Xoogler.co: Potential of APM Programs
Developing Product Managers at your company
Over the past few years, we’ve seen product management go from a somewhat misunderstood role to one of the fastest growing roles in tech. This past year has only highlighted the extent to which product shapes our lives and truly captures consumer attention. Neal Iyer’s 2019 study on product manager hiring trends for Product Management Insider showed that product management roles in the US grew 32% from August 2017 to June 2019 — just 2 short years. We’ll likely continue to see growing demand for experienced PMs as companies continue to reevaluate their positions in a post-Covid world. Despite this increased demand for PMs, Associate Product Management (APM) programs have not seen similar levels of growth. While the list of companies with APM programs is slowly growing, most of their programs only support small cohorts of around 10 people.
Xoogler.co had a chat with Shiva Rajaraman, Vice President of Commerce at Facebook. Over the course of his career, Shiva has had the opportunity to work on product at Google, Spotify, Apple, Twitter and WeWork before landing at his current role with Facebook. Shiva wanted to share his thoughts on why APM programs are awesome career and company bets, the challenges that companies face when setting up APM programs, as well as the potential for APM programs to grow outside of Google.
Xoogler.co also spoke with Matt Piccolella, Product Manager at Lyft and the one who started the APM program at Lyft. Matt shared his insights on what it’s like to run an APM program and some of the things he looks for in APM candidates.
Introduction
Shiva started out by emphasizing the strong aspect of apprenticeship in tech. Every profession, no matter the industry, involves some degree of learning on the job. With computer science programs being more theoretical than applied, starting out in tech is no exception. The issue that many juniors in tech face early on in their careers is that they’re essentially betting on a single employer, manager, and project in order to get the apprenticeship needed to advance quickly. Further, their lack of experience means they may not be able to identify and improve a less-than-ideal situation. Shiva emphasized that he has seen all three go wrong, and juniors who get a bad manager or land on a bad team may not have as much trajectory as ones who didn’t.
What makes APM programs work and what challenges do they face?
According to Shiva, what made Google’s APM program such a success was how it worked to minimize these three risks juniors might have faced. APMs are directly mentored by strong, handpicked managers who are dedicated to helping their APMs. APMs are also not directly connected to a single project. Rather, they rotate around multiple projects, allowing them to build a more diverse set of experiences, insulate themselves from the failings of any one project, and directly connect with every part of the company. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, APMs are a part of a cohort of other APMs. This allows them to build a strong network very early on in their careers and provides a sense of community among people going through the same program. This is very similar to how Goldman Sachs structures its program for incoming financial analysts.
There are obvious limitations with this model. Perhaps the most salient is that you have to be at the scale of Google, have an excess of managers, have extra projects, and have people that really want to lean in and support the program. Obviously, this just isn’t realistic for the vast majority of companies.
Matt’s experience with running Lyft’s APM program further reinforced Shiva’s insights into the challenges faced by APM programs. Matt noted that rotating and placing APMs is the hardest part of running an APM program. You have to find available projects, find available mentors and managers, and figure out what happens if those mentors and managers leave. Fortunately, Matt has been given the resources to successfully run this program at Lyft and will be hosting three cohorts of 6–7 APMs in a few months.
Expanding APM programs
Right now, there is a demand from employers for experienced applicants, and there is a demand from recent grads for places willing to provide them with training and experience to really jumpstart their careers. Shiva presented the question: What if we take an existing network — like Xoogler or Venture Capitalists — and create a program that spans multiple companies? To remedy the problem of most companies not having the scale or resources, why not bring companies together to form their own program? By taking a networked approach to this, you could develop an APM program that targets small, growth stage companies that acts as a magnet for talented individuals to come and work with these companies. This could also allow for APMs to learn very different skills at a diverse set of companies, as one concern with Google’s APM program is that it only trains APMs to work like Google does.
Shiva noted that structured training programs like Google’s APM program that could help people gain practical experience and build a network really resonated with the people he’s talked to. Shiva also stressed the importance of keeping these programs diverse and dedicated to drawing from as many backgrounds as possible. APM roles are strongly biased towards people with CS degrees, but Shiva pointed out that many of the most successful leaders in product-oriented roles don’t have CS degrees. It’s important to remember that while CS degrees are not required for a successful career in product, it can be difficult for students to get exposure to other skills that successful product leaders have.
On this last point, Matt seemed to agree as well. He shared that he looks for candidates with experience in product, execution and leadership when interviewing for students applying for the Lyft APM program. Students looking to apply for APM programs should develop leadership skills while in university whether via student groups, non-profit organizations or other avenues, but a CS degree is not mandatory. Matt said the hardest skill for APMs to develop is product sense, not programming experience or knowledge of computer science. He recommended that students interested in being APMs should get experience with experimental design, prioritization, setting OKRs and sending effective email to accelerate learnings once you’re in the job.
Conclusion
APM programs are still in the early phase of their development. While Google’s APM program has long been the preeminent one in the field, many other companies have built up their own programs. It appears that the rapidly growing demand for PMs came with an increase in the number of companies offering APM programs as well. The question we have to ask ourselves is does the current model for APM programs have the potential to change and improve? Are there benefits for companies in moving away from running APM programs internally? Would aspiring PMs benefit from a cross-company approach to APM programs? As the world slowly begins to open back up, now might be the best time to experiment with taking APM programs in a new direction.
What do you think about the potential of cross-company APM programs? What do you think are good ways that college students interested in product management can gain relevant experience and exposure?
Interested in staying involved with this conversation? Let us know by commenting below or emailing learn@xoogler.co.
Written by Jacob Moore, rising Junior at Harvard University. Xoogler School Student Fall 2020.
With input from Mark Grozen-Smith, Nisha Masharani, Jason Liu, Austin Wu, Arsh Buch, Ankit Jain and Christopher Fong.
