Agile Vs Waterfall - Bollywood style!

All of us have read and heard enough on Waterfall Vs Agile debate. Experts have depicted the differences in many different ways. Do we really need one more material on the same? Nah, not really.


Image courtesy SDLC

Then again, being a movie and TV buff I always wondered did our Entertainment Industry apply these methodologies? I think they do.
Simply put, our movies work on Waterfall model, where as the daily soaps work on Agile. Confused? Let me explain.

Before a Movie goes on the floors, cast and crew has to be finalized, story has to be frozen, shooting locations has to be finalized, schedule has to be chalked out etc.(much like the waterfall model) Only after all these are set and approved a Movie goes on the floors. And if something does not go as planned then the team is in trouble! Remember when Aishwarya Rai Bhachchan became pregnant and left people speculating over the fate of Heroine, what a Hoopla it created! Or even in the recent times Sanjay Dutt's arrest created so much stir in the industry, mainly because the Movies he was working on needed to be completed and obviously a deviation was not possible based on situations. Doesn't it look like our very own Waterfall model?
Image courtesy ps3gameroom

On the other hand we have loosely described Daily soaps which change its storyline, Main leads, Crew and Sets as and when situation demands. It also has the flexibility to bring in some temporary twists in the story based on the TRP ranking and audience feedback. It can introduce new characters (new features), kill the old characters (discontinue old features), Take the program off air (discontinue product line) or take a time leap (revamp the product) as and when needed. This is immensely beneficial to the audience which changes its choice like changing cloths similar of our very own Top Management; who like to improve upon products, features even before it hit the floors each time. This is also helpful when an important character is unwell or has taken a break (when a resource goes on sick leave or vacation) and someone else pitches in (similar to Agile method) to shift focus for a while to be able to keep the game rolling. To me this does look like Agile method, doesn't it?


Image courtesy Simply Top 10

Interviewing a PM? Simply Spice it Up!

Interview process of hiring a Product Manager is lot more brad and boring compared to the hiring process of other skilled workforce like Dev folks or UI designers/developers; where the emphasis is more on problem solving and measuring skill sets objectively including technical rounds like coding a prototype or doing a Visual Design to be able to judge the in-depth knowledge in skill sets.


Image courtesy http://startup.nujs.edu/

However for we Product Managers, the interview process mainly depend on the verbal discussions with the Hiring manager or his Boss and how far they “Feel” the prospect is suitable. Being a product manager I have to admit that I have rarely been interviewed innovatively. After attending numerous interviews in the past 9 years as a Product Manager I can safely say that the Industry is yet to innovate the interview process for hiring a PM.

In most cases it comprises of 3 - 4 rounds where;

1. Teleconference round: Well, the hiring manager found your resume exciting enough to strike a conversation with you! A round where typically customary questions are asked, the conversation normally lasts for about 30-45 minutes (depending upon how entertaining you seem to the interviewer). Some of the standard questions are;
* Tell me something about yourself?
* Describe your career path?
* Why did you apply for this position?
* What are your X number of strengths and weakness?

BORING BORING BORING!

2. Face-to Face round: Oh Great! You could entertain (Ooops! I mean convince) the hiring manager good enough that s(he) wants to meet you for a Face-to-Face round. Here again the basis of selection (or rejection?) is discussion! This time the questions mainly revolve around your past experience, touching little bit upon your future potential. Some of them are;
* What were the products you worked on?
* What part of the work did you love/hate the most?
* How did you influence a team which doesn't report to you?
* What were the Challenges you faced in you past assignments and how did you solve them?
* Describe a typical day in your last assignment.
* What would you do if you are going to miss a deadline?
* How would you convince the management about a feature that you think is absolutely necessary and they think is not needed in this version?
* What is your favourite product and why?

Answers for all these can be manipulated if you are smart enough and you happen to be a avid user of Careerealism and other such websites :)

3. Discussion with the Senior Management: Yes, to be privileged enough to sit across the table with the Senior Management and have a short (I mean a 15-20 minutes discussion) you have to clear the last round (you should be convincing enough to the hiring manager for him/her to make this round happen!)

Though this round may not hold too many challenges there are chances that you will get rejected without any valid reason even after a "rocking" performance in the last round! Because, very experienced senior management can scan your capabilities just by looking at you for few minutes :P

4. HR round: This will most cases happen only after the management has DECIDED to bring you on-board. This is a just a formal round and if you have come till this round, you can be rest assured you are bound to get a offer letter in hand in few days.

Sometimes, I wonder why don't we Product Managers have interesting experiences while we are interviewing? Like having a Psychometric test, or a practical problem to solve. Ultimately we are supposed to be solving business problems effectively by collaborating with various resource heads. How a prospect fairs when put in practical situation, or solving a real problem will definitely bring out the best or worst side of the prospect.
How is that possible? Hmmmm, that's a good question. Here is how some spices can be added to the simple and bland discussion rounds;


1. To judge Subject Matter experience:
* Giving him/her a practical problem to solve that the company is unable to solve so far,
* Checking his/her innovative skills by putting him/her in a situation where s(he) needs to think differently to come out of it.

