"The 5 Personas of Product Management (and How to Hire for Them)" by Jason Shen

PM PERSONASTHE FIVE

AND HOW TO HIRE FOR THEM

@JASONSHEN

CEO, HEADLIGHT

ABOUT ME

WHAT DOES A PM ACTUALLY DO?


EXPLORER


EXPLORER

ADVOCATE


EXPLORER

ADVOCATEORGANIZER


EXPLORER

ADVOCATEORGANIZER

TECHNICIAN

EXPLORING THE PERSONAS


EXPLORER

• Focused outward on how the product fits into

the market and underlying trends

• Helps inspire team around a vision

+

ABOUT EXPLORERS


EXPLORER

• Focused outward on how the product fits into

the market and underlying trends

• Helps inspire team around a vision

+• What major trend—cultural, economic, or

technological—are you excited about and how

will society be impacted by its development?

ABOUT EXPLORERS

HOW TO HIRE FOR THIS PERSONA


ADVOCATE+

• Strong listeners who understand their

customers, teammates, and executives

• Great communicators who will speak up and

fight for stakeholder needs

ABOUT ADVOCATES


ADVOCATE+

• Strong listeners who understand their

customers, teammates, and executives

• Great communicators who will speak up and

fight for stakeholder needs

• Your product is slated to launch next week but

a small % of beta users start reporting serious

issues. How do you respond?

ABOUT ADVOCATES



ORGANIZER+

• Able to keep track of people, projects, and

priorities of their own team and other teams

• Planners who keep things running smoothly

while making sure everyone feels supported

ABOUT ORGANIZERS


ORGANIZER+

• Able to keep track of people, projects, and

priorities of their own team and other teams

• Planners who keep things running smoothly

while making sure everyone feels supported

ABOUT ORGANIZERS

• Describe your ideal team process (planning,

standups, demos, etc) and how it might evolve

over the course of a project



TECHNICIAN+

• Focused on the critical details of the product—

tech, design, metrics, bugs

• Helps the team solve thorny issues by doing the

research and wrestling with the problem

ABOUT TECHNICIANS


TECHNICIAN+

• Focused on the critical details of the product—

tech, design, metrics, bugs

• Helps the team solve thorny issues by doing the

research and wrestling with the problem

• Choose a product you use frequently—what

makes it great? If you were the PM, how would

you improve it? What metrics would you track?

ABOUT TECHNICIANS


SITUATION

INTERNAL TOOLS

TECHNICIANADVOCATE

ORGANIZEREXPLORER

SITUATION

NEW PRODUCT LINEINTERNAL TOOLS

TECHNICIANADVOCATE

ORGANIZEREXPLORER

EXPLORER

TECHNICIANADVOCATE

ORGANIZER

WHAT ABOUT THE FIFTH PERSONA?

CLIMBING THE MOUNTAIN


HELPER


HELPER

PARTNER


HELPER

PARTNER

SHERPA

THANK YOU

@JASONSHEN

HEADLIGHTLABS.COM

"The 5 Personas of Product Management (and How to Hire for Them)" by Jason Shen

Business

Transcript of "The 5 Personas of Product Management (and How to Hire for Them)" by Jason Shen