Excelling as a Product Manager ft. BetterCloud PM

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Nkem Nwankwo, Senior Product Manager at BetterCloud, describes what he does to excel as a Product Manager. Nkem has over 5 years of experience as a PM. His educational background consists of a B.S. in Computer Science from Georgia Tech and MBA from Ross School of Business.

Some of the areas that Nkem touches upon include:

What Nkem focuses on - Ruthless prioritization, Time Management, Stakeholder management, Personal management

For prioritization, Nkem uses a whiteboard that forces him to focus on only the most important items each day

How he comes to office 3 hours before everyone else to get work done

How he does not go for meetings unless explicitly asked to

How having an understanding of the informal networks in your organization can really help get things done - since a lot of this job requires influencing people

Staying up to date with the industry and exposing himself to new ideas through reading and listening to podcasts

How you can add value in a variety of ways as a PM - being technical is not necessary. Eg: You can excel at communication and a thorough understanding of the user.