Micro-Interview: Daniel Ivanov, Product Manager | Siteground
💬 "For a significant part of my life, I have struggled with failure (avoiding it). Failure is a friend, not an enemy."
INTRO NOTE:
Daniel Ivanov is a Product Manager at Siteground, a Bulgarian privately owned web hosting company that accounts for about 2.8m domains worldwide (2.1% of all websites).
In under 500 words, he shares:
How he got into product management…
How he starts his mornings for maximum productivity…
Some of his sources of learning…
And more…
Enjoy!
“How did you get into product management?”
Throughout my career, I’ve taken various roles - water technology engineer (also my Bachelor’s), people management, business development and sales, commercial excellence, and eventually product management.
When I first discovered and liked product management, entering was tough as I had no IT work experience. It was inevitable that I first educated myself on the role specifics, best practices, and tools and got to know more product folks to learn from.
“How do you start your mornings at work?”
Breakfast in the office restaurant and laughing before the workday starts mean a lot to me. Work-related: I usually finish my workdays by making a list of priorities for the day after. When I arrive at work the morning after, I remind myself of all current priorities from that list. This practice gives me a soft start.
“What do you know about product management now that you wish you’d known when you first started?”
Failure is a friend, not an enemy. For a significant part of my life, I have struggled with failure (avoiding it).
Early in my product journey, I realized that overcoming that fear of failure is an absolute must and must happen as soon as possible.
Luckily, the nature of the product craft is abundant in opportunities.
“What did your biggest product failure teach you?”
A sense of urgency for product-market fit + shorter time-to-market eventually translates into a lower cost.
Therefore, get that crippled piece of software to the people asap (product or functionality), then test and improve.
Another one is not knowing how to make good product decisions. This task remains impossible unless we have the right product metrics, actively use customer feedback, and observe and analyze customer behavior.
“What’s the #1 thing that has helped you shorten your product management learning curve?”
Kicking off my product career as the only PM in an IoT product start-up felt like a deep-water ocean I had jumped into. At least it provided plenty of freedom to experiment, fail, and learn quickly. It has been 1-2 years since I was into the craft, and I realized this was very valuable for my learning.
“How do you stay updated on the best practices in product management?”
The materials below have supported my journey so far.
The self-paced online courses by Mind the Product & Pendo.io are very relevant:
· Product Analytics
· Product-Led
Books I found useful:
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries: The Lean Startup
Sprint by Jake Knapp: Sprint
Software in 30 Days by Ken Schwaber: Software in 30 Days
Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres: Continuous Discovery Habits
Measure What Matters by John Doerr: Measure What Matters
The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick: The Mom Test
The 1-page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib: The 1-page Marketing Plan
Zero to One by Peter Thiel: Zero to One