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Benefits of Morning Huddle

Reduced Interruptions: Being available at a certain time and place every day for 10 minutes with the team can eliminate multiple interruptions throughout your day. Rather than four people dropping by your office randomly to ask a question, or spending time composing a lengthy email to explain a situation, or scheduling a 30-minute meeting to discuss a 2-minute issue, people can save it for the huddle.

Streamlined Communication: Instead of repeating the same story six times to six different people, you know you’ll have the attention of the whole team at least every 24 hours. Sure, you can accomplish the same with an email, but some things need to be communicated in person. Do it in the huddle and you’ll know that everyone heard the same thing, the same way, at the same time.

Corrected misinformation: Your instructions to your team were crystal clear… to you. Everyone nodded and got right to work. But so many times, different people interpret things differently. Every time a team member shares their priorities for the day, you have an opportunity to understand better the details of what they’re doing. This frequent check in will help you catch misunderstandings much quicker.

Reduced Rework: How many times have you received one last piece of information after you finished a project that caused you to have to redo your work? Knowing what your teammates are working on and when it becomes their top priority causes the whole team to reflect on any information or resource they have that could be helpful to that person. This greatly reduces the chances the information will be received after the project is finished.

Increased Positive Momentum: Sharing victories from the previous day may seem a little “rah-rah” to some, but never underestimate the power of one piece of good news. Hearing victories, however minor, from teammates can go a long way in lifting the spirits of someone who may be struggling or worried. Please don’t skip this important part of the agenda.

Improved Team Health: It’s easy for people to become so focused on their one piece of the puzzle that they forget they’re part of something bigger. Without the Daily Huddle, certain teammates could go a whole week or even longer without seeing each other. The Daily Huddle keeps the team connected. And no matter how brief the interaction may be, this frequency of face time (or voice time for virtual teams) goes a long way toward maintaining healthy team dynamics.

Know the value of the morning huddle for technical program managers and why it is important to deliver multiple complex projects and scale their operations to stay ahead of the curve.

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Career Path of a Technical Program Manager

Given the increased demand for this role, Technical Program Managers is an excellent career choice for candidates with a technical aptitude, looking to bring advancements to organizations and those who like managing teams and taking ideas to completion.

Whether you're an aspirant looking to get into the world of Technical Program Management, or someone in the mid-level position, or even someone who's a Senior Technical Project Manager - this article will help you understand what next steps you can take. Here are five things that you should know regarding the career path of a Technical Program Manager.

Knowing about the career path of a Technical Program Manager is extremely important for landing a TPM job. Read this article and get to know the TPM ladder from top to bottom.

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Crafting Stories for Interviews

Have a few stories that can be applied to as many behavioral questions as possible

Provide a quick one-sentence summary of the story to lead the interviewer

Provide context and background to illustrate the importance of your story

Talk about your role and approach

Explain the impact you had on the situation and how the situation was a net-positive for the team and business

Share what you learned about the situation

Keep the story to as few sentences as possible and try to make it a two-way dialogue

Know how to frame the perfect personal story that makes the interviewers believe that you're the right fit and helps you land product management job.

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What Does a Google Product Manager Do?

When it comes to conceptualizing, launching, and scaling revolutionary products, no other tech company does it better than Google. From Gmail to Google cloud, all of their products have found their way into our lives. And behind each of those brilliant ideas, there’s a Google product manager empowering it.

The product managers at Google work day and night to ensure the swift execution of tasks needed to keep those ideas alive (and new ones coming). While the role is definitely challenging, it’s also one of the most rewarding jobs on the planet.

For that reason, the candidates have to face grueling competition from their peers.

Become a Google product manager by mastering the most difficult interview questions asked at the product manager interview at Google.

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Cracking the System Design Interview

These three things must be at the centre of your focus if you want to crack the system design interview:

Consider your interviewer as a team member and take this round as an opportunity to work with him where you both are supposed to solve a real-world problem related to your company’s goal but here you need to take the ownership and lead everything.

The main purpose of this round is to understand how capable you are of building a large-scale system and your thought process behind designing a service. Clarity of thoughts matter a lot because if you can explain it to the interviewer, you can do this in your team as well.

One of the good things for you in this round is that you are supposed to come up with the best solution for all kinds of open-ended problems instead of accurate solutions. Your ability to articulate your thought matters more than the final design you present to them.

