How to build work products to get jobs

The PM market is brutal—to differentiate, many are turning to the work product. Here's how to actually impress, instead of bungle your opportunity

The work product is one of the most underrated ways to get a job.

In a world where PM job postings are down 91% compared to two years ago, you need to do something to stand out.

And it works. 3 of the 6 laid off big tech PMs I helped get jobs last year used them. Since then, I’ve helped over 15 PMs and product leaders get jobs with this technique.

But, the cat is out of the bag. This is what I heard from a hiring manager at Meta this week:

Honestly, more of them have been a negative signal than a positive one. I got a few that helped me realize someone who I recommended in the interview doesn’t actually write Meta-level documents.

That’s not good! If you’re putting all the extra work in to a work product, you want it to perform for you.

So, today, we’re going to help you do exactly that.

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Today’s Post

Words: 6,544 | Est. Reading Time: 29 mins

1. The three types of work products

   • Why you need this advice

   • The three types of work products

   • Why work product work—and how to play into that

2. Building work products together

   • ‘Get an interview’ work product

   • ‘In Process’ work product

   • ‘Specific interview’

3. How to up-level these further

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If you only have 1 minute…

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1. An intro to work products

1.1 Why you need this advice

I’ve been talking to a lot of aspiring PMs the past few weeks, and the thing that’s come up most often is: it’s damn hard to get an offer these days.

The first thing I ask anyone when talking to them about job searching is their funnel. And this funnel was shared to me last Thursday by a PM with 9 years of experience:

• 4 months on the job market

• 17 first round interviews

• 11 second rounds

• 3 final rounds

• 0 offers

It’s a depressing drop.

This same PM has never spent a day on the job market before this, because every job in her career landed in her lap while she was in another job.

But when I asked her if she’d submitted any work products? The answer was no. My first inclination was: you need to do more of this!

Here’s why: your competition is.

So, you actually are at a disadvantage if you’re not.

Disclaimer: I’m not saying the interview process should be more work

Yes, I know this is a ton of work in an already soul-sucking process. I’m not saying it’s a good thing it’s come to this.

It’s come to this because of supply and demand. Demand for PM jobs is down. Supply of qualified PMs is up.

In the real world that we live in, the strictly dominant move from PMs is to get jobs with work products—and outshine those who don’t.

1.2 The three types of work products

Here’s what I explained to that PM about the three types of work products to consider.

PSA: One-size fits all doesn’t work

A lot of people I’ve talked to have tried to the ‘industry report’ strategy. The idea is:

• I’ll create this artifact on an industry. It will rock

• With this document, I’ll be able to use it for so many processes

• This way, I’ll get the most of the work product strategy with the least work

Nobody wants you essentially shopping around a blog post or slide deck to get a job.

For everyone I’ve talked to, this strategy hasn’t worked. Instead, I’ve found that very specific work products work best.

The fact is: it shouldn’t seem like you’ve created this work product for anyone else but that person.

Focus on these three types instead

These are the three cases where you would create a bespoke work product:

1. The ‘Get an Interview’ work product

   This is a work product that you build to send to someone in the hopes of getting a referral or an interview.

2. The ‘In Process’ work product

   This is a work product that you share with one or several people at a company during the interview process to differentiate.

3. The ‘Specific Interview’ work product

   This is work product that you create in response to performance in a specific interview.

This doesn’t include assignments they give you during the process. I’ve done a post on that.

When to use which work product

You might not have any idea what any of these things mean. Let’s break down when to employ these tactics.

1. If you’re not getting interviews: Use the ‘Get an interview’ work product

• If you’re having trouble securing offers…

  2. If you’re particularly excited about a role: Use the ‘In process’ work product

  3. If you’re messed up an interview: Use the ‘Specific interview’ work product

1.3 Why work products work—and how to play into that

Before we move there, though, let’s double-click into that Meta hiring manager at the beginning.

They’re getting sent work products, but these are used to disqualify more people than they qualify.

What’s going on here?

• The documents are often no better than an industry report.

• The documents show low work product quality bar that wouldn’t fly there.

• The documents don’t share unique insights that hiring manager has never seen.

