Pre-Application Research for Product Managers

Essay originally published on the Product Teacher blog on January 31, 2022.

Successfully securing a product management role requires lots of effort, especially given how competitive the space has become. After all, more and more people are interested in product management, and that’s led to historically high ratios of applicants to open PM roles.

To convince employers to offer us the PM role, we need to demonstrate skill sets and capabilities that they’ll find valuable. Therefore, one of the best ways to set ourselves up for success is to conduct pre-application research.

Pre-application research will help us determine what kinds of narratives are most attractive to specific hiring organizations, so that we can ensure that we put those narratives first and foremost in our resumes, cover letters, and interview responses.

In this essay, we’ll first discuss how pre-application research helps you stand out vs. other candidates. We’ll then discuss how pre-application research sets you up for better long-term success over the course of your entire career. Finally, we’ll break down the process for conducting effective pre-application research as a product manager.

Pre-Application Research Leaves a Good First Impression

Although most companies don’t require people to do pre-application research for their open PM roles, doing so helps you leave a significantly stronger first impression.

When you invest the time to learn more about the role, the company, and the industry you will be working for, you demonstrate that you’re a go-getter who runs through walls.

Whenever any interviewer from this company first speaks with you, they’ll find that they no longer need to waste time talking through the basics of the open position. Instead, they can focus their energies on identifying whether you’re the right fit for the role and the company.

When you show you’ve done your research, you show them that you have what it takes to solve their pains on the job. You demonstrate proactivity and leadership, and that gives your interviewers more energy to enjoy the conversation with you.

Long-Term Career Perspective

Pre-application research isn’t just about impressing your interviewers; it also saves you time over the long run.

Why is that? Well, by actually sitting down to understand what kind of company and role you’re applying to, you’ll start to discover what kinds of roles you’re most interested in, and what kinds of roles you’re most likely to succeed in. In other words, it helps you start to iterate towards PM fit.

Product management is one of those professions where having a deep passion will give you lots of energy, and where not enjoying the role will cause you to struggle from one day to the next. So, it’s crucial to find out upfront whether you’ll actually enjoy the industry that you’re applying for, and whether the company you’re applying to has a mission that’s aligned to your personal values.

Now that we’ve established the benefits, let’s explore how to properly conduct your pre-application research.

Pre-Application Research Process

Pre-application research really consists of 4 steps.

First, you’ll take time to dig into the specific role that you’re applying to. Then, you’re going to work your way outwards to understand what kind of company you’ll be working at.

Afterwards, you’ll take some time to understand who the key competitors are. Finally, you’ll wrap up with a deep dive into key trends in the industry.

Understand the Open Role

Each PM role is different, because each product manager is serving a different set of customers, business stakeholders, engineers, and designers. So, it’s crucial that you get full clarity on what the day-to-day requirements of the job will be.

The fastest way to understand what the job will need from you is to analyze the posted job description. As you read the job description, seek to answer these questions:

• What is the product that you will manage, and how will your role help to achieve the success of this product?
• How mature is this product in the product lifecycle? (e.g. R&D, new launch, existing product, aging product)
• What is the target market for the product? (e.g. internal, B2C, SMB, enterprise)
• Has product/market fit already been established for this product?
• How will the hiring manager determine efficacy or success from your role?
• What kinds of KPIs will they expect you to move?
• What are your roles and responsibilities?
• What kinds of processes and initiatives will you be expected to lead?
• Who are the people you will be working with?
• Who will you report to, and what role do they hold in the organization?
• Will you be working with in-house or outsourced staff?
• Will you be working with remote colleagues? If so, what working processes are currently in place?
• Which experiences will you highlight to your interviewer to tell them that you are the right fit for their needs?

After online research, the best way to get more information is to chat with people who work at the company you’re applying to. This way, you’ll get more accurate information, and you’ll demonstrate that you’re genuinely excited about the role.

Empathize with the Company

You’ll also want to invest time in understanding the kind of company that you’re applying to. After all, you’ll spend at least 40 hours a week with colleagues and customers at this company as a product manager, so it’s critical to know whether you’ll enjoy your time there.

