Articles by Brent Tworetzky
Product Manager Skills By Seniority Level — A Deep BreakdownBrent provides a walkthrough of the product management career ladder at XO Group, which has 5 levels and more than 60 skills across 7 skill groups: Strategic Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, Technicals, Details & Quality, User Science & Empathy, and Management.
- Product Manager Skills By Seniority Level — A Deep Breakdown
Brent provides a walkthrough of the product management career ladder at XO Group, which has 5 levels and more than 60 skills across 7 skill groups: Strategic Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, Technicals, Details & Quality, User Science & Empathy, and Management.
Interviewing Product ManagersBrent provides suggestions for interview questions mapped to product manager skills, including: • Evaluating Will: “Tell me what the job is you’re applying for, and why it’s a great fit for your career.” • Evaluating Skill: “Walk me through a successful major project you were heavily involved in, and tell me about your role throughout the project.” • Evaluating Conflict: “How do you make decisions when disagreeing with exec team members or key stakeholders? How do you manage conflict in these situations?”
- Product Management Careers: Levels, Career Growth, and Promotions
Brent lays out the rationale for having a strong career pathing and promotion system. He then provides three principles for how to design a product management career ladder: 1) Objectivity: Make sure the system is used across everyone on the team, in the same way 2) Transparency: Make sure the team understands the levels, take in any feedback, and review each team member's progression regularly 3) Support: Ask each team member about their short- and long-term career goals, and regularly create plans for which skills to develop