So, if we flip these, we can create three principles of great work products:

1. Showcases that you would help create documents that up-level the culture

2. Demonstrate unique insight that’s valuable for the reader in their job

3. Is not a framework or AI regurgitation

These give us principles to lean on as we go through creating our own work products:

1. We’d prefer to be shorter, but more insightful

2. We prefer to draw on unique work or personal insights

3. We will not visit other websites or AI until we begin editing

Playing deeply into the principles in these ways will enable us to create a work product that doesn’t disqualify, it wows.

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2. Building work products together

2.1 ‘Get an Interview’ work product

Today’s Scenario

(This is a fictionalized scenario of a real candidate and work product.)

So let’s begin with type 1, the ‘get an interview’ work product.

Meet Kai Gutierrez. After graduating from UCSD, Kai was a software engineer for 3 years. Then, he became a PM - first at the small biotech startup he was working, and then for 2 years at Tesla.

Unfortunately, a few weeks ago, he was unexpectedly hit by the layoffs at Tesla.

After working 90 hour weeks, he was definitely surprised by the news. And he’s determined to get his next job at a similar brand name to Tesla - only this time, he’s not going to get laid off.

So, he made his layoff post, and immediately got to applying to jobs. After a swell of interviews from his layoff post, though, he hasn’t been able to secure a single interview.

In fact, he’s been ghosted over 50 job applications. A big part of the problem is Kai only want to work at the ~50 companies in the world that have a similar brand name to Tesla.

This is a great scenario where a work product comes in.

1. Kai hasn’t been seeing success with his current strategy

2. He has his eyes set on a relatively few number of companies

3. Kai is available full-time to work on the process, and is used to working 90 hours

Choosing who to Work Product for

You don’t want to spend a bunch of time on a work product only for no one to respond.

So the first task in building a work product is finding someone who:

• You think you can actually reach

• Likely has a real job opening they can refer you to

• Has a known area they are working in so you can deliver value

This is actually not easy. So Kai gets to searching. In the end, he finds someone who looks like a good target:

• Jamie Sharma is active on LinkedIn

• She seems to be the hiring manager for a PM role at GM

• It appears that she works on their onboard software for the Hummer EV

This gives Kai enough information to say, “okay, Jamie, I’m going to create something for you.”

The idea? He’ll send her an InMail with the work product linked.

Creating the work product

Having worked on the onboard software for Tesla, Kai has learned a thing or two about what users care about.

On the other hand, the Hummer team has done far fewer sales and is more used to a traditional GM buyer.

So, he realizes her can share unique insight to Jamie by sharing unique learnings from his time on the Tesla onboard software.

Going a layer deeper: Kai worked in the specific areas of entertainment and performance. It looks like Jame owns the entire on board software team.

But the Hummer team has barely implemented any entertainment features. There’s no video viewing, no video games, no internet browsing.

He sees his opportunity: he’ll put together a quick Notion document sharing insights from his time working entertainment to answer the question ‘Should the Hummer On Board Team Invest in Entertainment?’

He time-boxed 1 hour. And this is what he came up with:

Should the Hummer On Board Team Invest in Entertainment?

Executive Summary

The Hummer EV has an untapped opportunity to outshine luxury SUV competitors like Audi e-tron, Tesla Model X, and Volvo XC90 Recharge by offering a best-in-class in-vehicle entertainment suite. Investing in entertainment features is projected to increase Hummer EV's NPS by 4-7 points, driving an estimated 3,000 incremental sales annually and unlocking $10M+ in yearly subscription revenue. This document outlines the key entertainment features to prioritize, the engineering and cost considerations, a phased rollout plan, and next steps.

Why Listen to Me?

• Former PM for Tesla's In-Car Entertainment, where I launched features that increased NPS by 4 pts and screen time by 2 hrs/wk

• Grew Tesla arcade engagement 20%+ by introducing console integration and multiplayer gaming

• Deep passion for Hummer vehicles and 10+ years following the brand

Understanding the Hummer EV Buyer

Hummer EV buyers are affluent ($175k+ HHI), fun-loving thrill-seekers who value prestige, power and having the latest tech (Hummer EV Owner Study, 2023). While Tesla buyers tend to be efficiency-minded early adopters, Hummer customers are experience-driven and willing to splurge on upgrades that amp up the fun factor.

