Vikrama Dhiman heads all things product at Gojek, including product management, design, program management, and research, across Indonesia, Singapore and India.

The 3 W’s framework for PM career growth:

• What you produce?
  • Start by focusing on your outputs
  • Don‘t lose sight of outputs when you start focusing on outcomes
• What you bring to the table?
  • Impact through the artifacts that you work on
• What’s your operating model?
  • Main pillars or axis of knowledge
    • Data and metrics
    • Design and research
    • Technology
    • Strategy
  • Essential skills if you are going from mid-senior to senior level
    • Communication skills
    • Collaboration skills
    • Organizational skills
    • Community skills

How to work with others and other stakeholders:

• Raise difficult issues without being difficult to work with
• Bring out important topics without drawing importance to yourself
• Be able to get decisions made without having to make all the decisions yourself

When transitioning to the Product Management role?

Focus on improving the more relevant aspects of “What’s your operating model?”

User Story Maps
Backlog as a User Story Map

Idea Funnel Backlog
Idea Funnel Backlog feeding into a Kanban board

Opportunity Backlog
Splitting your backlog into two — Opportunity backlog for discovery and Development for delivery.

Classes of Work Backlog
Divide your backlog into multiple smaller backlogs based on different classes of work.

Tree Backlog
Tree backlogs are great for complex products with many different feature sets.

Impact Map Backlog
Impact maps are great for ideating many alternative paths towards a particular outcome.

Circle Backlog
Circle backlogs are perfect for creating ‘slices’ to categorise your work whilst still maintaining a holistic view in one place.

Conversion Funnel Backlog
Conversion Funnel backlogs are great for early and growth stage products with clear conversions.