Life as a program manager at Microsoft

September 27, 2020

It’s a trend: A product manager job is in the top five careers trending today. At Microsoft PM stands for a Program Manager, which is equivalent to a Technical Product Manager or Product Manager role in other tech companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc.

Hi, My name is Ankita Mishra I am a Program Manager at Microsoft from the past 1.5 years. I did my undergrad in chemical engineering and then masters in business and information systems before I joined Microsoft. Wow! You would say that was crazy- a chemical engineer turned PM- well yes! People from different kinds of backgrounds can transition into PM if you have the curiosity. The role and responsibilities of Product managers vary based on the type and size of the company. At Microsoft, it varies according to the type of product, customers, org, team, etc.

What is a Program/Product Manager(PM)

A product manager is a person who sits at the intersection of technology, business, and user experience. A common analogy for a PM is that they are the CEO of the product, well you can say that. PMs are responsible for representing the customer needs, strategy, collaboration, leadership, competitive analysis, research etc. but without the power of a CEO. Yep, you have read that correctly- as a PM you need to manage- designers, developers, legal, supply chain, finance, customers, etc. without the authority. An example can be Steve Jobs. He wasn’t one of the best coders or builders but he was the conductor of an orchestra. He guided and managed the smartest people to make one of the best products one can think of. So in the world of technology he acted like a PM.

Life as a PM at Microsoft

I work as a feature PM in the Microsoft Search admin and analytics team in the O365 org. Every podcast on program management or a book will tell how different a day to day in the life of a PM can be and that is so true. It is majorly comprised of meetings, strategic work, management, communication with partners, stakeholders, customers, designers, developers, and a lot more. My major responsibilities include- competitive analysis, research, product vision, building a roadmap, interact with customers to get feedback, writing a spec for a new feature, working across teams with engineering, customer support, design, marketing, etc. from ideation through launch and beyond release. A typical PM job has 5 stages.

1. Envision stage

As a PM the first thing is to identify a problem that you will try to solve. Data and customers are your real friends during this stage. Data helps you plan the use cases, competition already in the market if any, or probable ideas on what new features customers are looking for in your existing products. Talking to customers is yet another great tool in this stage. Customers can share feedback, what problems/gaps they are facing or what they would want to see in the product. The most important thing to remember in this stage is- a good product is customer-centric and tries to solve a customer problem. Microsoft is huge in keeping customers at the center of the design of every product.

2. Design stage

The next stage is about prioritization which features are good for the customers. After you share the features, the customer need, and the roadmap- a feature when picked up should present user scenarios or designs on how a user will interact with the feature. This step is crucial as engineering will be involved post the designs are ready and will be coding according to the UX/UI experience. Mockups, defining clear requirements to developers, tracking the progress, defining KPI’s and testing are critical elements of this stage. Microsoft is huge on accessibility and making a product/feature as accessible as possible, the design should consider the accessibility element.

3. Prototype and Testing stage

Prototyping is testing the feature or product that you and your team built on various scenarios and use cases. Testing the design on accessibility cases as well are critical in this stage. Logging and triaging the errors make an important element of this stage.

4. Launch stage

Post the testing and the feature meeting all necessary metrics and criteria there comes the fine day every PM waits for- launching the feature/product. The hard work of various teams and individuals finally come to life on the launch day. Having proper marketing channels for the announcement and proper feedback channel for the customers is important to track the bugs if any.

5. Evolve stage

Once a product/feature is launched, the job of a PM is not done- it has just started. Making sure the product is doing well, all bugs filed by customers are resolved, what can be done to improve the feature/product are important things to consider in this stage.

Conclusion

PM may have completely different responsibilities and roles within the same company as well. Like I said it is very important to narrow down what company are you looking at, what team, who are the users(consumers or enterprise), and familiarize yourself with that role. But all PMs have one thing in common- a lot of meetings in a day. After this pandemic, I sometimes have meetings 8 am to 5 pm, which means working on my day-to-day work post 5 pm. Nevertheless, I love being a PM at Microsoft. Microsoft as a company gives me immense opportunity to design products without any bias and keeping in mind accessibility. It helps me empower people all around the world and the experience is quite fulfilling.

If you are looking into PM roles, please comment below your specific questions and I will reply to the best of my knowledge. As well as if you are working as a PM and have some pointers, comment below. Also please feel free to follow me on IG- ankita.mishra04 or LinkedIn.

9 COMMENTS

• SRI SEPTEMBER 27, 2020 AT 9:36 PM Thanks for sharing! This is definitely very insightful

• MAHENDRA PRAKASH SEPTEMBER 28, 2020 AT 8:06 AM Hi, I came across through LinkedIn and I am impressed with your writing skills.

  • BITTY BABU OCTOBER 3, 2020 AT 1:29 PM Hi Ankita, This was a very helpful post, giving an insight on a day to day work of a PM. Thanks for sharing your experience, and thanks for taking time to answer our questions as well. I have recently started my Master’s in Business Analytics, and though I am looking to work in the BI field, a lot of people who know me have suggested that a PM role would suit me very well too. Hence, I was curious about how you went into PM after your Master’s? What were the courses you took? What courses/skills should I build on if I want to break in to this field? Many thanks again for your guidance! Cheers! Bitty

• VINAY TIWARI SEPTEMBER 28, 2020 AT 8:47 AM Hii Ankita Ma’am, ma’am how much cgpa is required for University of Arizona for mba programme and ma’am how much cgpa you had scored in engineering ??

• SHALINI SEPTEMBER 28, 2020 AT 4:18 PM Hi Ankita, I have been recently referred to a PM role in microsoft and was wondering where to start, and your post was helpful. Could you please help with the the information related to microsoft PM interview process? Do we have technical questions or is it more behavioral and process related ? Thanks !

• ALOK DUBEY SEPTEMBER 28, 2020 AT 9:57 PM Hey Ankita, Thanks for such a platform where we get to know more about the PM day to day role and responsibilities. Recently i started my career in Product analytics and looking forward to pursue APM and PM role in future.. It would be great if you can guide me in this process Thanks for the post

• ADI OCTOBER 2, 2020 AT 11:55 AM Ankita, Could you please mentor me.. I want to plan my career ahead as a PM.. I tried reaching you out on LinkedIn as well as Insta.. Hoping to hear from u soon… Thanks!

• SHRUTHI CH OCTOBER 10, 2020 AT 9:53 PM Insightful.

• SABA KHALILI OCTOBER 12, 2020 AT 6:52 PM What should be my career path to become a product manager?