Accelerating Your Product Management Career: Insights from N26's CPO

Product management is a dynamic and challenging field that requires constant learning and adaptation. To succeed and accelerate your career, it's crucial to gain insights from experienced leaders in the industry. In this article, we'll explore valuable advice from Mayor Comet, Chief Product Officer at N26, one of the most successful fintech startups in the world.

The Power of High-Growth Companies

One of the most important factors in accelerating your product management career is working at companies that are experiencing rapid growth. Mayor emphasizes the importance of this, stating:

"The best thing you can do is find companies that are growing fast because it kind of compounds your learning at a much faster interval."

When you work at a high-growth company, you're exposed to new challenges and opportunities on a daily basis. This allows you to:

• Learn at an accelerated pace
• Take on more responsibilities quickly
• Build a valuable network of talented professionals
• Gain experience solving complex problems at scale

Mayor contrasts his experience at Microsoft, where some products took years to ship, with his time at Binance, where new features and updates were released constantly. The faster pace of innovation and decision-making at high-growth companies provides an environment where you can rapidly develop your skills and expertise.

Focus on Your Strengths

Another key piece of advice from Mayor is to identify and leverage your unique strengths as a product manager. He suggests:

"You need to know what you're great at, what are your superpowers, and you need to find jobs where success is determined by how much of those superpowers you get to use."

To identify your strengths, Mayor recommends:

1. Self-reflection: Think about the tasks and responsibilities you enjoy most and excel at in your current role.
2. Feedback from others: Ask colleagues and managers for their perspective on your strengths.
3. Strength assessments: Consider taking professional strength assessments like StrengthsFinder 2.0 or working with an executive coach.

Once you've identified your strengths, look for roles and companies that allow you to leverage these abilities. This alignment will lead to greater job satisfaction and faster career growth.

Create a Culture of Experimentation

Mayor emphasizes the importance of creating a culture of experimentation within product teams. He believes that this approach not only leads to better products but also empowers product managers and accelerates their growth.

"The moment you build experimentation, you now made it scientific. A lot of new people in their career like, 'Oh, I just want to think about strategy. I'm going to think about the big picture.' Strategy is a little bit overrated for product. For most product managers, your strategy should be how fast can I go from hypothesis to data."

To implement a culture of experimentation:

1. Use A/B testing tools and platforms to run controlled experiments
2. Encourage team members to form hypotheses and test them quickly
3. Focus on metrics and data-driven decision making
4. Celebrate both successes and failures, as long as valuable insights are gained
5. Implement a rapid iteration cycle to continuously improve products

By embracing experimentation, you'll develop a more scientific approach to product management and build a valuable skill set that will serve you throughout your career.

Don't Optimize for Compensation Early in Your Career

While it may be tempting to chase high-paying roles early in your career, Mayor advises against this approach:

"Do not optimize for compensation, especially early in your career. If you're truly on a track to become an executive someday or found your own company and make it successful, you will find that the compensation is so much backloaded that you would make 90% of your compensation in the last 5 years of your career."

Instead of focusing on short-term financial gains, prioritize:

• Learning opportunities
• Exposure to challenging problems
• Working with talented mentors and colleagues
• Building a strong professional network

By investing in your skills and experiences early on, you'll be better positioned for long-term success and higher compensation later in your career.

Consider Your Long-Term Career Goals

Mayor encourages product managers to think critically about their long-term career aspirations:

"Determine very early in your career if you truly want to be a C-level someday. You want to be an executive someday. Because it's almost like if you're ambitious and successful, you enter product management, you're in like top of your it's almost like an expectation of you that you would become that and you'd never really challenge or question yourself."

Take time to reflect on your career goals and consider different paths:

1. Executive track: If you aspire to become a CPO or other C-level executive, focus on developing leadership skills and gaining broad experience across different product areas.

2. Founding a company: If entrepreneurship appeals to you, look for opportunities to develop a well-rounded skill set and build a strong network in your industry.

3. Specialization: Consider becoming an expert in a specific domain or product area, which can lead to valuable consulting or advisory roles.

4. Balanced approach: Some professionals may prefer to maintain a strong career while also prioritizing other aspects of life, such as family or personal interests.

By aligning your career choices with your long-term goals, you'll make more intentional decisions and find greater fulfillment in your work.

