How can I practice my product management skills?

I recently completed a product management course while unemployed. What is the greatest approach for me to practice my abilities and interviews while I’m seeking for jobs?

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Start a business. You would practically become the product’s CEO in this case.

Even if you don’t start, take all the necessary steps to launch a firm. Find a need, even a paper one, and start a business to meet it.

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As well, create a wireframe and requirements documents. Discover your customers. Try to collaborate on this with others.

Experience matters to businesses. More than reading or studying technique, you can benefit from trying to perform in a group setting.

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I would advise don’t stop there, continue with the development of an MVP using a no-code tool. It’s quite simple to understand and will be extremely helpful in framing the development of software.

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As far as the CEO’s fundamental job duties are concerned, it is actually more service-based management than product management.

The only thing you really need to do is try to develop fictional products that solve problems. Take them through the case study analysis, strategic planning, design, prototype, testing, and launch phases repeatedly until you have internalized the playbook.

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Use Jira or a Trello board to organize your life, practice wire framing, design sketching, read company news or yearly reports, perform statistical research, ask people what they do and what difficulties they have with X, and practice conducting interviews. Good luck!

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Create an app using a NoCode platform, such as Flutterflow. Although there are some suggestions in the comments to create wireframes, the NoCode platforms allow you to create a functioning app right out of the box. Although you’ll ultimately run into restrictions, I know some PMs who have developed entire companies on these kinds of networks.

I don’t work for Flutterflow; there are other platforms. It’s merely the newest shiny thing I’ve come across.

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Others may not approve, but I interviewed for a lot of positions I would never accept. It made it possible for me to practice without fear or anxiety. When the positions I desired opened up, I felt very prepared and much more confident.

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Ditto @MariaWilson! Every interview is a great opportunity to master your presentation skills!

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Read cracking the PM interview. You’ll be able to better grasp what employers want by using it to help you build your ideas and experiences.

There are some free videos from TryExponent on YouTube that are useful for developing your interview technique and PM attitude.

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I advise you to enroll in marketing classes. I’ve been working on product development for more than ten years and learning about marketing has helped me advance my career the most.

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Just be warned. Many managements and recruiters are able to detect these pre-written comments from a mile away. I’m not suggesting the book isn’t worth reading, but if your responses are overly prepared and immediately address the salient points the book makes, we will know something is up.

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Identify a genuine market problem, that actual people have. Preferably one for which they could pay to find a solution. Ideally with an estimated TAM.

Define, outline, and create a remedy for that issue. Divide the proposed solution into MVP, MMP, and milestones/versions/releases. Write “epic-sized” feature-benefit summaries in one line that explain why a feature is important to the user as well as what it does. Display those on a map (now, next later).

In your subsequent interview, use this (persuasively) as a case study. Bonus points if you include some wireframes or mockups, but why take on the role of the designer if you aren’t asking for a UX job?

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After the first consumer discovery effort, become familiar with Figma and create some simple prototypes. It doesn’t even have to be a brand-new item. Take Reddit as an example of an established product to get started. And think of ways you think you can improve it.

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Consider a problem you’d like to fix in your life, at work, in your neighbourhood, or in your environment.

Get a pad and a pen, and sketch three solutions to the issue.

Ask yourself if each is desirable (would people pay for this problem to be solved by this solution? ), practicable (could it actually be built? ), and viable (once people are using it, will it scale). Verify this with ten other persons who have the same issue.

For each solution, devise a method to measure each of those three axes. Choose the candidate with the best rating. Your MVP scope is that.

Create it.

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Start running tests and coming with ideas. Take a concept in your head, mock up some designs in figma or miro or invision, then show some friends the concept and get feedback, then iterate on the concept until you find something really cool. Then use tools like bubble or others to build it out and see if you get traction. Every interview you roll into with that concept will give you a job immediately.

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Lots of mock interviews to keep you sharp. IMO, Building your own product is more of a distraction at this point. Unless it’s going to be super impressive, nobody will care. There’s also a product toolkit I found useful, but more relevant when you’re on the job.

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I recently signed up for a digital marketing school from coderhouse, and when browsing their website, I saw a profession for a product manager. Since the course only lasts six months, though, it makes me wonder if it’s worth the money or if it’s a waste of time. All I’ve seen thus far is that you obviously need a ton of experience, which is a criterion that I obviously lack.

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