Micro-Interview: Kalin Zhelyazkov, Director of Product Management
Product management tips & tricks in 318 words.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
Kalin Zhelyazkov is a Director of Product Management at TIS (Treasury Intelligence Solutions), a cloud-based payment and cashflow solutions platform.
Kalin is based in London, UK.
In under 500 words, he shares:
How he got into product management…
How he starts hismornings for maximum productivity…
Some of his sources of learning…
And more…
Enjoy!
“How did you get into product management?”
After spending several years in operations and sales learning about customers' pain points, the market, and technology trends I was asked to assume ownership of the product that I had overseen from inception to scale. It was a logical step after having partnered with Product on multiple initiatives. Then, I had to learn about the product staff.
“How do you start your mornings at work?”
First, I check conversion reports, acquisition funnels, and dashboards reporting on the most recent product launches or tweaks. Second, I have my daily catch-ups with product managers to get a status update on day-to-day operations and initiatives and if they need guidance or help. Third, I may join one of the teams’ daily stand-ups.
“What do you know about product management now that you wish you’d known when you first started?”
It is a never-ending learning journey, to be honest. I wish I’d known that even the smartest teams out there could fail if there is no demand for a product or service. I wish I could have known the variety of modern techniques to validate/invalidate new ideas and how to reverse engineer an idea into a solution. However, for that to have happened, I would have needed a coach or a mentor who is knowledgeable about all this.
“What did your biggest product failure teach you?”
I need to have solid empirical evidence that a market solution is needed. It needs to be at the right time, in the right place for a specific segment/persona. You cannot please everyone at the same time. Focus.
“What’s the #1 thing that has helped you shorten your product management learning curve?”
Faking the actual solution by prototyping it and running experiments with a select few prospects using Michael Margolis’ (UX Research Partner at GV) scientific approach that 5 prospects represent 85% of the target user group.
“How do you stay updated on the best practices in product management?”
I follow the Silicon Valley Product Group, Eric Rice’s Lean series, Google Venture’s Design Sprint, Nir Eyal’s Behavioral Product Design, Mind the Product, Product Plan, and more. I make sure I learn from schools of thought that have Lean and Agile in their core principles as well as they have learned it the hard way themselves.