"If I pull up in my Hummer EV, everyone takes notice. I'm here to make a statement and have a blast while doing it." - Hummer EV Owner, Chicago

Hummer EV Entertainment Roadmap

Phased approach balancing buyer desirability with engineering effort:

Phase 1 (H2 2024)

• 5G-enabled web browsing

• Video streaming (YouTube, Netflix, Hulu)

• Cloud gaming integration (xCloud, PlayStation Plus)

• In-car app store

Phase 2 (H1 2025)

• Immersive video chat (Portal-like experience)

• Virtual concerts/events

• Head-up display gaming

• Backseat VR entertainment

Phase 3 (H2 2025)

• AR windshield games/experiences

• Celebrity voice assistant personas

• Blockchain-enabled digital collectibles platform

Key dependencies: upgrading to Qualcomm Snapdragon Auto Cockpit Platform (adds ~$45/vehicle) in 2024 models to support graphics-intensive features.

Trade-Offs to Consider

• Estimated 12 FTE engineering/design team to build v1, opportunity cost of other initiatives

• +10% battery drain from entertainment use, may require "entertainment mode" that only functions while plugged in

• Strict regulatory requirements and testing for any features used while driving

Opportunity Sizing

Increasing Hummer EV's NPS from 56 to 60 (comparable to Tesla's 7 point entertainment-driven NPS boost) is expected to generate 200 additional sales annually (3.5x the cost of increased chips based on 50K sales) alone.

If we also add subscriptions, e.g. a $19.99/mo subscription after 12 months free:

• 40% attach rate = $9.6M annual recurring revenue

• 60% attach rate = $14.4M ARR

Ancillary benefits include halo effect increasing EV consideration and monetization upside from in-app purchases.

Next Steps

1. Align leadership on entertainment strategy and target KPIs

2. Conduct focus groups with Hummer EV buyers to stack rank entertainment features

3. Socialize engineering requirements and dependencies with EE team

4. Stand up tiger team to build phase 1 prototype in partnership with Mapbox Auto

5. Schedule deep dive on Tesla learnings (happy to broker intros)

Why This Works

I hope you enjoyed Kai’s work product! I think this is the type of thing that would do well.

It demonstrates:

• Kai’s deep industry expertise

• Includes data from Tesla Jamie would find interesting

It's as if Kai wrote a bespoke roadmap for Jamie and her team. It’s showing he can develop the type of work product that Jamie would need from him.

And it gives no sniff of AI-ness anywhere.

How Kai Packages it Up

The day Kai found Jamie on LinkedIn, he sent her a personalized LinkedIn invite with the short message, “Love to connect with onboard software PMs in the industry.”

She accepted! So he doesn’t even have to spend a InMail credit on this Direct Message. (But he would have, by paying for LinkedIn Premium, if she didn’t accept.)

So he sends her the following message:

Jamie, thanks for connecting:

I love what you all are building at Hummer.

I created this Notion document describing what I think could be an interesting opportunity for y’all in Entertainment.

Up to chat more? I think it would be the assignment of a lifetime to work on it with you.

-Kai

Results

It turns out Jamie didn’t respond for 72 hours, so Kai just recorded a quick 2 minute loom summarizing the document:

Hi Jamie -

I recorded a quick Loom about the Hummer On Board Entertainment EV concept here:

I kept it to 118 seconds. Hope it helps!

And then she responded.

That’s the approach I’d recommend for ‘getting an interview'. Notice that while it took some effort, the time investment was reasonable:

• Figuring out she is a good candidate - 30 minutes

• Creating the doc - 60 minutes

• Following up - 5 minutes

It wasn’t like Kai went and spent 6 hours on something that Jamie may never read.

He spent some time on it, but it could help him get the job. And it’s a job he’s clearly qualified for. Plus - it was kinda fun!

The Risks With This

There are a few risks here:

1. Jamie may not respond: But the thing is, Kai would have spent an hour or so customizing his resume and writing his cover letter anyways. Why not try this alternate entry point first?

2. Jamie may not be impressed: As we stated with the Meta interviewer, this might be a risk. But here’s the thing: we basically chose a topic that Kai knows better than most people in the world. That’s the best insurance protection. Choose something you know better than the person you’re sending it to.

