《Cracking the PM Interview》经典读后感有感

《Cracking the PM Interview》是一本由Gayle Laakmann McDowell / Jackie著作，CareerCup出版的Paperback图书，本书定价：USD 34.24，页数：364，特精心收集的读后感，希望对大家能有帮助。

《Cracking the PM Interview》读后感(一)：感觉自己超适合产品经理

因为一些测试表示我非常擅长沟通，有领导力和劝服力，生活中的体验也指向我会非常适合产品经理。

读这本书的时候的感受就是，真的太适合了！感觉产品经理能做出几个很不错的产品之后，或者甚至1个就好，出来之后就有底气去创业了，而我终极目标是去创业。

其中提到leader without athority , 这个我对自己能力没啥怀疑。但是主要是我以后工作的地方在国内，没两把刷子还是担心被程序员吐槽咯

思考了一下觉得训练下面几个技能能帮助我更加胜任这个工作：

1. 商业数据分析能力 因为现在产品许多都是市场驱动的，你要知道怎样的产品能在市场上获得欢迎，哪些功能会更user friendly 之类的。这些即使你有直觉，起初还有说服程序员的时候，最好还是要能拿出手的数据。所以需要有一些实际的操作去了解这个市场，涉及到一些关于Marketing，Data analysis等等的分析。

2. 估算能力， 分开来讲是因为上面的数据分析指的是能获得一些数据的情况下可以做的事情，更加系统化吧。估算能力指的是信息有限的情况下一个大概对市场，用户的估算。这个虽然物理学里面学了一些，我掌握的还不是很好，需要更多对实际市场的尝试，有人带我更好。

3. 了解开发流程，这个看是做什么产品啦，数据类产品我现在已经基本了解流程了。web开发，app开发类的，我觉得估计已经饱和不太适合我。物联网硬件开发的话，虽然感兴趣具体经验还需要去获得。金融产品类的话，需要更多的金融知识。所以目前主要选择数据类产品，物联网类产品的工作。一些相关技术的工作、实习背景是有帮助的。

4. 市场技术政策的感知度，这个目前在一个非常不应用的学术圈有点难直接感知吧，以后可以花时间去了解。

毕业之后逐步去尝试吧~ 希望能找到发挥自己才能的地方~！Ps：本人物理背景，然后编程经验比实验经验多，现在是考虑博士毕业转行，所以看了这本书

《Cracking the PM Interview》读后感(二)：人人都不是产品经理

抱着想要转行当PM的想法，我开始看这本书，发现我太天真 为什么？因为计算机学位是PM必需的的。

1. PM是什么，又不是什么

在不同的公司、不同的产品阶段，完全不同的职责

在大公司，成熟的产品，可能是写文档和打杂。但是在创业公司，产品起步阶段，则要确定MVP，确定用户到底想要什么。而且Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft对于PM的要求都有所差别。比如在苹果，可能产品的决策来自于老大，那么你就没多少决定权，而在Google, 工程师们自己就干起来了，不怎么需要PM。我自己更接近MVP型的PM 2. 怎样无权领导（Lead without authority）

PM和设计师、工程师是同级的，你并不是他们的领导。 那么，怎么让他们愿意听你的想法，来做产品？ 书中并没有给出答案。实际上，我觉得这个本身就非常困难。所以，PM需要技术背景，因为只有工程师才会尊重工程师。而不是“就差一个程序员了”。不过，我觉得”领导力“和技术背景，其实是冲突的。因为那些到处受欢迎的人，很难是工程师。优秀的工程师，往往是nerd，可能还总是被人嫌弃情商低，不会和人结交等等［1］

3. 产品直觉（Product Instinct） 具体见Appendix中的How to Hire a Product Manager

面试的时候，可以说说自己对对方产品的想法。因为，对产品有想法的人，其实很少。

这是我一直不知道的。之前面流利说的时候，很自然的就对他们的产品有疑惑、有想法。但是觉得一见面就说，太不礼貌。当然后来水平不到被毙了，也没机会再说了....谁知道后来和他们的产品策略居然和我想的是一样的，包括看到的问题等等....如果当初说了可能就结果不同了。所以，以后的面试，我会试着去说说自己的想法

a. 技术背景欠缺：主要是简历上无法体现（土木工程专业），尽管是从大三开始学Ruby on Rails，和土木专业课的投入差不多，而且还有实习和一些小的作品 b. 有“product instinct” c. 分析能力欠缺：真正产品的驱动，讲究的是数据。这个完全没有接触过 d. 领导力非常缺：也就是上面说的lead without authority。

