition from enterprise to consumer PM roles ✅ How to compete with more experienced PMs ✅ The importance of learning AI (and why just taking courses isn’t enough) ✅ What work-life balance in tech really looks like ✅ Whether learning design is necessary for PMs Key takeaways: 1️⃣ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐌 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠. It’s unlikely to happen in a single step. You need to work toward gaining relevant experience to bridge the gap. 2️⃣ 𝐅𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞. Competing with someone who has more years of experience? The key is applying for roles where your experience is highly relevant, even if they have more years under their belt. 3️⃣ 𝐀𝐈 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭-𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥. But companies are looking for actual experience, not just an understanding from online courses. 4️⃣ 𝐖𝐋𝐁 𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭. Work-life balance in tech varies greatly, but efficiency and time management can make a huge difference in improving it. 5️⃣ 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚 𝐛𝐨𝐧𝐮𝐬. As a PM, knowing enough about design to work well with your design team can improve your product sense and collaboration. 📨 Link to the full post and newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gxcg6mxt If this resonates with you, 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞, 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞 to help others who are navigating these same challenges. #productmanagement #productmanager #jobsearch #techcareers

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#ProductMusings: Facing Failure: A Product Manager's Challenge 🚀🤔 In product development, not every experiment goes as planned. Failed or inconclusive experiments can be discouraging, but they are crucial for growth. The key is understanding why an experiment didn't succeed—whether due to hypothesis errors, technical glitches, or market misalignment. 🤔 Here’s how to turn setbacks into opportunities: 🔹 Explore with Curiosity: When outcomes are unclear, dive into user feedback to uncover missed insights. For instance, after an A/B test doesn't provide clear results, teams might find value in identifying overlooked user pain points through feedback analysis. 🔹 Refine and Simplify: Use what you learn to tweak and improve the product. Some teams have discovered that simplifying features based on feedback can better meet user needs. 🔹 Transparent Communication: Share learnings openly to align the team and build trust. Regularly updating teams on experimental outcomes encourages a culture where failure is seen as a stepping stone to innovation. 🔹 Learning from Others: Study how other teams resolve setbacks. For example, after launching a new feature and receiving poor feedback, some teams have transformed critiques into enhancements, demonstrating effective iteration. 🔹 Record and Reflect: Keep track of what went wrong and what was learned to prevent future mistakes. This practice ensures valuable lessons aren't lost and guides future projects. Each failure is a chance to innovate! What lessons have you learned from a failed experiment? Share your thoughts👇💬 #ProductManagement #LearningFromFailure #Innovation #GrowthMindset

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🤔 A Product Manager's Dilemma 🤔 As PMs it’s crucial to balance listening to 'customer feedback' with 'visionary thinking'. While users can articulate their current needs—like wanting "faster horses"—it’s our job to 'dig deeper', identify underlying problems, and imagine innovative solutions that customers might not yet envision. ⭐True innovation often comes from challenging the status quo and looking beyond obvious improvements. #ProductManagement #Innovation #CustomerFeedback #VisionaryThinking #UserExperience #ProblemSolving #DesignThinking

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To all Product Managers - How do you measure the quality of your PRD? . . I consider 2 things to measure the quality of my PRDs: [1] How many times did developers reach out to me for clarification during the development phase? (consider the clarifications not mentioned in the PRD) [2] How many improvements areas/fixes did I identify during PAT? (that could have been avoided by writing details in the PRD itself) PRD is supposed to make developers self-reliant and provide them clarity on as many possible cases as possible. If they have to come back to you every now and then, you (as a PM) are not doing justice to your work. This will waste more time than the time you will save by not writing PRD. How do you evaluate the quality of your PRD? Mention in the comments below. #ProductManagers #ProductManagement #Developers