3. Jamie may not be looking for an Entertainment PM: This is the flip-side to choosing what you’re an expert in. You might box yourself in. In this case, the posting on GM’s site that Kai found had no details on whether it was entertainment or not. So choosing entertainment was a calculated risk.

Overall, all the risks are addressable - and the time investment was not that bad. It’s definitely worth a try if you’re in a situation similar to Kai.

2.2 ‘In Process’ work product

The Scenario

(Again, most of the details here are real. Just enough are fictionalized.)

Meet Radhika Patel. She’s been a PM for 7 years, but the last 3 years she’s sat on her hands. She’s working at Amazon, but it’s hard as hell.

Since the rounds of layoffs, she’s been working harder than ever. And not accepting the steady stream of inbound interest she’s starting to get again.

But, now she’s ready. She’s popped her head up for her dream role that the recruiter reached out to her for: the AI implementation of Gemini in GSuite.

She’s always admired how Google seemed to treat its employees better, and she thinks they’re one of the few companies who can match her TC. Plus, she wants to break into AI.

So she decides it might be a good time for an in process work product.

It’s a great time:

• It’s one of the few roles she wants

• It’s the only job process she’s in right now

• And she wants this role so badly she’s willing to use vacation days

Choosing the Work Product

Radhika has made it past the recruiter and the hiring manager. Next up is several more onsite rounds.

So she’s thinking she can use this work product as a way to impress the hiring manager.

She decides she wants to write a PRD on an aspect of Gemini’s GSuite implementation.

Part of her prior work at Amazon was on Alexa, so she decides to double click on that. This is an area where she can show some unique insights.

And the goal is not to get in a depth of detail race with other PMs. It’s to showcase her unique skills.

Here’s what she comes up with after 1.5 hours of time boxing:

Product Spec Proposal: Gemini-Powered Voice Assistant for Gmail

tl;dr

Develop a Gemini-Powered Voice Assistant for Gmail that transcribes voice inputs accurately, understands context, and composes high-quality, trustworthy email responses to enhance user productivity and satisfaction.

Why listen to me?

As a PM on Amazon’s Alexa, I’ve been working on the e-mail space for quite some time. In fact, we find that >12% of Alexa actions are now e-mails, up 200% from 3 years ago when I started.

Problem Statement

1. The current Gemini Advanced integration is text-only.

2. The voice transcription solution is literal-only. It is not AI enhanced.

The result is users can’t leverage the power of LLMs with their voice. They either type to use the LLM or use their voice for transcription.

Gmail users need a voice assistant that not just accurately transcribes, but understands context, recalls relevant info, and composes coherent responses users can trust.

Goals

User Goals:

• Quickly compose professional emails from natural voice

• Trust Gemini-generated content captures intent and tone

• Streamline workflows on mobile and desktop

Business Goals:

• Decrease Gmail churn >2%

• Boost Gmail user satisfaction 10%+

• Drive adoption of Gemini voice APIs >5%

• Establish Gemini as leader in AI voice communication

Non-Goals:

• Other email client integration for initial launch

• Real-time multi-user email collaboration

User Stories

Persona: Business Development Manager

Story: Alex, a Business Development Manager, is preparing for an important client meeting. He needs to send a follow-up email to recap next steps and confirm the client's interest. With Gemini Voice for Gmail, Alex simply says: "Compose an email to John to make sure he's excited for our meeting tomorrow."

• Gemini Action: Gemini scans the email thread, identifies key points from the previous meeting, and drafts a professional message.

• Drafted Email:

Hi John,

I'm looking forward to our meeting tomorrow at 2 PM. As discussed, I'll be presenting the product roadmap and new pricing tiers. Please come prepared with your questions and feedback.

To recap our previous meeting:
- You expressed interest in the premium features and requested a custom demo
- I committed to sending over the latest case studies and ROI data
- We agreed to discuss a potential pilot project pending executive approval

Please let me know if you need any additional information before we meet. I'm excited to continue our partnership discussion.