这本书其实并没有说

1. 我对于“所谓的PM”，兴趣不大 ①我不是体验党。什么把图标像素级对齐，极致体验……大家找电影下载、找资源的时候，谁嫌过体验不好？解决问题，才是有价值的产品。电影天堂、草榴、直播8，简单有用，够了 ②我也不是追新党。常常听说别人面试PM，你手机里面App少过100个就不要来了。但是我手机里的应用［2］..... 我只是觉得大多数的东西都没什么用，一个是缺乏真正惊艳的产品，另一个是工作学习更重要，手机上装太多东西，是浪费时间和精力的 ③我也不觉得idea就差一个程序员。因为自学Ruby on Rails的，我知道写代码是花时间的，凭什么你一句话就让我去给你做？另一方面，真正做个小产品，才知道idea的设计，其实很难。用户怎么增长？怎样和同类产品竞争？大多数"idea"党都从来没有想过。实际上, 好的产品，是一边做一边想出来。有的人只是把程序员当作实现自己想法的工具，我觉得真是恶心。产品，应该是属于整个团队的。 2. 我对于创业也没什么兴趣 现在最火的，就是创业了。整天谈论的就是融资多少钱，30岁前怎么达到财务自由；创业团队招聘，晒aeron chair，晒妹子；有人读了很多很多杂书，自以为通晓心理学、社会机制，于是可以指点江山，分分钟YY出一个颠覆世界的点子…… 我有些怀念起土木工程，大家踏踏实实做事，没这么浮躁。 3. 那么，我到底想做什么？ 根据自己的想法，去做出有价值的产品，帮助更多的人解决问题，这就够了

我觉得是lead without authority。之前完全没有意识到，也是接下来的学习的一个方向 [1] Paul Graham, Why Nerds are Unpopular [2] http://www.douban.com/photos/photo/2231490638/

《Cracking the PM Interview》读后感(三)：Strategy-Prioritization-Execution

1. Product Strategy:

1) Understand the context:

Understand the context of things. Be more inquisitive. Instead of telling people what to do or trying to make decisions, try to ask questions. Why is this the way it is？ Try to understand the context and history instead of being the new dictator of the team.

2) Customer focus:

Talk to your current customer, do a root cause analysis. Writing story-like user scenarios for the features you’re building is another way to develop customer focus. For these scenarios, put yourself in the customer’s shoes and imagine how the feature fits into the rest of their life. It might seem silly, but when you include details about the customer’s mindset, you can build products that fit into their lives better. I’d talk to users and potential users and try to find out what they wanted. There are some pretty good tools you can use to learn who your users are and create hypotheses about their desires and come up with ideas about what the solutions might be. There’s a methodology of storyboarding and personas coming from user research that you can learn.

3) Propose a narrative:

Put together a business case in a memo, also called a narrative. This document will cover the details of the recommendation and analysis that supports it, especially including numbers about the impact and rationale. Can you be trusted to make the right decisions？ Can you push through all of the potential roadblocks to deliver a great product？

4) Think big:

At some point in the development life cycle, you’ll have a chance to scale back, but you need to start big if you want to build a product that will have an impact. See if you can tie the benefits to fundamental human needs like safety, friendship, or self-esteem. Start your brainstorming with the phrase “If I had a magic wand...” Write down your practical objections, then keep going. Find a teammate to play the practical pessimist role in your brainstorming. Write yourself a reminder to always think big. Start your feature planning by writing the press release.

5) Things to change:

Walk in with some ideas for what you’d want to change or implement at the company. An understanding of major user complaints will give you a good place to start.

6) Form your own thought framework and decision making process

2. Prioritization:

1) Practice prioritization:

One of the biggest changes in moving from design to product management is becoming responsible for prioritization. As a PM, you’ll be responsible for shipping the product, which means avoiding feature creep and scoping the implementation as you get more information from engineering on the costs.

