Examples To Help Get Your Product Manager Role
Many job seekers ask me for effective strategies to show their skills in job applications or interviews, given the unprecedented competition.
Here I share a case study approach based on 17 hours of trials for multiple businesses. The approach requires time and dedication, but the results are transformative.
I delve into why this method is crucial for your success and how you can start implementing it today using the comprehensive 9-step framework.
If you have any questions, get in touch.
Challenges With Online Job Applications And Interviews
In today’s challenging macro environment, job seekers struggle to get interviews, and converting those interviews into offers is even harder.
The primary issue with online job applications is the overwhelming number of applicants for each role. The volume is so high that recruiters often can't review every resume manually. To increase your chances, you need to stand out. A powerful way to do this is by connecting with employees within the company. They can help you understand the company's needs, refer you for a role, or notify you of open positions.
Even if you're great at what you do, interviews can be challenging due to intense competition. How can you stand out? One way is by adding value before you even join the company.
A case study can demonstrate your interest, industry understanding, and practical skills.
3 Reasons To Do A Case Study
1 - A case study helps you differentiate yourself from the crowded pool of applicants.
2 - If you're skilled in your role but not confident in interviews, a case study allows you to showcase your abilities.
3 - Additionally, if you have theoretical knowledge but lack practical experience, a case study is an opportunity to demonstrate your expertise.
Presenting this case study during your interview highlights your value to the company.
Research Plan For Case Study
Here's how you can research for your case study:
Popular frameworks: Draw a porter’s five forces of fill out a business model canvas for the product or startup. Each section will prompt you to ask deeper questions and seek more detailed answers.
Customer Stories: Look for customer stories about competitive products. These stories will reveal the challenges faced by target customers and how competitors are addressing them.
Forums: Search forums and communities to find real pain points directly from customers. This first-hand knowledge will give you a clearer picture of their struggles.
SEO Research: Use tools like Ahrefs, Similarweb, and Google Trends on competitor's websites to understand prospects’ attraction to them.
Content: Reflect on books, podcasts, or online courses you've consumed. Use the insights from these sources to shape your research approach.
Experts: Speak to industry experts or individuals who match your customer persona within your network.
Example for pre-PMF startup:
Porter’s five forces will show that XYZ
Customers
Search forums for what people do with Intel and AMD hardware
ABC and XYZ - use Similarweb on them
Re-read Andrew Chen’s Cold Start Problem
Give examples of challenges in network effect startups
Find ways to decompose the problem into a non-network problem
Talk to Gajanan, Lenord, Surya, and Prince about the problem space.
Example for marketing strategy client
Write skeleton of execution plan
Competitive research - don’t know competitors yet.
Sign up to the product
SEO keywords research.
N number of blogs. M number of videos.
What is working well e.g. the ABC video.
Challenge of 2-3 times in lifecycle
Calculate the revenue and cost numbers.
Example for B2C SaaS client
Show these in this order in discussion
Demo:
Share landing page link
Show ad campaign
Research:
About ABC industry - here is what I understood. Is this right
Peers or competitor companies
Ad samples:
Blogs/affiliates for driving traffic
Execution plan - approaching this as an operator
Some diagram. flowchart.
Socratic Research Method: Start With Questions
When considering the points above, it's easy to get overwhelmed by too much information. While you might try to understand everything about an industry or company, how can you ensure it helps you complete the case study?
Instead of jumping straight into research, write down your thoughts before looking up information. This process will highlight gaps in your knowledge, similar to the Socratic method.
Make a list of questions to guide your research. These questions will help you focus on finding the right information.
Example 1 for AI infrastructure startup
Who buys GPUs? What are use-cases for GPUs?
Why are GPUs expensive to purchase?
Who rents GPUs, instead of buying? Why?
Where do they rent it from?
How much commitment do they need to make to rent the GPUs?
What on-demand pricing can users find?
Who are the logo customers of GPU rental providers?
What’s the comparison of Nvidia vs AMD or Intel GPUs?
