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07 Dec 2009, 01:56
Kudos
Bookmarks
Thanks kryzak! That's a really helpful post. I shall figure out how to give kudos and use it 
.
Product management sounds like a very fun but equally tough job.. even though it does not have the grueling working hours like IB or the insane travelling schedules like MC, but you really need to come up with new & interesting ideas, convince people to accept your idea and go out of your way to get engineers to deliver it, and then make sure people use and like your product -- I think in this case you must have tons of passion for the product/technology itself in order to follow through. Btw, is there a so-called "career path" for product manager? (e.g. within x years you are expected to become "senior product manager"??).
I am now half way through writing the essays. I think it's gonna be too rushed to make it for round 2. So I will submit in Round 3. It's also better because I will have a chance to meet up with adcom and Haas students/alumni on the 10 Dec for an information session. Hope I can have more material to write in the "What have you done to learn about Haas" essay.
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. Product management sounds like a very fun but equally tough job.. even though it does not have the grueling working hours like IB or the insane travelling schedules like MC, but you really need to come up with new & interesting ideas, convince people to accept your idea and go out of your way to get engineers to deliver it, and then make sure people use and like your product -- I think in this case you must have tons of passion for the product/technology itself in order to follow through. Btw, is there a so-called "career path" for product manager? (e.g. within x years you are expected to become "senior product manager"??).
I am now half way through writing the essays. I think it's gonna be too rushed to make it for round 2. So I will submit in Round 3. It's also better because I will have a chance to meet up with adcom and Haas students/alumni on the 10 Dec for an information session. Hope I can have more material to write in the "What have you done to learn about Haas" essay.
Posted from my mobile device
07 Dec 2009, 03:52
Kudos
Bookmarks
Ok I have figurred out what is the career path for product manager. In Microsoft it is a typical corporate ladder path:
Program Manager (PM) >> PM2 >> Senior PM >> Principle PM >> Architect >> Partner >> Director >> VP >> President. 6 levels to make Partners.. Quite a long winded path!!
Posted from my mobile device
Program Manager (PM) >> PM2 >> Senior PM >> Principle PM >> Architect >> Partner >> Director >> VP >> President. 6 levels to make Partners.. Quite a long winded path!!
Posted from my mobile device
07 Dec 2009, 07:03
Kudos
Bookmarks
baobabt
I'm a R1 Haas applicant and my focus is product management for my short my short terms goals. This are my views on the product management track in the high-tech sector.
Product Management can broadly be classified as two tracks. Kryzak puts it across really well - Internal and External. External is the product marketing, consumer behaviour and market research aspects of product management. These areas of product management are more academic and well set and courses in Marketing will teach you these business functions.
The most interesting part of product management (IMO) is the internal aspects. This role really depends on the product company. In the case of a well established company like Microsoft, product management is similar to project management and the product manager will have to deliver incremental updates to existing products. Very rarely will new product managers be handed new products to develop from scratch. Of course in a company like Google, you can always utilize your 20% time to come up with great new products but Google is an outlier.
When it comes to (internal) product management in startups, its a totally different ball game. A product manager's role is more entrepreneurial in this case. Not only is he going to be involved in every aspect of product management but he might also have to roll up and his sleeves and get his hands dirty with engineering (which is more fun!). The engineering work here could be evaluation of technology or validating the architecture and design of a system engineering comes up with. In this case, the role is also more strategic in terms of defining the product roadmap, identifying consumer patterns and even financial planning. A mixture of marketing and strategy courses would be the right mix for such a product manager.
A product manager role is a good path to get into Venture Capital or the first step to be an entrepreneur in the high-tech sector. If you are interested in the VC career path, product managers would normally function as subject matter experts within a VC firm helping out budding entrepreneurs with their product and market strategy. For budding entrepreneurs, product management experience teaches you how to create a product that has "market fit".
Haas is perfect for product managers. A general management MBA combined with the MoT program gives the right flexibility for a product manger to either function as a program/project manager in a large company or take an entrepreneurial route to product management. Not to mention the location.
