How to Find a Mentor as a Product Manager (7 Step Framework)
I consider myself a hypomanic… John Gartner in his book The Hypomanic Edge talks about the history of immigration to America and contributes a big portion of why America became a giant to the nature of those who migrated there. Hypomanic individuals have an itch and a heightened level of ambition and energy compared to others (1 in 10 are typically like that) and that drives them to constantly hit new limits in their lives.
I believe having a mentor in your Product career is certainly beneficial especially if you’re hypomanic like me!
So here’s how I have successfully landed some of the greatest minds to mentor me and I hope you will too by leveraging my 7 step framework.
Why even bother...
You don’t need a mentor if you don’t want to excel in your Product career. Having a mentor can save you countless hours and thousands of dollars and even better access to insider knowledge.
But….
Not everyone needs a mentor
You must be passionate about what you do. If you don’t want to be where your mentor is one day, then you’re better off not looking for one.
“A mentor can help get from where you are in you Product career to where you want to be faster. You’re buying yourself time back by leveraging their help. Most importantly, having a mentor can help you say no to countless opportunities that might come your way and might not serve you.”
I use the phrase coach and mentor interchangeably, though there might be some differences between them. To me, a coach/mentor is someone who helps you get clarity and/or help you get where you want to be in your career.
1. Mentor First
This may seem counterintuitive, but there is tremendous value in mentoring someone first. This will help you understand how things feel when the table is turned. As a mentor, your intention is to help and give genuine attention to your mentee on their problems and all you need from them is to follow your guidance and be committed to their word.
What comes out of a coaching relationship is usually some hard cold truths that you need to face… you need to keep it real or you won’t get value out of a coach.
Mentoring someone else before getting mentored will help you ultimately become more “coachable” as you will become more real with yourself.
And your mentee can be anyone… an aspiring product manager, your nephew, a rookie at your sports club, you name it!
2. Seek Clarity
This one is a classic. A lot of people I’ve met think a mentor need to spoon-feed them over the mentorship journey. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In my opinion, you must get crystal clear on what you want from your Product career on your own. Try to be as specific as possible (i.e. I want to become the CPO of a VC-backed startup in the Silicon Valley in AI space in 5 years).
If you still need help with clarity, I suggest booking 1–2 sessions with a generalist career/life coach to help you get there. This could also be your PM mentor, but I’d rather keep them separate.
A life coach can help you balance between all areas of your life whereas a career coach is better to be someone in your field so they can give you practical tips on your roadmap.
This will help you a lot with the next step, which is who to look for as your mentor.
3. Do Your homework
Now, this is the fun part… or maybe boring depending on how you see it. You have clarity on where you want to be and need to find someone that is already where you want to be or has been there in the past.
The key is you have to respect that person and their work.
Take your time with this step, I’d say at least a month. Read their articles, watch their talks, follow them on Linkedin and Twitter. Your goal is to find at least 2 candidates who fit the bill.
3. Praise Before Reach
Think about it for a sec… if you were the mentor and very likely on top of your game, you will have hundreds of people reaching out to you to get help.
So how can you as the mentee, get noticed by your mentor on this online crowded space?
One way is to take the time to read your mentor’s blogs and post an article tagging them and praising their work and adding your thoughts to it. Remember the latter. Add your own thoughts to it instead of just copying what they say. It goes a long way…
4. Come Prepared
By now you have found 2–3 potential candidates and praised their work on social media and hopefully, by now they have noticed you.
What you want to do next is to reach out to each with a few thoughtful questions ask for a 30-minute chat. Imagine if you were to interview them, what questions you’d want to ask them. It’s crucial that your questions are thoughtful and relevant to their area of expertise.
Your goal here is to show them that you appreciate their work and are serious about your Product career.
6. Respect the Karmic Balance
This one will probably surprise you, but let’s say you are in the same position as your coach. You’ve spent years if not decades mastering your craft and someone reaches out to tap into all these years of hard work.
There has to be some sort of reciprocity here and that’s what one of my coaches call the karmic balance.
You should feel absolutely comfortable to pay your mentor for their time. Whether they accept it or not is up to them, but you should always and always offer something in return.
7. Have an Open Mind
At the end of the day, we all live different lives and what worked for one might not work for others. So my suggestion is to go through the mentorship with an open mind. It might work for you and it might not and it’s no one’s fault.
You should have zero expectations that are beyond your control in a mentorship program.
A mentor can supercharge your focus in the right direction.
And don’t forget to enjoy the journey! :)
Follow us on LinkedIn to receive notification of upcoming webinars! https://tinyurl.com/y6g6tw6h
