So, You Want To Become a Great Product Manager? [Q&A with Jackie Bavaro]

Nir’s Note: Recently, I had the pleasure of chatting with Jackie Bavaro about her latest book, Cracking the PM Career — a complete guide to the skills, frameworks, and practices you need to become a great product manager. Jackie serves as the Head of Product Management at Asana and has held senior product manager jobs at Microsoft and Google, where she launched Google Place Search and Geo-IP Based Local Search. Based on her experiences hiring other product managers, she wrote her first best-selling book, Cracking the PM Interview, with co-author Gayle McDowell.

Nir Eyal: Why did you write this book?

Jackie Bavaro: I want there to be more great products in the world.

So many people are pouring their energy into building, launching and supporting products that through no fault of their own, will fail. Sometimes the failed products just don’t sell well, but sometimes they actively do harm, such as when a vaccination appointment website is too complicated for seniors to use.

Imagine how much better the world could be if we could catch those wasted efforts sooner and steer those products in a better direction.

I believe that for there to be more great products in the world, we need more people who…