Steffne (Stevie) Palmateer

We've had an EM role open on our team for several months. This is a post about everything we learned from why we haven't filled it yet. I'd love to get your help in filling it! 🤝 The role: - EM for our 0-to-1 team within Postman, with the goal of defining and winning our category for a new kind of API-level monitoring/observability tool. Our team came into Postman through an acquisition and we're now building the Postman version of our product, using the same tech. - Help scale our product and team from alpha into beta. We are a department with six engineers and approved headcount to grow a lot more in the next year. - The role is 60% prioritization/roadmap management, 40% building the team. The current team members are high-ownership, independent, founding engineer types. 🤔 Misconceptions, miscalibrations, and lessons: - Initially, the role was called "Senior Engineering Manager, Observability." Instead of getting the product engineering managers we were looking for, we primarily got interest from platform/infra EMs. We got thousands of inbound applications and spent months zeroing that out. 🙀 - Previously, our recruiters were sourcing a lot of folks with observability backgrounds. We've learned that since we're actually building a new kind of observability product, much more focused on UX, the profile we're looking for is product-focused rather than tech-focused. No observability experience required. - When people think Postman, they often think of our core product: the API client. So we were getting more interest from folks looking to scale a product, rather than 0-to-1 "I want to build a team and product" types. Postman actually has several other products, for instance testing and Flows, our no-code tool. There is a lot of interesting 0-to-1 work on our way to growing as a multi-product platform! - Some people have the perception that Postman isn't one of the high-growth companies because they're not seeing lots of their friends joining Postman. Postman has quadrupled since 2020, BUT a lot of the engineering growth has been in India. (Postman is the biggest SaaS company to come out of India!) Our team is part of a recent change to grow our US engineering presence. Many of us leaders across the company are looking for folks to join early cohorts of US-based product engineering and platform teams. 💡 What we've changed on our end: - We've deemphasized the "observability" part of the job and emphasized the "new product" and "product engineering" parts of the job. - We've also switched our own reachouts to look for people with product engineering experience at SaaS companies with product-led growth. 👩‍🚀 Help us find our EM! We now have a solid pipeline, but haven't yet made a hire. We'd love to hear from you if: - You have thoughts about how to improve our EM search. - You know someone we should meet. - You're a scrappy EM looking for an opportunity to build a new product while growing a team. Look forward to hearing from you!

67

8 Comments

👀 Hidden jobs! 👀 (Sorry/NotSorry for the clickbait title) 😎 I recently learned that there are many VC (Venture Capital) firms out there that maintain their own job boards for open positions at the companies that they invest in. This is a great resource to find openings at startups (and some pretty well established companies, too) that may not be listed here on LinkedIn or other boards. I thought it would be useful to put together a list of the ones I have found so far. If you are looking for work, check out my list! (A work in progress, but please repost and share). https://lnkd.in/gnQsb3H8 Oh and did I mention that I am #opentowork and looking for a new role in Engineering Management? Check out my profile and HMU if you've got something interesting! 🙏 Thanks!

4

1 Comment

Hey! NY HR professionals and recruiting agencies hiring for strategy, ops, bizdev roles in tech - this one is for you! ******** As part of NY Tech Week, we have nearly 300 registrations (and counting) of high caliber professionals from top consulting companies looking to get into tech. If you’re hiring for Strategy and Ops roles in tech, come join! We’ll make sure you’re approved on time for the event. If you need more info, feel free to drop me a private message on linkedin. For more information and to RSVP, visit: https://lu.ma/7nks6kk7 If you're seeing this post, don’t shy away - share/comment for visibility. We’re helping professionals transition from top consulting firms (Big 4, MBB, and other leading consultancies) into the tech industry. __________ FYI- if you’re looking to sponsor - whether recruitment agencies, HR tech companies, other tech companies, and MBA institutes - feel free to drop me a note as well #Networking #TechWeek #HR #Recruitment #Big4 #Strategy #Operations #NYTechWeek

13

2 Comments

Normally I'm a huge, huge fan of John Cutler and his newsletter, which you *should* subscribe to if you want to learn how to be an effective dev or PM. However, his missive yesterday is off the mark. What he's observing is 100% a failure of leadership. People can blame the tools all they want, but if you're not creating a culture that supports these principles they go nowhere. https://lnkd.in/gdCg3-VR #PMI #softwaredevelopment #productmanagement #agile

2

Product Rockstars in tech....It's not about strategy. It's not about frameworks. To play big...it's about the soft skills. Yep....your EQ is critical to level up and lead. You need to master the human side of work.  Treating people with respect Understanding how to communicate Executive presence Managing politics (yep...,I said it) Treating people as human beings To level up in the world of tech....it's about the human game. #productmanagement #techleaders #womenintech Are you ready to level up into leadership? Are you ready to learn how to play the human game? Respond with 'yes' and I'll send you my E-Book on The Next Generation of Leadership in Product

1

Product peeps - who are you using for incentive payments based on product feedback? As in take a survey, get paid cash. Or, agree to an interview with our Pm and get cash. Or, provide a product review and get cash?