2. To check Team Management skills:
* Asking him/her to convince you (hiring manager) on a product that he/she likes and you don't like a bit,
* Simulating a situation where he/she needs to speak to random strangers in the office and observe how likeable he/she is.

3. To check People skills:
* Asking metaphoric questions to judge his/her personality,
* Interrupting him/her often when s(he) is explaining something to see if s(he) gets disturbed easily,
* Put him/her in a sudden situation and see how he/she comes out of it,
* Check his/her social empathy skills by asking random questions around current affairs, social issues or even his/her neighbours

4. To check Negotiation Skills:
* Making sure not to miss this round! If a candidate is not a good negotiator during interview what is the guarantee that s(he) will be able to efficiently negotiate a great feature over a lousy feature?

These are definitely not exhaustive and there are many more ways to interview a PM much more effectively. Does anyone have cool ideas in this topic. Love to hear them out.

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Please note: The views above are completely my personal and they do not represent any other individual or organization's views. By this pots I don't intend to offend anyone's feelings :)

To have or not to have a Visual Resume

Off late I am seeing lot of confusion around whether to have a 'Visual Resume' or not in many job seekers. Here is my take on the same;

For a lot of job seekers a resume is a well formatted static Word Document; or the same word document converted in PDF. Where they can write long and complicated sentences about what they have achieved so far in their profession and in personal life, well to some extent. These resumes are created based on a predefined template. Unfortunately the templates are not very different from each other and they look quite similar at the end of the day. And as we all know these resumes are among the first items that are being viewed by the potential employers for screening a candidate.

In today's world HR professionals receive around 800 resumes on an average for each job posting made... Now this number is by far an obnoxious one for even the most efficient HR professionals to look through each one of them. In such a scenario they try various 'Rejection criteria' to shortlist the resumes that are worth exploring further. Things like educational background, companies the candidate has worked for, candidate's tenure in each company etc. becomes the regular points for rejecting a candidate. Visual resume definitely plays an important role as an attention grabber in such a scenario.

Imagine yourself as a HR manager and you have been given a task of screening 800 resumes in a day, what would you do? Would you go through each resume in detail before selecting/rejecting a resume? No, because there is not enough time for the same and it is simply boring to go through similar looking sheets of paper or word documents of strangers who mean nothing to you. And if you suddenly spot a vibrantly hued or interestingly depicted visual resume which;

1. does not need detailed reading,

2. few seconds of screening gives you fare idea of the candidate's professional and personal achievements,

3. and the creative side of the candidate is right on your face,

Would you not shortlist the candidate for further exploration? Yes, you would.

That's exactly what visual resumes are supposed to do. "Create first impression" which may later become the "Best impression". And create curiosity among the Hiring managers and Interviewers. In fact, because of the same reason it is perceived that the candidates with visual resume are more suitable for a Telephonic interview or a Face to Face interview. Whether the candidate gets the job or not completely depends on how the interviewer interpreted the candidate and whether he/she sees a right fit.

As they say "Pictures can speak thousand words without uttering one", therefore go ahead and let your creativity come out while creating your resume! Show off your skills to your potential employers in your first impression itself!


You can view my one here: Visual Resume - Srijata Bhatnagar

How important is an engineering degree to be a 'good' Product Manager?

Of late we are seeing this new trend of companies seeking a BE/BS graduate plus MBA to be a mandatory requirement for a prospective product manager (PM) position. Until a couple of years back it was only the likes of Google, Yahoo, Amazon, had this criteria for a prospective PM. However, nowadays almost every company is making it clear in the JD's. Even if the PM role is mainly for customer experience, user experience for front end products in Web or mobile.

I had a couple of chats with other product experts to understand why is this happening, and this is what came out of it;

1. Companies believe if the prospect is an engineer he/she will be able to talk to the developers more easily and in their own language.
2. An engineer understands the product better than a non engineer.
3. An engineer can buck up his skills on UI/UX and consumer experience, but a non-engineer cannot learn engineering terms that quickly.
4. An engineer can pick up business skills on the way, but a non-engineer cannot do the same with equal ease.

Well, I agree that for some technical PM role it is important for the candidate to understand technology and perhaps know a bit of coding. But I fail to understand how engineering degree can help the candidate understand consumers better than non engineers.

In fact recently the Institute of Product Leadership published an Infograph on the current state of Product Management & Marketing in India and they have rightly mentioned a Product Manager needs to have a Brain of an Engineer, Mouth of a Diplomat and a Heart of a Designer. However, I would like to slightly change the attributes for a Product Manager working on consumer facing products, as the focus of their thought process needs to be consumer centric and not engineer centric. These Product Managers should have a Brain of a Consumer.

And this can only happen through experience. If a prospective Product Manager has a solid experience in the function that an organization is looking for in the prospect it may be good idea not to reject the prospect only on the basis of his/her educational background. A telecon may provide a greater understanding of the suitability.

I know this may be expensive affair in today's hiring condition, where rejection is much faster than selection, this little more pain can actually get organizations better prospects who could take their products to a different level all together.

Would love to hear from other Product Managers and Industry experts on this... and what they think is the right approach. Please in-box me or connect with me on Linkedin.

Product Management Baseline Research (India) infographic