Yesterday a “gold nine silver ten”, product manager interview preparation manual, I believe that has helped a lot of students preparing to quit.


However, in view of the “pits” in the enterprise, it is also very important for product people to learn how to choose offer.




After a successful interview, one will usually receive at least one offer. Unless we have a clear positioning, such as going to a unicorn enterprise, going to BAT or going home for development, we can objectively compare the following five points after receiving the offer


  • salary

  • The company benefits

  • Company industry

  • The product status

  • Team work atmosphere


The five dimensions are objective except 1, 2 and 3. 4, 5 but we need to seriously through the peer friends or inquire to understand, of course, the interview can also understand


As the saying goes: “the ideal is full, the reality is the backbone”, we every job-hopping for better treatment and development opportunities. However, in addition to remuneration, product status and team working atmosphere have become the two most serious factors affecting our resignation.


996. Staying up all night, making major changes to the product (resulting in wasted effort), clear political relations between the team, and lack of learning atmosphere are some of the reasons for leaving the product people.


Based on my personal experience, I suggest product students to use some skills to avoid pitfalls when choosing offers. Of course, as job seekers, we can only avoid choosing the offer of pits. Every company has pits, but the size of pits you can accept.


It’s like the wall effect. Those inside want to get out and those outside want to get in


Understand product status


Basic information about product status can be learned during the interview. But it is important to note that the basic information must be positive. If it is too negative, the interviewer will worry about “scaring you away”.


Because recruitment is also a KPI for the enterprise, if you are scared away. “That’s a lot to ask for! Cause the person THAT I give you old unqualified “.


Product status, it is suggested that product students choose offer from the following aspects:


  • Product life cycle


To put it bluntly, we should know what kind of product we are responsible for. If you are not already online, congratulations, you may encounter experience cases from 0 to 1. If you’re thinking about growth, congratulations, maybe product growth or functional iteration optimization needs will be your main focus.


  • The line of business in which the product resides


Understanding the business lines of your product will help you understand how your current product will fit into your company’s future. Within the company’s product line, there must be core and non-core (exploratory) product lines. In a core product line, you can reduce the number of business changes or department changes that occur within a year or two of entry. Moreover, the core business line usually represents the resource concentration of the company, and both the revenue and the resources that can be traded will be more flexible and desirable


  • Product team structure and resources


I once met a product student. After entering the company, I found that my designer or developer was in another place, and only the product staff was in Shenzhen. As a result, the cost of communication was very high, and the cost of product demand was also much higher. Finally, the student chose to quit. (Less than 1 month after entry)


When we choose offe, the product personnel must try their best to select the opportunities of the team in their own place of work.


Resources refer to the capital and development and design resources invested by the company. Some companies, because of their resources, have A UED department that allows product managers to focus on requirements design rather than interaction design.


Such a team will be more disciplined in the product development process, and it is important to know if the developers are working full-time on your product line, which is common for entrepreneurial projects or non-core product line projects.


I once met a product student, whose development was supported by other projects, and he was unable to participate in daily demand communication or development communication meetings. After all, someone else has their own full-time development job or project. The product was stillborn and abandoned before launch.


(To put it bluntly, performance is not up to you. Everyone else is in charge of performance.)





  • Product revenue status


Product revenue status, compared to the previous few, should be the easiest to understand.


  • Is the product currently profitable?



  • What is the current user base for the product?



  • Which product line is the main source of the product team’s flow?


These are some of the questions THAT I would recommend mentioning in an interview. But some interviewers will consider the company’s privacy and won’t reveal details of their business. But will give general direction


“We already have enough water to feed the team.”


“It’s still under development, not ready for market.”


“From XX company or XX products, we focus on product development”



.



Gathering this kind of information can help you generally predict whether your team will be stable before you make a choice. What about future earnings? , etc.




  • Future development of products


The future development of the product can be understood in two aspects


  • Future development of the team


  • For example, whether the team will increase the number of people, the expansion of the team organizational structure


“We will add 3 product managers in the future.”


“Products will be split into e-commerce system, order system and logistics system.”


  • Future planning of products


To put it bluntly, future product planning is the product work you will be responsible for. After understanding the work you will be responsible for, you can evaluate your interest and the difficulty level of competence.


For example, “We hope to be responsible for customer service system design to meet the needs of XX user groups.”


If you’ve worked on customer service systems before, this product planning is obviously easy to follow. For the product manager, the same module has the same standard, but is attached to the latest business system



Team work atmosphere



Team working atmosphere can also be learned in the interview information. But as with product revenue, the interviewer will only give out positive information or better yet, neutral information.


“Our team takes two days off, but occasionally asks to work overtime and leave after 9pm.”


“Can you handle working overtime? We are online recently, we will require overnight online, but we can adjust the rest.”


“I need to be able to work overtime during the 2-month project”


.



Such information is either positive or neutral. In addition to overtime work, the working atmosphere of the team can also include the distribution of educational background, daily learning status and age status of the team.


Of course, different teams are needed for different job seekers. Some people don’t even need to care about the team atmosphere and just want to do their job



But actually, the people we work with in terms of product managers, the people we work with are probably upstream and downstream. There will be a lot of daily contact, so good colleagues, including the team atmosphere and the quality of colleagues, can help you to convey a positive atmosphere at work, “reduce your desire to leave”.



Accept on pit


Every company has a pit, it can’t be avoided. Even BAT, such a giant enterprise, will have its own internal problems. When choosing offer, product people must pay attention to what they don’t like.


State-owned enterprises: good welfare, stable company


Giant enterprises: endorsement, good welfare


Small business: the development potential of the future is big, maybe life is a winner


Whether you can accept the status quo of the team or the enterprise will affect your attitude after joining the company. Some students quit within a week after joining the company due to the problem of stepping in the hole, and start to look for a new job. In fact, this will make them lose energy and even financial resources (such as year-end bonus).



Through the above five points, people who believe in products should reduce their stomp pits and work hard after choosing offers.


Instead of trying to find new opportunities?