Look at this comprehensive breakdown of a system design interview to answer all the system design interview questions and step up your software career.

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Typical Product Cycle

Introduction: Your product may still be in development and your marketing goals focus on generating awareness and motivating users to sign up and purchase.

Growth: A sharp increase in users and sales. You’re adding new product features and looking to capture more market share from your competitors.

Maturity: The height of your product’s adoption and profitability. Your goal here is to sustain revenue and your position in the market.

Decline: New user sign-ups and revenue begins to decrease. Here, your focus should be to earn new sales from fence-sitters and consider new revenue streams.

Get to know the key ingredients of an impeccable product launch strategy that maximizes the success of your product and unlocks unimaginable growth.

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Writing Exercise in Amazon TPM Interview

Written communication is crucial for Amazon’s company culture. No matter the job profile you look at, you’ll definitely find writing work in some form or the other. As a result of this, Amazon includes a writing assessment in their interview process to gauge the writing skills of their candidates.

This writing exercise at Amazon consists of two written questions that are asked to all candidates before their on-site interviews. The candidates are asked to choose one of the two questions, write the subjective answer, and mail their response at least 2 days prior to the on-site interview.

Your response for these questions should not be longer than 4 pages, and ideally should be 2 pages long. Anything more than 2 pages is likely to bore the reviewer, considering the number of submissions they have to read!

Master the writing exercise in the Amazon TPM interview to land a job as a technical program manager at Amazon.

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Writing a Product Manager Resume

So when you’re ready to start looking for a new job, chances are you’re bringing a pretty impressive skill set to the table. “High performing product managers tend to be curious, organized, and self-aware. They’re great at breaking down complex problems, prioritizing use cases, and designing solutions,” says Lucy Chen, a career coach and product manager who’s worked at companies including LinkedIn and Facebook. “They excel at setting clear, measurable goals and leading cross-functional teams to deliver meaningful outcomes.” As a product manager, you’re also skilled in gathering information, interpreting data, identifying opportunities, connecting teams, assigning resources, and delivering results.

The big challenge: How do you show off all those skills and experience in a resume?

Because product managers are so multitalented, it might be tempting to include all of your past responsibilities and career achievements on your resume. But an overly stuffed resume isn’t the goal. “Your resume’s job is to secure you an interview, not explain everything you’ve ever done,” Davis says. Think of your resume as a highlight reel, rather than a comprehensive representation of all the things you’re capable of.

Take a look at these product manager resume tips for making the perfect resume for product managers which communicates your strengths effectively.

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Product Prioritization

Product prioritization isn’t just about making a stack of features in a certain order—it also involves juggling the many inputs and opinions of stakeholders. Narrowing that list of demands and feature requests for a sprint or a product roadmap is one of the most challenging parts of a product manager’s job.

Another prioritization challenge product managers face is knowing how many team members, stakeholders and customers they should involve, and to what degree they should vote on which features, tasks and updates you’ll work on next.

Ideally, good product prioritization frameworks allow you to silence the voice of the loudest person in the room using quantitative rankings, charts, and matrices with values that are directly tied to your customer feedback and product strategy.

Tackle prioritization questions in product management interviews with ease by getting to know some highly-effective prioritization frameworks.

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Understanding and Analyzing a Coding Problem

It doesn’t matter if you have seen the question in the past or not, read the question several times and understand it completely. Now, think about the question and analyze it carefully. Sometimes we read a few lines and assume the rest of the things on our own but a slight change in your question can change a lot of things in your code so be careful about that. Now take a paper and write down everything. What is given (input) and what you need to find out (output)? While going through the problem you need to ask a few questions yourself…

Did you understand the problem fully?

Would you be able to explain this question to someone else?

What and how many inputs are required?

What would be the output for those inputs

Do you need to separate out some modules or parts from the problem?

Do you have enough information to solve that question? If not then read the question again or clear it to the interviewer.

Take a look at these effective tips on how to approach and solve coding questions successfully and land your dream job.

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Landing a Product Manager Job at Amazon

Landing a PM job at Amazon is a difficult undertaking. Dozens of hopeful candidates have reported that the interview process can be grueling and last anywhere from several weeks to several months.

An informative post on InterviewSteps, whose contributors come from companies like Google, Microsoft, and AT&T, walks you through the key areas to focus on when you prepare for an Amazon product management interview.