Here’s a set of questions to get you started in better understanding the company:

• Who are the founder(s) of this company and what are their backgrounds?
• What are the products that this company currently offers? What products do they plan on releasing soon?
• What is the company culture and values? What are some examples of how these values shine through in day-to-day work?
• Who has invested in this company, and why?
• What other job listings do they have? Why do you think they are hiring for these roles?

These questions are more geared towards knowing the company culture and asking “why” questions. Think of it as the flip side of the job interview — you need to ensure that the company is the right place for you.

When doing research about the company, keep in mind that there are 2 sides to their story: how they see themselves, and how other people perceive the company. So, you’ll want to get each side of the story to see a more balanced view of the company.

To learn how the company views itself, explore their corporate website and their social media posts. If they have videos of their product available, be sure to watch them to better understand the customer pains that the product is targeting. This way, you can use this information in your interview responses.

Then, to better understand how others view the company, use external resources such as investor pages (e.g. AngelList and Crunchbase) or employee reviews (e.g. Glassdoor and Comparably). The information on these sites isn’t controlled by the hiring company, and so you’ll get a more objective view of the company’s strengths and possible areas of improvement.

Lastly, check to see if they have a public resource such as FAQs on their website. This way, you’ll learn the most common questions and issues that a typical user would have, as well as how the company typically handles these.

By having a clear understanding of the company and its customers, and by being ahead of the curve in terms of product knowledge, you’ll feel a lot more confident in structuring your answers during the interview to solve the company’s pain.

Conduct Competitive Research

Now that you have a deeper understanding of the company that you’ll be interviewing with, the next step is to understand their competitors. By doing so, you’ll better understand whether the company that you’re applying to is a market leader or an upstart in the space.

Market dominance significantly influences the kinds of work that you’ll do, as well as the kinds of learnings you’ll get on the job. Working at a market leader means that you’ll be absorbing existing best practices, whereas working at an upstart means that you’ll be experimenting with new processes.

Another thing to keep in mind is that by understanding how competitors are positioned (e.g. high price point vs. low price point, generic and scalable vs. targeted and customized, etc.), you’ll get a better sense of the different kinds of customers and pain points within this space.

To analyze a competitor, use the same process we mentioned above on how to analyze the hiring organization. Take a look at their own websites and social media presences, and look through 3rd party information about these competitors.

Gain Industry Subject Matter Expertise

Product managers need to understand where the industry is going, since their job as product leaders is to establish the vision and the roadmap. That’s why they need to understand key trends and upcoming opportunities within the industry.

Take the time to run a search engine query (e.g. Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc.) on something like this: “Fintech Products Trends 2022”.

The first few results will help you calibrate to the key topics of conversation in this space. This will also show you the market leaders and upstarts in the industry, and you’ll also see which individuals are considered thought leaders or trendsetters in this space.

You can then incorporate these industry trends into the way that you think about the product, and the role that you’ll play as you lead this product to success.

Timeboxing Your Research

Don’t spend too much time conducting pre-application research, however. As with anything in product management, time is your most precious resource, and every incremental hour spent on research will give you diminishing returns on investment.

Instead, you want to make sure you grasp the most critical pieces of knowledge.

Spend between 30 minutes to 2 hours to research each topic before you apply for the role or speak to any interviewers. That way, you’ll have the right amount of key information to incorporate into your resume and cover letter, and you’ll be able to shape the right narratives for your interview responses.

Closing thoughts

Succeeding as a product manager means proactively jumping into new spaces. Exhibit the best of yourself and your work ethic by showing interest, knowledge and initiative in committing to pre-application research.

Even if you don’t get this particular role, you’ll have gained extensive knowledge in a short period of time, which helps you build confidence for other kinds of PM roles.

Over time, as you exercise these skills, you’ll become an expert at analyzing open roles and companies, which will then improve your odds of standing out as a PM candidate!

If you’re looking for roles to apply to, check out these resources:

• YourMauka jobs platform
• Product Teacher Jobs Board