In a large company, which developers’ work will be agnostic of GPUs and which developers’ work is on Cuda/Nvidia, so cannot be ported?
What is required to enable developers to port their work from Nvidia to other GPUs?
How do developers know how many hours to rent GPU for? Are there other quanta e.g. TFlops that developers use to decide on rental?
How do developers deal with the complexities of network, storage, CPU, etc. decisions to rent GPUs?
Some companies offer serverless GPU rental. What does that mean in terms of simplifying GPU rental decisions?
What is the market position of ABC and XYZ? What is their value prop?
What do developers do now to reduce their cost of GPU usage? Where is the gap?
Where do the GPUs come from, to rental marketplaces?
What is customer’s experience with renting GPUs from ABC, etc.?
Example 2 for marketing strategy client
What is the impact of case studies or customer stories on conversion
What features or services do long-term customers find most valuable? What are the standout benefits that customers would highlight about ABC?
How can we do partnerships
What are other platforms or tools that ABC customers frequently use that could benefit from deeper integration and documentation? E.g. DEF
Content plan ideas - Versus blogs, founder video interview per question or topic,
Estimate revenue uplift
Estimate my pricing
Framework For Product Case Study With Examples
I walk through the framework in this article. Here I’ll show you examples of each step.
1 - Clarify The Situation
Determine the primary goal: is it to increase revenue, profits, or the user base (for network effects)? What is the desired outcome from the conversation?
Example:
Founding of ABC
Harshal’s Interview with CTO and team
Understand the industry, customers, and ABC’s positioning
2 - Identify The Users
Determine the end user and the buyer.
Who are our product’s target users?
Who uses products like ours but is not in our product’s target market?
Example 1 to identify users and then user needs:
Who are our product’s target users?
Researchers and Data Scientists
AI and ML Enthusiasts
Who uses ABC but is not in our product’s target market? These users need product close to them.
Professional Creatives
Gamers
Cryptocurrency Miners
Automotive Industry
3 - Identify User Needs
Understand the user's mindset, needs, and challenges. You can communicate these through needs, JTBDs, or customer journey map.
Example 1:
1 - Performance and Capacity:
For handling large datasets and complex algorithms.
Sub-need: Reliability and Uptime: reliable service as interruptions can cause significant setbacks. Continuous uptime.
2 - Cost Efficiency and Flexibility:
Flexible renting options to manage costs and scale operations as needed.
3 - Ease of Use and Support:
Businesses and Academic Users often prioritize user-friendly platforms with strong customer support.
Example 2 visualized.
4 - Identify Gaps Vs. Existing Products
How do users try to meet their needs? But, where are the gaps?
While it might be tempting to create a strawman version, I recommend building a steelman when possible. This approach increases your chances of success.
5 - Identify Feature Improvements
Identify gaps in user needs and suggest at least three feasible improvements. In some cases, the product may already exist, so focus on connecting the dots between product features and customer needs.
For example,
What features does our platform offer, and how do they address specific user needs?
6 - Execution Plan
Think of questions like, “What is the MVP and the MLP?” Sometimes for network-effect products, your technical execution plan will overlap with your go-to-market plan.
Example for an AI infrastructure startup:
If network effect feature: Find the smallest atomic network and a way to gate access to just them.
Reduce dimensions of problem: Rent GPUs with commitment from ABC to convert the 2-sided marketplace problem to 1-sided.
Launch feature that provides value to practitioners without network effects.
Example 1: Layer to maximize their hardware utilization. Bonus: Doesn’t require us to provide the hardware.
Example 2: Recommended decisions for choice of ancillaries
First feature: Have a CLI tool to know whether ABC is compatible with XYZ?
For a marketing project, your execution plan will focus on the ad campaign, content strategy, and more. Example:
Legal and Domain Setup: Register business, obtain virtual business address, register DBA, and purchase domain.
Website Development: Create a Wix website, including privacy policy, terms and conditions, and develop a logo.
