Overcoming the Imposter Syndrome in Product Management with Andrea Ho, Senior Growth Product Manager at Atlassian

A big shoutout to all product leaders. Welcome to the Product Leaders Podcast by Fireart with your hosts, Dima Venglinski and Tolik Nguyen. Every episode is a deep dive into different aspects of product leadership to enhance the end-user experience.

In this episode, Tolik is joined by Andrea Ho, Senior Growth Product manager at Atlassian. Andrea unpacks the critical skills for product professionals and explains the difference between a product manager and a growth product manager's role. Tolik and Andrea discuss topics, including using A/B testing for decision-making. Andrea touches on advice for professionals coming to product management from a different business stream.

Topics we discuss:

Does a product manager need tech skills to collaborate with engineers?
The imposter syndrome in product management
Difference between product management and growth product management
Advice for professionals starting out in product management

Hot Takes and Key Highlights:

A Product Manager Only Needs Surface Level Tech and Statistic Skills

A product manager needs to collaborate with teams across different functions, from design to engineering. The two critical skills are at least a surface-level knowledge of what the team in a given function is trying to achieve and the ability to communicate in the language they understand.

Within the product team, the product manager needs to be familiar with the concept of A/B testing for decision-making and to keep a sharp focus on the deliverability of the product without getting distracted by the noise. As a product leader, you either need to have these skills or quickly develop them by interacting and learning from different teams.

“When collaborating across functions, it’s important to speak their language and understand why they are doing something instead of exactly what they’re doing”.

Tackling the Imposter Syndrome in Product Management

Andrea shares how every product manager she’s spoken to carries varying degrees of insecurity because they only have surface-level knowledge on multiple topics without being a specialist in any. A jack of all trades but a master of none.

Her response in these situations is to reassure the manager by telling them that product management is a generalist role where the leader needs to have functional knowledge across multiple verticals but a holistic vision that ties the functions together and delivers the final product.

“You definitely don’t need to learn how to code or be an expert at UI/UX to be a successful product manager”.

Product Management vs Growth Product Management

A traditional product manager is focused on developing a new product that meets a particular user need. It’s a product-focused approach where the core objective is to deliver a product with predefined attributes in a given timeframe and budget.

On the other hand, growth product management is revenue-centric, focusing on maximizing the revenue pipeline for a company's existing products. Revenue product management has a commercial bias, and the core objective here is to continually grow the user base for different products.

“In growth product management, we’re not building new products for new customer value; instead, we’re focused on taking the existing product to new customers”.

Advice for Professionals Starting Out in Product Management

Andrea has a unique take here. Her advice to those starting out in product management is to start by reimagining themselves as a product. Start by understanding your goals and the milestones you need to achieve. Build the ability to pivot on these as you learn more about the role. Seek a mentor who can guide you and help you acquire the requisite skills.

A critical part of your learning process is your ability to create your professional network by connecting with the community. Make it a habit to attend product meetups and project management conferences. You will learn a lot by interacting with peers across different industries and make an effort to meet different companies at these conferences; they could be your future employers.

“I tell young aspiring product managers to think of themselves as a product to build the skills required for product management”.

Guest at a Glance:

Andrea describes herself as someone who started out as a fashion designer before transitioning to product management with a passion for teaching and mentoring.

In her current role as Growth Product Manager at Atlassian, Andrea is responsible for creating growth strategies for Atlassian products through cross-flow expansion.

Andrea Ho on LinkedIn

Atlassian on LinkedIn

Hosts at a Glance:

Dima Venglinski: Dima is the CEO of Fireart Studio, a boutique design and software development company committed to innovation and technology. His client portfolio ranges from startups to established global brands like Rolls Royce, Google, and Atlassian.

Connect with Dima on LinkedIn

Fireart Studio Website

Tolik Nguyen: Tolik is the CSO and Partner at Fireart Studio and leads the strategy team while solving the company’s end-user issues from an early idea stage.

Connect with Tolik on LinkedIn

Fireart Studio Website