2) Constantly evaluate trade-offs:

Evaluating products and teams, figuring out which ones to invest time and resources in, and calculating return on investment. It was great training for a critical mindset and for having to constantly think about tradeoffs and opportunity costs.

3) Balance offense and defense projects appropriately:

Offense projects are ones that grow the business. Defense projects are ones that protect and remove drag on the business (operations, reducing technical debt, fixing bugs, etc.).

3. Execution:

1) Being scrappy and make impossible possible:

Being scrappy is about being resourceful and finding ways to succeed when the traditional processes aren’t going to work. For example, if you find that engineers are reluctant to fix UI bugs, you might come up with a contest that motivates them.

2) Launch is important, so pick one with short life cycle:

The product life cycle varies in length from team to team. When you’re starting out, you can pick up experience more quickly by finding teams with shorter launch cycles.

3) Simplify:

A 1% PM knows how to get 80% of the value out of any feature or project with 20% of the effort. They do so repeatedly, launching more and achieving compounding effects for the product or business.

4) Promotion:

Successfully launch something is a great opportunity for promotion.

5) Communicate/broadcast the work you do:

In a big company you really need people above you who will allocate resources and get conflicting projects to be on your side, so messaging what you are achieving becomes important.

Types of Work:

1. Communication:

1) Pervasive communication: Data + Christina

As an engineer, it’s better to prove things through data than charisma. As a product manager, you need to master both. First use data to establish credibility, and be certain about your conclusion.

Find data support: as a PM, you need to become comfortable with finding data that convinces people. That data is sometimes from product metrics, sometimes from user research, and sometimes from competitive analysis.

2) Define and measure success:

One way to really stand out as a PM is to get more concrete about what success means for your team. Step back and ask 2 questions: If you’re interviewing to be a PM, it’s good to look at every problem starting with “Who is the customer？” and “What is success？”

3) A 1% PM can make a case that is impossible to refute or ignore. They’ll use data appropriately, when available, but they’ll also tap into other biases, beliefs, and triggers that can convince the powers that be to part with headcount, money, or other resources and then get out of the way.

4) Great PMs know how to channel different points-of-view. They play devil’s advocate a lot. They tend to be unsatisfied with simple answers.

5) Influence without authority

2. Credibility:

1) "Credibility is the currency of a PM,”

The most straightforward way to build credibility is delivering results. Over time they’ll start to see that you’re showing good judgment and getting things done, and they’ll feel comfortable trusting you. Another way to build credibility is paying attention to people’s perceptions of you and ensuring that you’re creating the perception you want. Make sure you’re building a reputation as a smart, skillful, competent, and dependable person with good judgment.

2) Become the expert:

But if you’re just passing questions to other people, you’re not really adding a lot of value. Instead, make sure you really take the time to become the expert on your areas and your customers.

3) Pick a growing team where you could be a senior member:

Pick a place where you can stay long enough that you’ve been on the team longer than most people. Think about how long you’re willing to stick with a product. You cannot speed up time, but you can choose a place where you’re more likely to become a senior member of the team.

4) Show value early on:

Another tip to get that tipping point early on is to demonstrate value to people. Make it so the fact that you’re there is driving something that wouldn’t happen if you weren’t there.

Clear thought framework and decision making process:

Make it clear to the people around you why you’re making a particular decision so they see that you’re consistent with your decisions. There’s nothing engineers hate more than subjective decisions that change from one day to another. If you develop that framework and those principles, it helps people realize that you are consistent.

5) Find a boss who believes in me:

At Google It was really important to me to have a manager who believed in me.

3. Design:

1) Design exercise:

You get thrown into a new problem like redesign a bookstore. With little guidance, you go out and talk to users, take pictures, come back and synthesize, prototype, and bring your prototype back to user to see how it works.

4. Get the stuff done:

1) Work is less tangible:

As a PM, you have to remember to look for it: I convinced this person, I got the team onboard, and so on.

2) Don’t just do what’s asked of you:

Get the job done. As a new PM, it can be tempting to think of your work in terms of deliverables such as proposals, specs, and analyses, and then to think you’re done once the document is written. Those documents aren’t your job; they’re just the tools you use to get results.

3) Side project:

One of the best ways to improve your candidacy for a product management position is to start a side project. Start taking on some PM work, even without the title. Take on other types of leadership and coordination work.