IT and Email Configuration: Set up Gmail, verify insurance for Google Ads, and configure Typeform, Unbounce, and Mailchimp pricing plans.
Landing Page Design: Use Unbounce for creating multiple landing page variants, including the homepage.
Analytics and Measurement Tools: Set up Microsoft Clarity, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and a metrics dashboard.
Google Ads Strategy: Run a test campaign to identify ineffective keywords with controlled cost-per-click and budget over a few weeks.
Customer Engagement: Solicit customer testimonials from over 66 customers and implement Smile for capturing user reviews.
Weekly Optimization: Regularly update copy and images on landing pages and ads.
Advertising Expansion: Extend to more ad formats including Google visual ads and Meta ads.
Content Strategy: Develop and execute a content plan targeting SEO, publish 40 blog posts, and manage affiliate websites.
Another inorganic growth example below.
Another example marketing execution plan:
Goal: customer acquisition while keeping customer retention high. Don’t want a leaky bucket. So prioritize any onboarding issues highlighted.
1 - Customer stories: Reach out via Slack connect. Talk to 20 customers to get testimonials and case studies. Add to website.
2 - Quantify the benefit of using ABC over DIY
3 - Technical content: ABC has a list of technical blog ideas. I can implement them or get those implemented. Requires walkthrough by founding team. Can voice transcribe to create blogs.
4 - Home page: Make self service sign up easier to discover on home page.
7 - Go-To-Market Plan
Answer questions like:
Where do customers typically search for solutions to their needs?
Based on this, how will they find your product?
What steps are required to offer your product on that platform?
For a GTM plan, you need to understand the customer journey map or funnel.
Here’s an example summary GTM plan for a side-car pre-MVP product:
Here’s an example of a customer journey map to drive traffic to a website.
8 - Metrics And Counter-Metrics
Determine how you will measure success. Look at metrics and counter-metrics.
Counter-metrics provide insights into a particular action or metric's negative impacts or unintended consequences. They act as a balance to primary metrics by shedding light on areas that may be overlooked or negatively impacted by focusing solely on the primary metric.
Example 1 for a startup product role:
Target moving these KPIs for customers:
TCO reduction for ABC (niche: DEF, not XYZ)
Reduce development time
Increase the number of experiments at same cost
Example 2 table with metrics buckets in different categories for a marketing strategy discussion.
I found a simple example about counter-metrics:
Success Metric: Customer Acquisition Rate. This metric measures how quickly a SaaS product is gaining new customers.
Counter Metric: Customer Churn Rate. A high churn rate could offset gains in customer acquisition, indicating potential issues with product satisfaction or value delivery.
9 - Evaluate Risks And Trade-Offs
Choosing one feature over others comes with trade-offs. Example 1 of evaluating risks and trade-offs for a pre-PMF startup:
Risks:
ABC and DEF marketplaces meet customers' need to rent ABC by the hour. So, we focus on technical innovation, not discounted pricing.
Customers’ care about saving time using ABC, not saving money while building a feature for more revenue. So, we focus on that benefit.
We launch a pay-as-you-go pricing model for pricing flexibility. This results in unpredictable revenue, so harder to convince investors for next funding round. And harder revenue projections. We also attract low CLTV customers.
Trade-offs:
Launching a product without a network effect makes it easier to adopt (increased customer acquisition), but it lowers customer retention compared to a network effect product.
We launch a low-margin product and get low CLTV individual users at high CAC.
Example 2 of evaluating risks and trade-offs for a marketing strategy:
Risks
Higher CPC on adwords
We will not get traffic boost if do not get backlinks
Lower % CTR because only sometime in lifecycle of company
Do not convert after landing on our home page.
Our retention will drop from 100% as the top of funnel widens.
Trade-offs
Ads are not viable for long-term, but content takes long-time for initial results.
Customer stories don’t generate immediate value, but doing them first enables high CTR and conversion from later milestones.
Using Case Study In Your Job Search
Ready to stand out in your next job application? Start by creating your case study using the framework and examples provided.
Related:
If you have any questions, get in touch.