Best,
Alex

Persona: Customer Support Lead

Story: Emily, a Customer Support Lead, is handling a complex customer escalation. She needs to send a detailed reply addressing multiple issues and outlining the resolution steps. Pressed for time, Emily uses Gemini Voice: "Compose an email response to Karen addressing her billing issue, feature request, and support complaint. Apologize for the delay, explain the resolution steps, and offer a goodwill credit."

Gemini Action: Gemini analyzes the customer's email and the support ticket history, uses its knowledge base to then generate a comprehensive reply.

• Drafted Email:

Dear Karen,

Thank you for your patience and for bringing these issues to our attention. I apologize for the delayed response.

Regarding the billing issue, I've confirmed that the overcharge was due to a system error. We've processed a full refund of $50 to your account, which should appear within 2-3 business days. As a gesture of goodwill, we've also applied a $20 credit toward your next invoice.

For the feature request, I've forwarded your suggestion to our product team for consideration in our upcoming roadmap. We appreciate your feedback and will keep you updated on any developments.

Lastly, I want to assure you that we take your concerns about support responsiveness seriously. We've been experiencing higher than usual volume, but we're actively hiring and training additional staff. We're committed to providing timely, helpful support and will work diligently to improve our response times.

Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns. We value your business and are dedicated to ensuring your satisfaction.

Sincerely,  
Emily  
Customer Support Lead

Pricing and Packaging

Pursue a free for consumers strategy to encourage adoption and stickiness of Gmail. This will have a cost in inference computation and will need to be weighed carefully.

Use the free for users to get enterprise customers to pay and also adopt Gemini voice APIs. This is where the revenue will be earned back in multiples.

Competitive Landscape

There’s an opportunity for Gmail + Gemini Voice to leapfrog competitors with human-like email composition, context awareness, and privacy-centric user controls.

• Alexa Mail: Transcribes voice and reads emails, but has limited composition and personalization capabilities. Misunderstands context in >20% of queries (per latest internal data).

• Siri: Basic dictation for short email replies. Cannot compose standalone emails or manage inbox hands-free.

• Microsoft Copilot: Recently expanded email features but still lacks deep understanding of voice intent and relevant info retrieval.

• ChatGPT is not integrated into the e-mail inbox, so users have to copy paste which is cumbersome.

Key Use Cases for Phase 1

Prioritized most important use cases:

1. Rapid Response: Users can quickly reply to emails with short, contextual responses generated from their voice prompt. Example: "Reply to John's last email and let him know the agenda looks good. I'll send the slides by EOD."

2. Detailed Composition: For longer, multi-paragraph emails, users can specify key points to hit and rely on the assistant to compose a thoughtful message. Example: "Draft an email to the team with a project status update. Cover last week's progress, key roadblocks, and next steps. Aim for about 5 paragraphs."

User Experience

We envision 3 key elements of the UX (to be confirmed in design exploration phase):

• Intuitive Onboarding: After enabling the assistant, users are guided through example commands and tips to get started.

• Unobtrusive Interface: The assistant can be invoked via a microphone icon in the compose window or a hotkey. Generated content appears directly inline for seamless review and editing.

• Controls: Users can adjust the assistant's verbosity, set context windows, and control output with intuitive voice commands. Privacy controls allow selective assistant access.

Technical Considerations

1. Training: Leverage the Gemini Advanced integration that already has trained Gemini 1.5 on email corpus for domain understanding.

2. Improvement: Employ reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF) to align outputs with user intent. Reward alignment with user-defined goals and values.

3. Pre-Testing: Adversarial training and content filtering for safe outputs. Red team the model to proactively identify and mitigate misuse risks.

Key Features (Phased)

Phase 1:

• Voice email composition for rapid responses

• Detailed composition for longer emails

Phase 2:

• Basic reading and inbox management

• Advanced inbox triage and categorization

• Voice scheduling and task management

Phase 3:

• Multi-modal input (text + voice)

• Cross-platform unification on mobile

• Google Workspace app integrations

Go-To-Market Plan

1. Position Gemini Voice as intuitive, trustworthy AI email assistant. Emphasize privacy, control, and seamless UX.

2. Pre-launch beta with power users to build buzz. Coordinated PR on AI innovation and productivity. Targeted marketing to drive activations.

3. Partner with Google Workspace sales to drive enterprise adoption. Showcase Gemini Voice at Google Next and industry events.

