UWPM Newsletter: PM Must-Reads
Edition 11
The first few weeks of the Winter 2024 term have been pretty busy for UWPM. We had our first Live Case Studies session yesterday with both an in-person and online cohort, and we also have many other upcoming events planned! Make sure to follow our Instagram and join our Discord to not miss any announcements :)
This edition will contain a few updates and a list of recommended books for anyone looking to break into PM or seeking to become a better PM.
🗓 Upcoming Events:
UW PM Live Case Studies 👥 — Thursday Bi-weekly 6-7 PM:
This interactive initiative is your ticket to dive deep into real-world product management scenarios and interview situations, designed to immerse participants in small engaging group discussions and unveil cutting-edge topics and strategies in product management
The next session will take place on Feb 15th. Keep an eye on our Instagram for when signups for the next session come out :)
📍MC 4058 (in-person cohort), Microsoft Teams (online cohort)
🎙️ Podcast Update:
Check out the latest episode we’ve posted!
In this episode, we talk to Frank Lapinski, a PM at Microsoft, about his journey into product management coming from a non-tech background.
📰 Tech News:
Samsung teases the Galaxy Ring.
Ad blockers caused spikes in CPU usage, leading to performance problems on Youtube but a fix has fortunately been released.
📙 Resource of the Week:
Hustle Badger is a great resource for insightful articles on PM and various templates.
There are free articles and templates that anyone can access and a paid membership option.
🔍 Product Opportunities:
Product opportunities for Spring 2024 are rolling out! Check out some of the top opportunities on our radar:
Cloudflare Product Manager Internship
Blackberry Product Management Student
Microsoft Technical Program Manager Internship
Yahoo Summer Internship (includes PM opportunities)
Atlassian Product Design Internship
Addepar Product Manager Internship
Keep checking your target companies for info-sessions and opportunities. Good luck!
🚨 PM Must-Reads
There are many books out there on PM that can help you become a better product manager and succeed in PM case interviews. Aside from the three most recommended books: Cracking the PM Interview, Decode and Conquer, and Inspired, here is a collation of must-read books recommended by PMs and PM interns!
Provides a bank of PM case interview questions and sample answers along with helpful facts.
Product Management in Practice
An entertaining book that gives practical advice and actionable insights you can use in your day-to-day work.
This book is great for developing a better understanding of product and UX design and working with UX/UI designers.
Building Products for the Enterprise
This book covers the basics of enteprise PM and the B2B world; it also covers PM on established products, which is something we as students especially should be familiar with.
A practical book on strategy and how to create a strategic plan with numerous examples.
🧑💻 Thinking Like a PM:
In this last segment, we will leave you off with an activity to practice your analytical minds. In a Product Interview, you’ll often be asked questions in the format: How can you make X product better for Y consumer. A general structure to answering this question is to ask any clarifying questions, identify the current user pain points, ideate design solutions to these pain points, and prioritize them using a prioritization framework. Walk the interviewer through the process from design to implementation to launch, and consider how you would measure the success of your solutions.
Feel free to reply with your answers!
📌 Join our Discord Community
Want to connect with other students such as yourself interested in Product? Join our Discord Community, Invite Link Here. Use our Discord Community to connect with other students and alumni to learn more about different opportunities in Product, practice mock interviews + resume critiques and more!
👋 Feel free to reach out
Thanks for following us along this journey! We hope you learned something from this edition of the newsletter. Feel free to drop a line to introduce yourself and reach out if you have any questions.
Until next time,
- UWPM Team