EDITOR’S NOTE:
Spas Spasov is a Sr. PM at SumUp - a leading global financial technology company driven by the purpose to provide easy-to-use payment solutions to more than 4 million small merchants in over 35 markets worldwide, helping them start, run and grow their businesses.
In under 500 words, he shares:
How he got into product management…
How he starts his mornings for maximum productivity…
Some of his sources of learning…
And more…
Enjoy!
“How did you get into product management?”
Even though I’ve graduated from TUES and Technical University I’ve never seen myself as the typical engineer. I was keen on speaking with people, listening to their problems, and trying to find a way to make things better. My first job in a fintech company was as a QA engineer and later internally transitioned to BA and Project Management before transitioning to the current one as a Product Manager. For me, this was a path to be closer to the customer and contribute early to the creation of value.
“How do you start your mornings at work?”
I like to start my day early – before the office gets busy. This helps me have some quiet time to gather my thoughts, go through the Jira boards, tasks, and everything important so I can create the big picture of what is ahead of me for the day, then pick the most valuable one.
“What do you know about product management now that you wish you’d known when you first started?”
When you have some experience in what you do eventually people tend to get confident that they know what's going on around a domain. Even after time often this is just an assumption that needs to go full circle from hypothesis to validation.
“What did your biggest product failure teach you?”
You should be humble, always. My failures taught me I should keep trying to tackle the same problem from new angles, not give up, and be persistent so I can be successful down the road. There is the saying that "Everything is a learning. It's only a failure if you give up".
“What’s the #1 thing that has helped you shorten your product management learning curve?”
Get as many insights as possible from the source. Nothing can beat speaking with your customers. I try to spend some time each quarter to have a first-person interaction, either through research or occasionally picking up customer support calls. Customer support is a great source of insights. The added benefit for me is that pain points easily can bubble up and can be seen and prioritized faster.
“How do you stay updated on the best practices in product management?”
I follow product people on LinkedIn and am subscribed to a couple of newsletters. This helps me have a cadence and not to rely on me proactively trying to search. The two that I've recently started following and enjoying are Martin Eriksson and Itamar Gilad. Another fintech specific is Marcel van Oost and Finextra.
If you are building anything with UI then go check Built for Mars.
The second thing I can recommend is Reforge. They have amazing courses for everything Product – from entry-level to leadership.