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🚀 PM Hiring post with some busting the myth that you can only learn about building products in product orgs! 🚀 At Shuru, we’re looking for Product Managers who are passionate about solving product problems (Both zero-to-one and scaling) and are eager to learn by executing projects across a range of countries, industries and scales. 💡 What You’ll Get to Work On: • Zero-to-One Ideas: Be involved in the early stages of product development, from ideation to execution, turning concepts into impactful products. • Collaboration with Designers and Engineers: You’ll work alongside talented designers to create seamless user experiences and engineers to bring those designs to life. • Complex Stakeholder Management: Engage with diverse stakeholders, managing expectations, and ensuring alignment to product goals across different industries. • Learning Directly from Founders: You’ll have the opportunity to work closely with Shuru’s co-founders, learning from their years of experience and gaining invaluable insights. Meet my cofounders Kshitij Bhardwaj and Akashdeep Singh Kahlon • Global Exposure: Shuru Tech works on products for clients from multiple countries, giving you a broad, international perspective on product management challenges. We have worked for companies in Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, India, France, UAE and Italy. 🚫 What You Won’t Be Doing: • Owning Business Metrics or P&L: Your focus will be on product execution, not managing profit and loss or business outcomes. • Long-Term Ownership of One Product: At Shuru, you won’t be tied down to one product for years. Instead, you’ll get exposure to a variety of products and industries, keeping the work dynamic and engaging. 🌍 Why Shuru Tech? At Shuru, we believe in first principles thinking and encourage openness in all our work. We offer a unique environment where you learn by doing, supported by a culture that values growth, experimentation, and innovation. Here’s what makes us stand out: • Remote-First Culture: We embrace remote work, and our team operates from all over the world, using Gather and Slack to stay connected and collaborative in a virtual workspace. • Learning-Focused: We provide a hands-on learning environment where you’ll get real ownership and experience across different sectors and products. • Work-Life Balance: Every 100 days, we take a no-work team outing to recharge and connect, ensuring that our team stays energized and motivated. Goa trip coming in November! • First Principles Approach: We encourage solving problems from the ground up, using logical, evidence-based reasoning to address challenges. If you want to work on a variety of exciting projects and contribute to products that impact different markets, apply at https://lnkd.in/gpaiFqti

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Mistakes that I make as a #ProductManagement Mentor/ Leader Mistake #2 Setting the same mentoring/ working model for all the mentees And not taking their strengths, development areas, working style into consideration and not adjusting the mentoring/ working model for each person differently

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ShareChat PM interview questions [1] How would you improve Swiggy revenue? [2] What metrics would you, as a PM, track for WhatsApp? [3] Estimate the number of airplanes in the Indian sky at noon? [4] How could you use hashtags on Sharechat to drive engagement? [5] Design a camera for the elderly. [6] How would you design Uber for blind? [7] Assume that the page views on Flipkart’s product pages have declined over the last 3 weeks. How would you go about investigating this? [8] What metrics and goals would you focus on for Instagram stories? Liked this? Follow Vishal Bagla for more. #ProductManagement #ProductManagers #InterviewPrep #Jobs

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Nephew to my brother: I have a Product Related Question Brother: Ask her (me)..she is a Product Manager... Me: Okk ...tell me Nephew: What is the Product of smallest 1 digit and largest 4 digit number.... Bas yehi hona Baaki tha..... #ProductManagement #humoronly

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Mistakes that I make as #ProductManagement mentor/leader Mistake 13 (probably a deal breaker) Letting the mentees be the only accountable people when a highly debatable decision or mistake is made And not taking responsibility and supporting them with equal accountability in big forums. As a mentee myself, the feeling that my mentor has my back inspires immense confidence in me to take big decisions and gives me the psychological safety that there’s someone to help lift me up when I fall.

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PMing for a mature product with half a million+ MAU & 200+ enterprise customers, is a lot of responsibility. Any miss can impact the 6 Lakh daily rosters. I need to get it right and there is a very little room for error. Fortunately, MoveInSync enables this by keeping PMs grounded with product support while also ensuring PMs drive product adoption & innovation together with customers. This "back to basics" approach ensures only the right problems get solved. Akash Maheshwari Nitin Awasthi #B2BProductManagement #SaaS

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3 questions to help Product Managers anticipate failure to derisk their ideas when conceptualising next 0-1 product : 1️⃣ On understanding demand: Is there existing demand for the product category or is it unknown? - If the demand is unknown then you need to figure out which user segments to target first to be successful and if the demand is known, then you need to find ways to outcompete the incumbents via differentiation. 2️⃣ On tech feasibility: Can we access/build technology which can solve the identified problem - Building new technology is a classic engineering challenge. Unless you are not building a Deep Tech product or creating the next frontier AI model/AI product, this risk will be manageable with the right engineering skills and use of existing technology. 3️⃣ On building something meaningful: Can users get meaningful value from our product repeatedly to build habits around our product ? - Mitigating value risk will help you reach a strong Product Market Fit for your product and pave path for growth stage. You may want to include business viability question in above list (whether business can extract value), but in reality business model is perfected after reaching PMF via solving demand, tech and consumer value. Let me know what you think should get added to above list of questions. #productmanagement

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If you know any hiring manager or any headhunter who is hiring in the product management space please tag him/her here or drop his/her email. Also if you know if a particular team in your company is hiring, request you to share the info. Nobody clearly says this but plain referral is probably dead. It can benefit a lot of people. Jaankari sab ke paas kuch na kuch hote hai but deta koi nahi 😁 Earn some good karma by sharing your 'insider info'. 😊 #product #hiring #interviews #productmanagement #productmanager #productmanagers

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