Success Metrics

Output Quality:

• Perceived quality score >4.5/5 for 95% of emails

• BLEU >0.9 vs human emails, on par sentiment & grammar

Engagement:

• 30%+ weekly usage, 15%+ of emails composed in 6 mo.

Productivity:

• 20% user reported productivity gain

• 50% faster avg. email response time

Trust:

• "Trust in assistant" score >90%

• Maintain 95%+ trust rating over time

Business Impact:

• 20M+ incremental monthly Gemini API calls in 12 mo.

• 10% boost in Workspace upgrades from Gemini Voice

Privacy & Security

• All email data encrypted at-rest and in-transit. Strict access controls and auditing. No raw email data sent to Gemini APIs.

• Users control Gemini permissions. Admins set org-wide policies. Dedicated privacy counsel and security incident response.

• External audits and pen testing. Publish transparency reports.

• Proactive user education on AI best practices and data hygiene.

Phases to GA

• Early access program with select Workspace customers in Sales/Customer Success

• Trusted Tester program with users who have previously enabled Gmail accessibility features

• Public launch with joint PR campaign across Gmail and Google Assistant properties

• In-app education and discovery for voice features, with tips based on user's email volume/frequency

• Spotlight demos and testimonials from power users and accessibility advocates

Why Gemini?

Gemini's groundbreaking language models, trained on web-scale data, bring unprecedented linguistic understanding and generation to email. Proprietary few-shot learning and RLHF techniques enable rapid personalization.

Built-in privacy safeguards, adversarial training, and human oversight instill user trust. Enterprise-grade security and compliance features appeal to businesses.

Gemini's scalable inference architecture enables more parameters and compute per request vs. competitors, powering richer interactions.

But that has been mostly locked behind a Gemini Advanced subscription. Now it will be more widely available.

If this is successful…

Gemini Voice in Gmail can be just the beginning. The same voice assistant technology can expand across all of Google Workspace, unlocking transformative productivity gains.

It showcases the strategic power of Gemini as an end-to-end AI platform for building trustworthy, user-aligned language products.

Why this works

Radhika's work product succeeds on several fronts:

1. This document shows significant interest in the role. It’s specific to the charter this hiring manager has.

2. Plus, it’s specific to the experiences of the candidate.

3. Lastly, it showcases Radhika's command of product management best practices.

It’s a fun little preview for the hiring manager of the type of features that Radhika could lead given her expertise in voice assistants. So, it’s not likely someone else chose this exact feature and developed a better PRD.

Worst case, compared to candidates who didn’t do this work, it shows Radhika really cares about the role.

(If you’re wondering how Aakash/Radhika wrote this PRD in 1.5 hours, check out his PRD guide.)

How Radhika packages it

Radhika had the interview with the hiring manager, and they both already exchanged Thank You’s. So she decided to reply in that thread itself:

It was my pleasure! I’m really excited about the role.

Have you all thought about a Gemini-powered Gmail reply assistant? I think it could be really compelling.

In fact, I like the idea so much I thought I would sketch out a quick product proposal PRD (WIP).

It’d be so cool to work on stuff like this full-time.

-Radhika

In the example that we’ve fictionalized, Radhika got the role - and joined Google.

The hiring manager had this to stay after she started:

That work product was really cool! I loved that you did that extra work. No one else actually did that, which was a huge sign to me that you go the extra mile.

2.3 ‘Specific Interview’ work product

The final scenario

Let’s end with a final scenario that a work product really makes sense: you’ve gone and messed up an interview.

It happens to the best of us.

Let’s take an example that one of my mentees faces late last year.

• The interviewer asked: what was your favorite product? She nailed it.

• Then the interviewer asked: how would you improve it? She flubbed it by jumping into solutions.

Now her options were kind of limited. She may have lost the interview entirely.

But, actually, she felt they were on the edge. So, she decided: why not take some time to enhance my chances?

Choosing a work product

My mentee and I brainstormed a few options:

1. Share a PRD for one of your improvements

2. Share a problem exploration for not jumping to solutions

3. Share a potential roadmap creation process for your favorite product

Ultimately, we decided to work on a problem exploration document that would show she doesn’t normally jump into solutions.