According to the post, Amazon might throw you a few technical questions during a product management interview, but their real interest is in finding PMs who are smart, strategic thinkers who truly understand Amazon’s customer-centric approach to everything.

What Does Amazon Look for in a PM?

Your ability to influence and lead a cross-functional team (including engineers)

Your ability to think big and innovate

Your ability to deliver results

Your ability to take total ownership of your products

Your ability to communicate effectively and concisely

Land one of the Product Management Jobs at Big Tech by leaving no stone unturned with your interview preparation. Know about some of the most common reasons for failure at PM interviews at Big Tech.

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Landing a Product Manager Job at Google

Google looks for versatility, hiring primarily product management “generalists” rather than specialized PMs with deep but narrow experience. Google’s recruiters are looking more broadly for PMs who are strategic thinkers with a strong mix of both technical understanding and business knowledge.

Specific product knowledge seems relatively low on Google’s wish-list for a new PM. This is because Google likes to develop product teams that are flexible and can bring fresh ideas and perspectives to multiple products over time. In an email to PM candidates, Google explains it wants product managers who “can easily float through our evolving product lines.

Land one of the Product Management Jobs at Big Tech by leaving no stone unturned with your interview preparation. Know about some of the most common reasons for failure at PM interviews at Big Tech.

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Amazon's Leadership Principles

During Amazon's behavioral section of the interview, your interviewer will be particularly focused on how your answers demonstrate an alignment with Amazon's Leadership Principles.

Amazon is well known for its strict adherence to the management principles laid out by its CEO. The company has 14 leadership principles, that its employees, and the company itself, are expected to uphold.

These are:

Customer Obsession

Ownership

Invent & Simplify

Are Right, A lot

Learn and Be Cautious

Hire and Develop the Best

Insist on the Highest Standards

Think Big

Bias for Action

Frugality

Earn Trust

Dive Deep

Have Backbone; Disagree & Commit

Deliver Results

Crack the Amazon behavioral interview with ease by following this excellent interview preparation guide.

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What are Behavioral Interview Questions?

Well, you may have already guessed, but they're the questions focused on gleaning info on your past behavior and performance in earlier positions. Companies like Amazon include these questions because they reveal quite a bit about you.

Based on your answers, they can deduce what kind of skills you have, how you may perform as an employee, and how well you'd mesh well into the Amazon workplace culture.

They also clue your interviewer into how you think, and if you demonstrate something called "Leadership Principles,".

Some examples of Amazon behavioral interview questions include:

What was your most creative idea?

What's an example of a time that a project failed?

Walk me through a time you didn't agree with your manager?

Crack the Amazon behavioral interview with ease by following this excellent interview preparation guide.

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Responsibility Of A Technical Program Manager (TPM)

Generally works embedded in a development team

Enabling the team to launch various features.

He leads the sprints, gathers requirements from the product managers.

Sets up architectural reviews with teams consuming the service.

Manages the KPIs the team is responsible for.

Helps out in on-call and escalations.

Responsible for all communication and is the sole face of the team

Knowing about the career path of a Technical Program Manager is extremely important for landing a TPM job. Read this article and get to know the TPM ladder from top to bottom.

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How a Technical Program Manager Career Path Levels Are Determined:-

IMPACT – The level of impact though hard to measure is the main yardstick. Look around you, look at people a level up or at your same level and access the impact of the programs they own and run.

The Technical Program Manager brings to the Team and the organization as a whole. Understand the holistic approach of running a program.

Owning and driving critical and high visibility and high-risk Projects / Programs.

Knowing about the career path of a Technical Program Manager is extremely important for landing a TPM job. Read this article and get to know the TPM ladder from top to bottom.

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Product management vs. project management

Product managers and project managers often get confused. Though the two managers often work closely together, their roles are distinct.

An easy way to think of it is that the product manager is the CEO of the product. They oversee everything product related from setting strategy, prioritizing releases, and championing the customer. Their job covers the entire lifecycle of the product.

On the other hand, a project manager typically works on projects within this ecosystem. Their projects are time-bound and are often set by the product manager or another business leader.

Their goal is to finish a project on time and within budget, ultimately helping the product manager deliver on their larger initiatives. Once a project is complete, the project manager moves on to the next initiative.  

Knowing about the product manager career path is extremely important for landing a product manager job. Read this article and get to know the product management ladder from top to bottom.