Product League Spring 2018: People, books and much product management

As you have probably read, this time we are tweaking the mentees application process.

Product League is above all a community of product managers who want to challenge themselves, and are looking to put effort into building their knowledge.

We decided to look for those who are committed.

If you have been accepted to our program, you’ll receive a request via email for a donation to Product League. This money will be used to purchase two product management books (by choice) for you and your mentor.

Why are we asking for this? Good question. As this is a pure product management decision and we believe transparency, we decided to share these thoughts with you, our community:

Product League’s first batch was a huge success that exceeded everything we expected and hoped to.

We launched our community in September 2017.

The demand for our program was even better than expected. And although we had the goal of having only 30 mentoring pairs on our first batch, we accepted less than 5% of applicants, who are 53 mentoring pairs.

We were very touched by the emails and phone calls we got from a few mentors in our program, let us know that participating in our program inspired them to take leadership steps in their organization. And there was nothing more fulfilling than getting tens of emails from mentees, describing the significant impact this mentorship experience had on their career.

Unfortunately, this was not the full story.

At the same time we were getting these warm emails we had to deal with the fact that a few mentees chose not to respect their mentors, the community and us.

While we had to decline the requests of so many product management professionals who wished to join our community, to learn and to grow, a few mentees who were accepted to the program didn’t show up.

These mentees gave up on their opportunity to get their product skills up to speed.

Team Product League and the program’s mentors are freely giving their valuable time and committed to giving back to the product community.

While we don’t expect a monetary gain, we want to feel like the mentees appreciate our time.

If a mentee is not committed to their professional growth, this is not a good fit.

These cases were only a few. But the pain it left on these mentors and us was so significant — that we knew we had to make sure this won’t happen again.

We understood that unlike any other product we manage, when it comes to community-based products where everyone involved is donating their time, we have to make things different.

We are looking for those who appreciate this once-in-a-career opportunity to be guided by professionals who have already figured out the answers to your tough questions.

We invite those of you who are willing to act to become product managers.

So, we’ve decided that asking you to purchase two PM books for you and your mentor would be a proper way to show us that you are eager to learn.

Further, these books will be an excellent way for you and your mentor to get the conversation rolling.

We know, making the product-funnel hard on your users is an unheard-of product-act. After all, we are here to do things differently.
And now, it’s application time!
Please keep in mind that the last day to apply is April 8, 2018.