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Available times (30 mins)
πAbout me
I first learned about product management while working with product managers as a business analyst at Amazon. The PMs on the team took me under their wing, and they showed me the ropes on how to become an effective PM. Iβve seen firsthand the power of mentorship, and I want to give that back to others
Product Management
Skilled in
User Research & Interviewing
Stakeholder Management
Requirements + Specification
βοΈWhy I mentor
I enjoy helping aspiring product managers break into tech companies. Iβve done some form of tutoring or mentoring for the better part of the last 15 years. I enjoy giving back to others and Iβm passionate about the education space
Talk to me about
π« Breaking into tech
π°οΈ Working remotely for the first time
π Writing docs people will read
π½ Presenting your work
π Dealing with imposter syndrome
π» Running effective meetings
π Launching products and measuring success
π©π½βπ» Launching side projects
π Product vision and strategy
π° Negotiating a promotion/offer
π Mock interviewing
π Resume and portfolio review
π― Setting team goals and metrics
π Year One in Product
π¬ Useful user research
π€ Prototyping that works
π Working in cross functional teams
π©βπ©βπ¦βπ¦ Team happiness & productivity
π£ Becoming a people manager
π¬ Giving and receiving feedback
π Preparing for the next level
π Getting the most out of my internship
Recommendations
Hereβs what Merit users have said about Nikil
Compani AI
Co-Founder Β· 1-15 employees
βοΈ Recent Answers
How can I improve my skills as a product manager?
Congrats on making the transition! Coming from a technical background, I would say your engineering peers are going to respect your ability to do the work and your empathy for their role. As a PM, you'll want to ensure you are still focusing on the business value and the why and not telling engineering how to build things.
From a general standpoint, the hardest skills transition to are influencing without authority, and communicating a vision to get buy-in from different stakeholders. Some of the best resources are Stratechery for really understanding business strategy, and Lenny's Newsletter for understanding the execution and strategic elements of Product Management. A few great books to check out are Inspired by Marty Cagan, Product Management in Practice by Matt LeMay, and Influence by Robert Cialdini.
Rallying your teams and inspiring and motivating them to achieve great things is one of the hardest parts of product management, but when you are able to get better at this, you'll find the rest of the role becomes easier too. Hope this helps!
