I am not a Product Manager…but I talk to them. Episode 1: Alexander Hipp (N26, pmlibrary.com)
Alexander Hipp is a Senior Product Manager at N26 in Barcelona. He completed his Master’s degree in Communication and Media Management in Karlsruhe and London and has worked in Boston and Hawai’i. When it comes to building products, Alexander is passionate about getting the problem definition right rather than instantly jumping to solutions. Alongside his work at N26, he is interested in learning about data science and design. Currently, he creates a book-recommendation platform for the tech industry — thepmlibrary.com.
1) If you were a product, what product would you be? Why?
I would probably be very close to our own product the “PM Library”, because I love books, reading and building communities to share knowledge.
2) In your own words, what is a Product Owner? And a Product Manager? Which one do you prefer to define your job?
Product Owner is the role, Product Manager is the job. I consider myself very much on the Product Manager side, defining the WHY and let the design and development team work on the HOW.
3) Why do companies need Product Managers?
In my opinion mainly for four different things.
Product Managers need to 1. create a successful strategy for a part of the business, that 2. based on different types of analyses and 3. experimentations solve a user problem and therefore brings the company closer to a defined goal. They need to understand these three elements to be able to 4. decide together with the team on the next steps.
4) What is the difference between a good Product Manager and a bad Product Manager?
Good Product Managers focus on outcomes. “Bad” Product Managers probably still focus on outputs.
5) What do you enjoy the most as a Product Manager?
I’m a big fan of the different contexts a PM has to deal with and I believe that being a generalist Product Manager rather than a specialist in one specific area helps a lot with connecting the dots between different problems and challenges.
6) What is the worst part of being a Product Manager? What frustrates you?
The Product Management craft sounds super fancy to a lot of people which is great but it also seems that everyone thinks that it’s easy to master it. “Just finish a certificate or online course and you can start as a PM” — is probably very bad for our industry. At the beginning of my career, I undervalued the fact that experience is probably the most important thing you need as a PM. Some people learn fast and bring a lot to the table but in the end, Product Management is a job like designer and developer that you need to learn and experience.
7) If you could ask any question to any Product Manager on Earth, who would you choose and what would you ask him/her?
I don’t know her or his name but I would love to talk to the Product Manager(s) who came up with the concept of playlists for Spotify. It would be super interesting to see how they defined their problem space and how they ended up with the playlist feature.
Bonus track from Alex: It would be great if you could mention thepmlibrary.com (“Our goal is to inspire you with the best PM, UX, Tech and Leadership books out there. Made for product people.”)
Note: this post is the first one of an ephemeral set of articles based on my conversations with eight Product Managers. I will publishing a new article in the next seven days. You can read the plot here.