Starting with the packaging

Before jumping into the work product we actually worked on packaging it so we could go backwards:

Hey Jeremy,

It was great to meet today and discuss my favorite product, Robinhood! I realized that I kind of “jumped into solutions” (the cardinal PM sin.)

That’s actually not my style outside of an interview setting. So I decided to write up a quick doc outlining my typical approach.

Thanks - Cindy

So now that we knew what we were trying to show, I let her create the doc. She ended up creating something like this:

Problem Space Exploration: Robinhood

In our interview, I chose Robinhood as my favorite product. When asked how I would improve it, I immediately started proposing solutions without first thoroughly exploring and framing the problem space.

This document outlines the approach I would typically take to deeply understand the problem space before generating solutions.

1 - Analyze Key Metrics to Assess Current State

• Conduct a comprehensive analysis of core engagement metrics:

  • DAU/MAU ratios, session length, screens per visit - look for concerning trends or drop-offs

  • Conversion rates at each key funnel stage (e.g. sign-up to funded account)

  • Retention/churn rates and cohort behavior over time to identify "leaky bucket" areas

• Benchmark all KPIs against key competitors (e.g. Webull, M1 Finance, Public) to spot areas of underperformance

• Map out detailed user journeys to pinpoint specific points of friction and hypothesize root causes

2 - Rigorous User Research to Uncover Pain Points

• Conduct in-depth user interviews and surveys, carefully segmenting by key personas, to reveal:

  • Motivations for using Robinhood and investing in general

  • Key challenges, unmet needs, and points of confusion or frustration

  • Desired features/capabilities and willingness to pay

• Perform sentiment analysis on app store reviews, social media discussions, Reddit forums to uncover themes

• Shadow customer support to hear user issues firsthand, categorize top call drivers and map to product areas

• Analyze actual user behavior data to identify common flows, interaction patterns, rage clicking, etc.

3 - Comprehensive Competitive Analysis

• Deconstruct each key competitor's user experience end-to-end to compare:

  • Core features and unique selling propositions

  • Pricing and business models

  • Onboarding flows and educational resources

  • Customer support availability and quality

• Benchmark competitors' app store ratings, reviews, and rankings in key search terms

• Mystery shop competitors to assess product, brand, and support experiences

4 - Align with Internal Stakeholders and Company Strategy

• Interview executives on near and long-term product vision, strategic priorities, and success metrics

• Work closely with finance to model revenue and customer impact of solving each problem area

• Collaborate with engineering to understand technical complexity, dependencies, and roadmap fit

• Sync with customer-facing teams (support, sales, account management) on top user issues and requests

• Ensure alignment between surfaced problems and company/product line OKRs

5 - Synthesize Problems and Define Opportunities

• Cluster all findings into discrete problem statements with supporting evidence and metrics

• Scope and prioritize problems based on:

  • User reach and business impact (quantify with metrics where possible)

  • Severity in blocking key user and business goals

  • Alignment with product strategy and vision

  • Confidence in understanding and ability to solve

  • Level of effort and dependencies to address

• Craft problem statements into clear opportunity areas:

  • "How might we enable users to optimize their portfolios like advanced investors do, in order to increase engagement and assets under management by X%?"

  • "How might we reduce top reasons for users maintaining accounts with competitors, in order to boost retention and primary account status by Y%?"

Next Steps

• Align with leadership on top 2-3 problem/opportunity areas to pursue

• Conduct solution brainstorming and prioritization for each problem

• Scope MVPs and craft initial product specs and wireframes

• Define success metrics and ship incrementally while continuing to learn and iterate

What This Might Have Looked Like in an Interview

If we were to simulate through such a process, we might imagine that several themes emerge as potential opportunity areas, like:

1. The business is highly tied to the price of Bitcoin, showing the need to create other engagement triggers for trading outside of crypto

2. Many users feel they lack the tools to optimize their portfolios like seasoned investors can

3. Users want access to more international markets like Interactive Brokers offers

4. There’s many people who have money in other brokerages because they’re worried about Robinhood’s tax reporting

5. The information on stocks is relatively weak compared to the competition

From there, I would try to prioritize. In an interview setting, we could prioritize problems that: reach a lot of people, are severe, and align to the strategy.

