4 ms·
A solid essay and a great set of criteria. When I was a PM at Google, there were a couple other critical traits I liked to look for, though they were not simple
by hammerzeit 14y ago
A solid essay and a great set of criteria. When I was a PM at Google, there were a couple other critical traits I liked to look for, though they were not simple yes-no criteria.
* How does this person deal with vast uncertainty? Are they excited? Scared? Is their first reaction to impose structure or are they comfortable with lack of structure? If it's the latter, can they meaningful convey confidence with the lack of structure?
* Can this person teach? Can they figure out how to take an abstract idea and articulate it cleanly? When someone doesn't get it, at what point do they fall back to utilizing authority? Are they good at listening closely to what someone is saying to them and framing an argument in their terms?
- freework 14y ago* How does this person deal with vast uncertainty? Are they excited? Scared? Is their first reaction to impose structure or are they comfortable with lack of structure? If it's the latter, can they meaningful convey confidence with the lack of structure? The only people who are afraid to jump off into the deep end are those who can't swim.
- kennethn 14y ago(Essay author here...) Excellent additions, "ability to deal with ambiguity" is a critical skill for PMs.
- wasd 14y agoHey Ken, I was sort of curious about this line: >Generally I'll ask questions until I'm sure the candidate is smarter than me. Are these the sort of brain teasers we see in engineering interviews or something else?
- kennethn 14y agoNo brain teasers. Good analytical questions are open-ended, fuzzy, and don't have "right" or "trick" answers. I want to test problem-solving abilities, not interview research and memorization skills :-)
- geoffschmidt 14y agoSounds super-useful! Could you share an example or two?