In recent times we've heard how university grads have managed to use a combination of research & product sense to solve a problem for an org & went on to bag big job offers.
PM jobs seem to be getting to that slowly.
#prodmgmt #productmanagement #sidehustle #interviews #job
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There could be nothing other than a "primary slot" when it comes to the significance of a "side hustle" over preparing for those big PM interviews, although going purely by the nomenclature alone fails to highlight that magnitude & aura around it all.
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Over my recent article "A Side Hustle" I've described the steps underlining the importance of building something of a product / feature over even getting as close to bagging that coveted PM interview from your favorite org.
Here's the link:
mgmtinc.substack.com/p/a-side-hustle
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Over this thread, we'll get into the pragmatic side of it over a case study by:
- firstly, choosing a side hustle &
- then concentrating on aspects that are relevant & ought to matter
- the evolution across stages as we advance over the PLC phases
So, let's dive in.
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CASE STUDY:
You come across an open position for a PM role at a growth-stage Fintech org whose vision is to make higher education accessible by way of providing loans sans collaterals.
So, lets' go over building on those 6 points now.
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1. RELEVANCE
It goes without saying that the whole idea of your side hustle ought to be totally relevant to that job & the org you're applying for & also the markets.
Here "product management" & "fintech" ought to be your catchphrases on top of which you've got to build.
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- you've got to get down carrying out some basic research beyond the most popular secondary research channel that is "google"
For ex: A fintech org offering educational loans focusing on universities "ABROAD ONLY".
- why is that?
- why not local ones in the same league?
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- you could spend time over understanding how they recover those loans from the students
- say they offer flexi-EMIs once students land job offers
- with a strategy focused on vertical scaling you could think of a few of those ideas which could help them go a full circle
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"How"?
By simply proposing any of / combination of these:
- university tie-ups
- exchange programs
- setting aspirations (choice of orgs. one would want to work at post graduating)
- upskilling via testing & auto-suggestive bridge courses
- stage-wise mentoring, hand-holding
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2. PURPOSE
There could be tons of great ideas generated & for all one knows internal teams might have had them long ago, but they may not have thought it worthy of a go-ahead.
The purpose of side-hustle has to be very clear as you start out & what ought to define it.
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Is it
- to generate tons of ideas & build an idea backlog for teams to brainstorm over? or
- to pick one idea & analyze how that'd add value in the current scheme of things? or
- to factor the understanding of the users, problems & prioritize the one that's viable & feasible?
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Over our example, say the org. already has 5,000 students to whom loans have been provided
Now, goes without saying that one of your purposes ought be to think of vertically scaling that number from 5K - 10K (2x growth)
But how?
You could ideate over that for a bit.
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- you could interface with students & ask some of them as to what hindered them from applying for those loans?
- also, most people in the world love guarantees, so does this course provide a guarantee placement in the end?
- can you get your hands on the orgs. track record?
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Supposing the responses point to a "lack of awareness", then your purpose could clear-up:
- "to build awareness in the targeted space"
- focus on age groups 21 - 25
- aspirations start early, so start from the young ones (age groups 14 - 20) with a long-term horizon
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3. GOALS / SUCCESS CRITERIA
Once the clarity is established on the purpose, the goals & the inherent success criteria ought to follow suit naturally.
Given our example:
the goal is:
- to build awareness amongst all the targeted user groups
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the success criteria could then be a direct extension and be defined as:
- 15x📈 impressions across all platforms
- 7x📈 no. of hits on the product page
- 5x📈 sign-ups &
- finally 3x📈 conversion
(assuming, the awareness in your sample space pointed to a measly low of 20%)
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One question one may have here is:
- what about the solution as in Design, UX, Development et. al.?
Do spend some time over the design & UX.
But please restrict yourself to building Low-Fi Mockups / Wireframes.
🚩 Never get into coding / front-end, back-end architecture.
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4. PRICING
Even if people are offered the moon, it will eventually boil down to one question:
- how much?
and with the desirability established it only makes sense to work out the feasibility & the viability of the entire proposition considering all those important figures.
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To offer a loan of say US$ 40,000 today & to give the borrower a leeway to start off EMI payments after a min. of 3 yrs is quite a calculation. You ought to:
- account it as contingent asset
- factor-in lost time sans any interest earned
- consider applying VAR interest rate
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- mean time to recovery (MTTR)
- credit standing / credit scores
- reward / loyalty points
- flexi-options like for instance "foreclosure & it's repercussions on both parties"
- refinancing options (if any & with all limitations included)
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5. VALUE CHAIN
Life just moves on, doesn't it?
Even if you did deliver the best product with an out-of-the-world UX you could still face churn & the need to factor it in.
So, you have to add continuous value & you ought to do that consistently across the value chain.
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With all your users perhaps staying & living abroad, the most important things you ought to do are:
- access the a/c info anytime anywhere via a click
- make it easy to communicate for queries - 24/7/365 support
- set-up SIs allowing for smooth overseas remittances
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6. FEEDBACK LOOP
The fallacy that people sometime back lived with was, "I have delivered the best & I can pat myself on the back for it's a job well done".
The most important thing that you ought to collect, filter, file, derive, factor-in is the feedback of your users.
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So, ensure you clearly spell out how you're going to set all those channels up.
1. customer-fronted teams
- support
- customer success
- sales, marketing
2. feedback
3. issues sorted team-wise (design, devs et. al.)
4. PM teams, ideas, prioritization
5. Refine & release
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When some of the ideas shared here could feel like they are the only path to take & the best solution to a problem / a given situation, please beware.
Success / failure is indicated by the metrics & prior to that it is just a workable model of a solution to a problem.
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Your best bet is to work with the data you have available on hand & making the best use of product sense coupled with acute sense of empathy for the users, using that experience you've had over the years to focus on building a something that could fit in well.
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That's it folks!
If you enjoyed reading this, please:
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Thanks for reading 🙏
Guru Prasad “TPW - The Product Web 🕸”
@BgpInv
Product Management (Fintech, B2B B2C SaaS PaaS); Leadership; Coined Solution State Model (SSM)-2014, Elevated Trapdoor-2014; Mentor & Advisor @ TPW;