How does Bolt hire PMs? TPG Podcast with Mikhail Shcheglov
Description
🔉Welcome to the Tallinn Product Group!We bring you insights from industry experts about Product Management.
👋Today's guest:Corporate Waters By Mikhail Shcheglov: corpwaters.substack.com Mikhail Shcheglov - https://www.linkedin.com/in/scheglovm1/
* Group Product Manager at Bolt for 3.5 years
* Previously Product Manager roles at OLX (Avito) and Yandex, PhD in Economics
* Experience in mobility, e-scooter rentals, car sharing, and buyer experience
In this episode:
* Mikhail's gives practical examples from experience at Bolt
* 6 essential criteria for Bolt Product Manager
* Business ownership: including financial metrics, influencing people, understanding business context
* Thinking strategically, not only tactically: global and local maxima, how to set up a roadmap for maximum impact
* Basic product mindset: user identification, focusing on problems instead of solutions, hard and soft value proposition
* Understanding the dynamics of marketplace: liquidity and solving cold start problems
* Thinking beyond features: how to drive business impact without features
* Cultural aspects, motivation, and coaching within Bolt
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro 1:10 About Mikhail 4:22 Business ownership at Bolt 9:11 How to influence people 11:11 Understanding business fundamentals 13:51 Key financial metrics for PMs 16:19 Access to financials at Bolt 21:26 Strategic thinking for long-term success 25:11 Global vs. local maxima in decision-making 29:05 Thinking beyond features 31:01 Bringing problems, not solutions 34:56 Why "your ideas can't go wrong" 37:57 Coaching practices at Bolt 41:41 Product mindset in large companies 46:26 Hard and soft value propositions 48:51 Understanding marketplace dynamics 55:36 Product Manager certifications 58:39 How to evaluate PMs during interviews
References in this episode:
📚Corporate Waters By Mikhail Shcheglov: corpwaters.substack.com
* 📖 JK post on hard and soft value: https://jinken.substack.com/p/value-led-growth-hard-and-soft-value
* 📖 JK post on strategy: https://jinken.substack.com/p/what-the-heck-is-strategy
* 📖 Corporate Waters on marketplace growth: https://corpwaters.substack.com/p/what-i-learned-about-marketplace
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