Embrace Global Opportunities

Mayor's career has taken him across multiple countries and continents, including the United States, Asia, and Europe. He highlights the benefits of gaining international experience:

"In terms of just being able to calibrate yourself on what a global product might look like, being able to live in different places and understanding some of these constraints firsthand, definitely a pro."

Working in different regions can provide:

• A deeper understanding of diverse user needs and behaviors
• Exposure to different regulatory environments and business practices
• A broader perspective on product development and market strategies
• Valuable cross-cultural communication skills

While there may be trade-offs in terms of compensation or career stability, the unique insights and experiences gained from working internationally can be invaluable for your long-term career growth.

Focus on High-Leverage Activities

As you progress in your career, it becomes increasingly important to focus on high-leverage activities that can have a significant impact on your product and company. Mayor shares his approach:

"You work on problems that have a 10x positive or a negative impact. I mean, the number can be 10, five, three, 100 depending at Binance it would be 100, some companies might be three."

To identify and prioritize high-leverage activities:

1. Regularly assess the potential impact of different projects and initiatives
2. Focus on areas where your unique skills and expertise can make the biggest difference
3. Be willing to dive deep into the details when necessary, even as you advance in your career
4. Maintain a flexible schedule that allows you to shift focus to emerging high-priority issues

By consistently working on high-impact projects, you'll accelerate your career growth and make a more significant contribution to your organization.

Develop a Scientific Approach to Product Management

Mayor emphasizes the importance of adopting a scientific, data-driven approach to product management:

"The challenge with being a product manager is everybody thinks they can do their job. Anybody who uses the product thinks they have ideas. So at some point in time, you're like, what is my discipline? Like, what is my science? The moment you build experimentation, you now made it scientific."

To develop a more scientific approach to product management:

1. Implement robust experimentation and A/B testing processes
2. Focus on metrics and KPIs that align with business objectives
3. Use cohort analysis to gain deeper insights into user behavior
4. Develop hypotheses and design experiments to test them quickly
5. Continuously iterate based on data and insights gathered

By adopting this approach, you'll be able to make more informed decisions and demonstrate the value of your work more effectively.

Learn from Failures and Setbacks

Even the most successful product managers experience failures and setbacks throughout their careers. Mayor shares his experience with Google Hangouts:

"My probably most spectacular failure was I was the first PM on Hangouts. We had thousands of people working for me. We had entire power of Google. We had Larry literally sitting with us saying we can do anything we want Chrome to do. And we still didn't manage to build a great messaging product."

Key lessons from this experience include:

1. Be cautious of long-term projects without clear milestones and opportunities for validation
2. Consider the company's DNA and whether it aligns with the product you're trying to build
3. Focus on solving the right problems for the right audience
4. Break large initiatives into smaller, more manageable experiments
5. Be prepared to pivot or change direction based on early feedback and results

By learning from failures and applying those lessons to future projects, you'll become a more resilient and effective product manager.

Embrace New Technologies and Tools

Staying up-to-date with new technologies and tools is crucial for product managers. Mayor highlights several areas where AI and other technologies are making a significant impact:

1. Developer productivity: AI-powered coding assistants can boost developer productivity by 18-25%.
2. Customer support: AI chatbots and automated systems can handle a large portion of customer inquiries, improving response times and reducing costs.
3. Fraud detection: AI algorithms can identify patterns and anomalies to prevent fraud more effectively.
4. Copywriting and UX: Tools like Writer can help generate copy and UX text across multiple languages quickly.

While not all new technologies will be directly applicable to your role as a product manager, staying informed about these advancements can help you make better decisions and identify opportunities for innovation within your products.

Conclusion

Accelerating your product management career requires a combination of strategic choices, continuous learning, and a willingness to embrace new challenges. By following Mayor Comet's advice, you can position yourself for long-term success in this dynamic field:

1. Seek out high-growth companies that provide rapid learning opportunities
2. Focus on leveraging your unique strengths and superpowers
3. Create a culture of experimentation within your team
4. Prioritize learning and experience over short-term compensation
5. Consider your long-term career goals and align your choices accordingly
6. Embrace global opportunities to broaden your perspective
7. Focus on high-leverage activities that can have a significant impact
8. Develop a scientific, data-driven approach to product management
9. Learn from failures and setbacks to become more resilient
10. Stay informed about new technologies and tools that can enhance your work

By implementing these strategies and continuously refining your skills, you'll be well-equipped to navigate the challenges of product management and accelerate your career growth in this exciting and rewarding field.

Article created from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVyfuSBwbNA