Are our female counterparts in Product deemed less?
+ hot takeaways on product-market fit from our SochCafe
Kya haal hen, SochCity k rihaayishyon!
We are truly humbled by how you all regularly show up in our SochCafe meetups and strive to give back to the community. Aap hain toh hum hain, in its true literal sense.
In this edition of our weekly Sochnama, we shall have you taste something different from our cuisine - something more intense than the usual tips. We will talk about:
State of Women in Product Management
Hot takeaways on product-market fit from our SochCafe
Sochology episode featuring Saeed Khan
SochCast episode with Moe Ali (Product Faculty)
Latest discussions from Slack
Latest product jobs
State of Women in Product Management
As we are slowly washing ourselves away from Women’s Day celebrations, we at Product Soch, would like to take this opportunity to share a report on the State of Women in Product Management.
Women PMs face additional challenges as compared to their male counterparts.
only 19% of women received formal training from their employer vs. 35% of men
women were 35% more likely than men to report challenges based on a lack of mentorship
women were 2x as likely as men to report challenges based on respect.
women were 2x as likely as men to report challenges based on a lack of tech degree
women were 3x more likely than men to report challenges based on identity-based discrimination
Even in a nascent product economy as Pakistan’s, most women PMs agree to have faced more resistance than their male counterparts, especially in areas of leading an initiative or making critical decisions.
“One of the hardest things of being a woman in tech today are the microaggressions we feel during our daily conversations. With more diversity, there will be more awareness and education on how to approach these nuances.” - PARTICIPANT, 2020 PRODUCT MANAGEMENT SURVEY
If we are to truly embrace equity, and foster women to be part of the modern workspace — we need to revisit our ways and employ a structured process to remove unconscious bias be it during annual promotions or determining wages for fresh recruits.
Read more on the report here.
🔥 Hot Takeaways on Product-Market Fit
Karachi Soch Cafe
This was Product Soch's fifth #Karachi SochCafe session, and it seemed like a long-awaited meetup for our Sochfam! The energy in the room was tangible before we began, and it only fired up as our conversation took shape.
The topic was one of utmost interest: Finding a Product-Market-Fit and we manoeuvred our way till the end with a handful of giggles at the Laugh station, and a few subtle sighs at the Rant stop. What’s a PM meet-up without some drama, huh!?
🔥 Hot Takeaways
💡 A product-market fit is not a binary state. You do not just reach it and there’s no going back. Even when you feel like you’ve come close to hitting your PMF, you have to continuously strive to maintain that position.
💡 Determining a PMF starts with something as granular as trying to put yourself in the customer’s shoes. While we may have heard it a thousand times, we as PMs, being in our privileged yet confined workspaces may forget what circumstances our target audience faces. Let’s truly empathize before we strategize.
💡 Who’s responsible for hitting the PMF? While this garnered a few controversial answers, we all firmly concluded that if you, as a PM, are given the stakes in your organisation to determine the direction in which your product is going, then it sure is expected of you to steer it towards PMF. While this level of control is not easily seen in the Pakistani ecosystem, we discussed how critical it is for the product folks to take accountability of their decisions and step up their game.
💡 How do you measure PMF? Faisal Khushnood, leading product at Sastaticket.pk came up with some really good metrics such as the well-known Sean Ellis survey, Toothbrush test by Larry of Google, NPS scores and hitting a point within your retention curve where it becomes a constant rather a decline. These were interesting to discuss and you can read more about each one of them in comments.
💡 What is important for a product who has seemingly hit a PMF to continue to stay relevant? Continuous Discovery. An excellent point brought by a young PM Hassan Zia at PureVPN Business - always be on a lookout for ‘how’ your audience perceives the problem rather than ‘what’ they are saying they want as a solution. We discussed an example of how Careem had established itself as a market leader — InDrive came in and introduced ‘the power of choice’ and ‘negotiation’ that resonated deeply with our budget-loving Pakistani folks, and see where it got them.
🧠 Sochology EduSeries: Webinars for PM Learning
Recent Session: Sochology # 13 - Saeed Khan
This week on Sochology, Saeed Khan - who brings over 25 years of experience and leadership in Product Management and is currently Founder at Transformation Labs! Listen him talk about Creating Strategic Roadmaps, which is something we very often take for granted.
Past Sessions
In case you missed it, make sure you catch the past Sochology sessions on our Youtube channel e.g.
Episode 12: Alejandro Simkievich, founder of Produkando (http://produkando.io) took stage to share his wisdom on the different stages of a product.
Episode 11: JJ Rorie, author of the book IMMUTABLE: 5 Truths of Great Product Managers, shared ways on Improving our Judgment & Decision Making for Better Products.
Episode 10: Zeeshan Syed, author of the course Tech Talk for Non-Developers, expanded on how Product Managers can be fluent in speaking tech.
Episode 9: Reham Fawad, senior product leader at PointClickCare, spoke about the importance of data when storytelling.
Episode 8: Christian Idiodi, partner at SVPG, shared what it takes to be a great Product Manager.
🎙 SochCast Podcast Episodes
Fresh out: Building a Product Strategy feat. Moe Ali
In this week’s episode of SochCast, Abdul Ghaffar sits down with the one and only - Moe Ali, the CEO and Founder of Product Faculty - to unpack product strategy and discuss the impact AI will have on product management.
Throughout the episode, Moe shares his insights on what a good product strategy looks like and how PMs can build one. Moe also expands on the single most important trait that great Product Managers possess.
Whether you are a seasoned Product Manager or just starting out in the field, this episode offers valuable insights and practical tips to help you succeed. Tune in to hear Moe Ali in a thoughtful and engaging conversation about all things product strategy.
Watch the full episode Spotify Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts
Past Episodes
In case you missed it, a couple of interesting episodes we recommend:
Tech Entrepreneurship in Pakistan featuring Yasser Bashir.
Abdul sat down with Yasser Bashir - CEO & Co-founder of Arbisoft - one of Pakistan’s largest software firms. Yasser spoke candidly on the investment/funding future for startups in Pakistan, the impact of AI on the tech landscape & advice for tech entrepreneurs. This is a must-listen for anyone looking to scale their startup.
Watch now Apple Podcasts Spotify Google PodcastsRole of AI in Product Management featuring Ali Rehan.
Ali Rehan, Director of Engineering at Motive. They dove deep into the role AI will play in the future of products, how AI product management is different from other types of PM roles & the ethics of AI. This is a must-listen for those who are planning to venture into this field.
Watch now Apple Podcasts Spotify Google PodcastsTeaching Product Management featuring Clement Kao.
Clement talked about the traits of great Product Managers, how AI will change things in the future & makes some great reading recommendations.
Watch now Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts
💬 Slack Discussions
Interesting Threads
On Slack, there are lot of interesting discussions on documentation, design, etc. Clearly, our community of PMs are leveraging ChatGPT for the first draft of their PRDs, and Figma is clearly our folks’ favourite!
Do you want to dive into the conversation? Zyada sochiye mat - join us on slack.productsoch.com.
💼 Jobs Posted
Product Soch is looking for energetic volunteers to drive our vision of helping PMs in Pakistan build globally admired products. If you’re interested, you can apply here.
Are you in the market for jobs? Well, our Slack group’s #job-portal channel has been blowing up with interesting vacancies.
For example, these employers are looking for product peeps with solid soch:
Buscaro is looking for a Performance Specialist. Email resumes here. Mention Product Soch when you apply!
A global fintech player is looking for senior PMs (5+ years) in Karachi. Email here.
Product specialist role for EMI Product (OneZapp). Read more here, and apply here.
Product Manager role at Pattern Technologies. Read more about the job here. Apply here.
If you or someone you know is looking for options, you might want to jump into our Slack.
May the Soch be with you.
Salaam,
Sarrah Moiz