š“ A chat with Anshumani Ruddra
In this monthās issue of Straight from the horseās mouth, we spoke with Anshumani Ruddra. Anshumani has spent the last 17 years crafting experiences and products for users: first as an author of childrenās books, followed by stints as a game designer on some of the worldās largest social games (Mafia Wars, Cafe World) and then as a product manager across various consumer tech businesses (gaming, messaging, healthcare, education, media and fintech) in India, and globally. He is currently the app PM Lead for Google Pay.
Anshumani believes that magic happens at the intersection of things (tech, storytelling, media, pop-culture, human behaviour) and thrives on the insights he gathers and the experiences he builds at these intersections.
Q. How can product managers measure the impact they have on their organizations?
Product managers can measure their impact on their organizations in a number of ways:Ā
The quality of your artefacts (PRDs, one-pagers, memos) - these are necessary for your internal customers - your engineers and designers.
The quality of the vision you have set for the product and your ability to answer: āwhy are we building what we are building and why would users careā
The quality of your decision making - how you prioritize and pick the right problems to solve.Ā
If you do the above you increase the chances of your product becoming successful. And that as they say is the proof of the pudding.Ā
Q. Many product managers, as they reach mid-career, tend to hit a glass ceiling. What do you think goes wrong?
The middle years in product management can be harsh. You are trying to influence decisions in your organization while simultaneously creating an impact on your product and managing a team (something you have never done before). All of this while trying to figure out the next steps in your career. This potpourri is a recipe for disaster.Ā
Q. What advice do you have for them?
Use the tools and frameworks you have learnt over the years and product manage your career. Most people donāt view careers as problems to be solved - but they are.Ā
Q. When you look to hire senior product managers in your team, what are the top three things you look for?
Level of ownership - building a thesis, translating it into a vision and then executing - they have displayed on previous products
Ability to work across and with multiple internal and external stakeholders
The ability to spend time in the problem space (as opposed to the solution space)
Q. What's a super tough situation you have faced as a PM leader, and how did you go about handling it?
I think tactics and execution are easier to pivot from. You should be pragmatic and think of these as a sunk cost. Things become complicated when you have to pivot on strategy - because by then it is usually too late. Always focus on getting your long-term strategy right. Everything else follows from that.Ā
Q. What are some tools/templates/frameworks for a PM to build a business case for a new feature/product and get buy-in from senior stakeholders?
PMs should follow the Why, How and What framework.
Why should we build this and why would users care: this is your strategyĀ
How would we go about building this product and solving this problem: these are your tactics
What will we do to ship this product: this is the realm of executionĀ
If PMs can articulate the above three - there is no reason why they wouldnāt get buy-in.Ā
We ā„ļø feedback! If you enjoyed reading this conversation, do let us know by hitting the ā„ļø. If youād like to suggest questions that you want answered, in this series of straight from the horseās mouth, š§ : parvathithepm@gmail.com