By Teresa Torres · producttalk.org · @ttorres on X · LinkedIn
Teresa Torres interviews Oded Korczyn, who moved into his first formal product management role at AfterCollege despite never having held one. Oded draws on his anthropology background and startup experience, where he acted as product leader while wearing many hats. Torres highlights how he researched the company and its executives, tailored his interview answers to each stakeholder's unspoken concerns, and reframed past responsibilities in product terms. The piece matters because it shows that product experience can be built and presented from adjacent roles, not just granted by title.
01Key takeaways
- Research the company, its executives, and its product thoroughly before interviewing, and come with specific questions and ideas.
- Identify the unspoken concerns of each interviewer and address them directly in your answers.
- Reframe adjacent experience by highlighting the parts that resemble product work rather than listing every responsibility.
- You can build product experience without writing code or starting a company, by doing product work and showing it.
- Close skill gaps proactively, such as with a targeted course, before and after you are hired.
02Key sections
- Motivation and background
- Oded explains he wanted product work because he enjoyed it at his startup, and his anthropology PhD and startup roles gave him relevant grounding in human behavior and building products.
- Standing out in interviews
- He addressed the unstated concerns of each interviewer, reassuring the CEO about commitment, the VP of engineering about ramp-up speed, and engineers about respectful collaboration.
- Advice for first-time PMs
- Oded recommends thorough preparation before interviews and targeted learning afterward, such as taking an agile course to get up to speed.
- Torres's analysis
- Torres identifies three strengths: knowing the audience, framing past experience in product terms, and closing skill gaps deliberately.
03From the post
“This post is part of the So You Want To Be a Product Manager series. Over the past two weeks, I've talked about how you don't need experience to become a product manager and how you can gain experience right now. I regularly hear from folks who want”
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.