Based on this quick prioritization, we’d prioritize that users feel like they can’t optimize like more advanced financial institutions.

After prioritizing these problems, I’d work through solution exploration: features like Sharpe ratio, automate rebalancing, and other objective functions.

Of course, the actual problem space exploration and prioritization would be more thorough in real life.

I hope that gives a better overview of my process!

Why this Works

This document is not too long, and it shows the candidate does not necessarily have the gap they showed in the interview.

It kind of relates to everyone’s ability to go too quickly on an interview.

For my mentee, a document like this made a real difference. The interviewer replied:

Wow, thanks for all this extra work! I hear you. We can all jump to solutions sometimes.

Thanks for sharing this approach.

And she moved on to the next round. It worked.

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3. How to up-level these further

In this post, we’ve gone through highly tactical and achievable work products. These show extra effort against our peers and potentially wow the hiring manager.

But what if you want to go even further?

Some people just want to do a few interview processes and secure all of them.

These documents were all done in quick, time boxed blocks. But you could go further (in fact, in the past, I have).

These are the main ways to extend the work product:

Make personal decisions about whether to do these. Here’s how I would rank them:

Worthwhile if you have time

1. User Research - Interviews: These are my go-to. If you can say something like, “I talked to 4 customers of yours,” this can be really compelling. It shows you didn’t just write a document. You talked to people and are ready to when on the job.

2. Customer/ User Quotes: These are relatively low work. You can find G2 or Amazon reviews, for instance. Using sources like these can be great ways to make your problems more concrete and supported.

3. Customer/ User Data: These can be a bit more work to collect and find, but they can add a lot to your work. Data and user insights are the lifeblood of PM work, so it’s worth doing if you can.

4. Customer/ User Emails: E-mailing customers can be a lot less work than actual interviews. You can just message people. And sometimes, the quotes are just as usable. But, usually, the insights aren’t as deep for you as real interviews.

Only for things you really love:

1. User Research - Survey: Doing a survey can be a great way to collect data to support a problem or solution. And people will be impressed you’ve done it. But it’s lots of work.

2. Talk to People at the company: Finding people at the company to talk to you can be tough, but it can also be a good source of insights. You can learn what folks actually care about: metrics, problems, and the like.

3. Lo-Fi Wireframes: Wireframes are controversial. Some people love them. Others don’t want PMs making them. Usually, they make your PRD better. But, to avoid negative reception from some folks, they’re not always high priority.

Just too much work:

1. Tighten Up Doc: These documents are all 7/10 quality. They were timeboxed. We could spend 5 more hours and make them an 8, 15 more hours a 9, and 40 hours a 10. But it’s usually not worth it, in my opinion. The idea is to meet the minimum bar to wow them with your extra effort.

2. Product Corner Case Analysis: You could analyze every nook and cranny to the product, and it minimizes the risk that your PRD is totally off base. But it takes so much work, and some people believe it’s design’s job, so I often don’t recommend it.

3. Competitor Research: This is one of those things that takes a lot of time and matters theoretically, but in an interview process, people tend to look down on competitor-driven decisions. So it’s not always worth the squeeze.

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Key Takeaways

1. Stand out in a competitive PM job market by crafting tailored work products that showcase your skills and initiative

2. The three most effective types of work products are: "Get an Interview," "In Process," and "Specific Interview"

3. Focus on delivering unique insights, demonstrating your product sense, and aligning your work product to the company's needs and culture

4. While additional research and polish can enhance your work product, be mindful of the time invested and prioritize the highest-impact improvements

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Final Words

And that’s it for work products! I hope these real stories that have been fictionalized, and the example documents, give you a better idea of what you need to build.

These techniques work. So go out and get your jobs - just don’t send stuff that actually disqualifies you.

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Up Next

Aakash here—As promised, I’m going to pick up the posting cadence to write about more things at less depth.

Here’s what I have planned next:

1. PM skills: All about AI PM

2. Getting a PM Job: Getting a job as a PM at Meta, 100 companies to catapult your career, How to use a product portfolio to land jobs, How to work backwards from your ideal job, Indian PM compensation benchmarks

3. Product Strategy and Leadership: Sales-led pricing models, A deep dive into the motions of Attio

See you then,

Aakash