There are so many sources of information out there for product managers on their job hunt that it can be overwhelming. One of the best that I've found is Ari Janover's page over at: https://lnkd.in/g_-8kuVg Ari is about as thoughtful and genuine person that you'll talk with and he knows how to cut to the chase and provide you with solid information whether you're a seasoned pro, looking to give new life to your search and an apiring product manager who is looking for that first opportunity. Check out his page and newsletter. I'm using his thoughts about creating a Bespoke Resume to help facilitate the conversations that I'm having with companies. Thanks, Ari! #productmanagement

3

1 Comment

My biggest fear as a product manager are Friday afternoon code deployments. 😄 Kidding (but really, please don’t). My actual biggest fear is that I’m not driving the value my teams and customers need from me. 🔗 As product managers, our job is to drive value for our product’s teams and customers. We aren’t necessarily the people who deliver the tangible results that our peers and customers see – a lot of what we do is traditionally “behind the scenes” work. It makes sense, product management is often seen as the bridge between business and technology, customers and solutions, etc. 💡 That’s where a lot of my fear comes from. I’ve felt it the first day I served as a product manager, I still feel it over a decade later even with a list of achievements saying otherwise. But fortunately, I’ve had the opportunity to work with coaches and mentors in the product space, each of which assure me that the feeling is normal. I recently had a conversation with a product manager from the MAANG space; several more years of experience than I and an even longer list of achievements. He, too, still holds a fear that he may not be driving value. But, he counters that fear with a few affirmations like these: “I am the reason my developers know what to build and why it matters.” “I am the reason my marketing and sales teams know who the product is for and how to engage them.” “I am the reason my product is solving a problem that people in my space want to solve in the first place.” 💭 Today, I still use affirmations to overcome my fears. They remind me that fear is “False Evidence Appearing Real.” What are you most afraid of as a product manager? How do you face your fear and overcome it? #productmanagement #productmanagers #impostersyndrome #fear #affirmations

3

Just wrapped up Marty Cagan's latest book, "Transformed," and I must say, it's an absolute pleasure. Excited to share two crucial (for me) insights on fostering a truly effective product operating team: 1/ Ensure your team has direct (direct!) access to stakeholders across various domains—legal, marketing, you name it—alongside regular user interviews and robust data from analytics systems. 2/ Challenge your team with problems to solve, not just features to build. It's about cultivating a problem-solving mindset that drives innovation and meaningful solutions. Useful tip: move from feature-based roadmap to outcome-based roadmap. Have you ever met truly product-led teams?

4

2 Comments

I'm not sure most people have wrapped their head around the impact AGI is going to have on insurance billing. All the crazy complex rules they design to make getting paid difficult are simple for LLMs to pick apart. I imagine their strategy for gatekeeping reimbursement etc. will need to shift. If you are doing any research in this space or are building this now let's connect, I find this topic incredibly interesting. #AGI #ArtificialIntelligence #InsuranceBilling #InsurTech #MachineLearning #AI #HealthcareBilling #TechInnovation #FutureOfInsurance #DataScience #Reimbursement #HealthcareTech #BillingSolutions #AIResearch #TechTrends #Innovation #StartupCommunity #Entrepreneurship

6

I recently heard someone talk through why being passionate about your craft shows up so strongly in the outcomes. This put me in a reflective mood about my industry and why I've been so highly engaged for the past 24 years. The mission matters  Effectively being the bank and accountant for growing businesses, I traditionally have focused on the business customers and the incredible opportunity that a well run ticketing platform can provide to a Promoter / Organizer / Creator (whatever you end up calling yourself). Earning my chops at a sales led company makes you customer focused in a way that is hard to describe - manic / unstoppable. More recently, a combination of working for Eventbrite and the pandemic has pulled the fan and artist into the forefront for me. The mission is the outcome of the live event experience. It's that feeling you have while on stage or in the audience. That spark of positivity that hangs with you after the event. Truly, bringing people together for live experiences. Technology at scale There have been a few times in my career when the impact and scale of what I do really popped for me. One of the first times I remember this happening was sitting in the quiet of the last row of the Colosseum in LA during EDC. Looking down at the main stage, the amusement rides, and the sea of people. Realizing that I processed most of these people's credit cards on the systems I had built.  Live events bring to the table such an interesting set of challenges to solve. Dealing with the traffic spike of an on sale. The war against the bots and fraudsters. The distribution, marketing integrations, relevancy, and audience matching of connecting the dots between interested fans and the event. The complexity of day of show and all the hardware integrations and transitions a "ticket" has taken over the years. The complexity of reporting and data export at scale and post event process of refunds, chargebacks, payouts. A blend of opportunity, curiosity, and passion has led me to most of the impactful innovations that I've driven. I know that every industry has some opportunities like that, but there is something special about the live events space that has kept me so engaged over all these years. For those folks who have been in the trenches with me in the past and especially for my team today that is pushing on some of the most interesting problems I've ever worked on... Thank you for letting me co-innovate with you in such an interesting and impactful industry.

91

7 Comments

Two things I’ve seen the best PMs do really well: 1. Creating hype: They get everyone in the organization excited about any initiative and align xfn teams. 2. Open-mindedness: They don’t get too attached to a specific idea. Instead, they take a step back, view things objectively, and obsessively gather feedback from as many people as possible. Kevin Anderson is one such awesome PM who has a genuine curiosity and infectious passion for Experimentation. I had a fireside chat with Kevin last week hosted by Statsig, where we discussed various topics, including the latest trends in experimentation, build vs. buy, reducing friction, measuring success, and so many insightful anecdotes that you can check out here: https://lnkd.in/gRgi4KDd #productmanagement #experimentation #data

23

2 Comments

When launching a new product I see alot of product managers wait until they're asked "how it's going", before thinking about what their metrics of success are. This is something that I learned as a new product manager when trying to get funding for my first product. Think about the metrics that are important both your company, as well as what is going delight the customer to the point that they're publicly championing your products and organization. #productmanagement #GTM #productlaunch #launchstrategy

4

How much does industry experience matter in Product Management? I'm hearing from a lot of folks who I mentor that they are getting great feedback through the interview process only to learn in the end that they didn't have enough industry experience to be hired. I take issue with two things here: 1. You can tell if someone has industry experience by their resume. If it's that important, then don't interview them. 2. I don't think industry experience is that important for most product manager jobs. If you are a talented product manager who has skills for discovery, developing strategy, and engaging stakeholders, then you are miles ahead of most product managers. This individual should be able to ramp within 3 months. By the way, if this is you, keep a look out for when I have roles available. But if you hire an industry expert who is lacking in product thinking, they will take much longer to learn the skills of the field. In the meantime, they are going to do a lot of damage as they do things like: - Trust their own opinion over seeking learnings in the market. - Build to please senior stakeholders. - Alienate the engineering team and lose their trust. I'd love to hear the thoughts of others on this topic.

82

16 Comments

Happy Wednesday from me and Santo! 👨‍💻 🐶 ❓ This month, I'm running a video series where I'll be answering some of the questions I get from product managers. If you have a question about product, shoot me a DM and let's chat! ✉ #productmanagement #productmanagers #careeradvice #askaquestion #askmeanything

7

Hey rockstars. MASSIVE NEWS. I am hosting a COMPLIMENTARY LIVE session for Product Mgmt Rockstars to help you LAND an amazing product ROLE QUICKLY. We'll build your brand, show you how to stand out in the market, interview like a rockstar, and land the right job....quickly. We'll even do some LinkedIn reviews LIVE! When: May 7th-9th Time: 7pm ET / 4pm ET It's real content I have trained over 600+ product managers on. I would LOVE to see you there. Just comment LAND and I'll send you a registration link. LET's GO! #productmanagement

9

5 Comments

As a product community, we’re too obsessed with MAANG companies and Silicon Valley. —TL;DR— - Organizational context matters - Create a learning journey within that context - Define achievable success for that context I’m seeing a lot of messaging to PMs recently that reads like, “there's no excuse not to do what we're doing. You can act like Silicon Valley anywhere.” The behaviors of successful tech companies should certainly be part of our product learning journey but not the whole. Context matters. Most product practitioners are working for non-product first companies that have different budget structures, less specialized resources, and stakeholders who fundamentally don’t understand the product domain. Depending on the industry you could be working with stricter regulations and compliance that intentionally slow you down. Being successful in these environments requires skills that you’re not going to learn at a MAANG company. I strongly recommend looking for mentors and guides within your context. Define success by what’s reasonable for that context, it might not be starting a brand new category. Success can look like clarifying your product’s development path or learning something new about the market. Don't let the messages from the ivory tower of product influencers frustrate or sadden you. Sure you can influence your organization for the better, we all should. We can also do great things within our context. #productlearning #careerdevelopment

15

6 Comments

Today's episode of the Skip Podcast focuses on Chief Product Officers and how the role has shifted in the past 12 months. Even if you aren't ready for the number one role or you work outside of product management, you'll find the advice by stage of company helpful if you are thinking through a transition. I also debunk a few myths about founding a company, as often people who are considering starting-up don't do it - but for the wrong reasons. https://lnkd.in/gJP48gPh

58

1 Comment