The Product Manager Apprenticeship

I gave this talk at ProductCamp Boston 2017: http://sched.co/B2kC

We have seen an increasing number of apprenticeship programs appearing. However, they mostly focus on Design and Development. At Subvisual we have created our program years back, and it has been a success. However, being a small team, that wants to stay small, when we faced the need to have more people in the team with Product Management skills we had to face the question: should we hire product managers or update our skills? We went to the last and added to our apprenticeship program a track for Product Management. In this session, I want to go over how we did it and show the results of our first batch.

If you want to know more about Subvisual visit: https://subvisual.co/

PS: Thank you to our designer João Ferreira that helped with the slides.

Transcript

1. The Product Manager Apprenticeship Upgrade your team skills
2. What is an Apprenticeship?
3. The fundamental learning situation is one in which a person learns by helping someone who really knows what he is doing. Christopher Alexander et al., A Pattern Language, p. 413
4. What is an Apprenticeship? It’s a job.
5. What is an Apprenticeship? It’s a job. But it’s also school.
6. Who should do an Apprenticeship?
7. Who should do an Apprenticeship? Anyone that wants to excel on a new trade
8. Who should do an Apprenticeship? Everyone that want to learn a new trade Make sure that you have access to mentors Make sure that you have a complete program Define a “graduation” date upfront
9. subvisual.co/apprenticeship/
11. How we do it at Subvisual? 10 Weeks, 40h/week, in-person Always have a mentor We pay a basic salary In the end we hire or introduce to partner
13. Some results? We had 8 Apprentices until now 5 developers, 2 designers, 1 marketing 2 Hired by Subvisual 5 Hired by Subvisual’s partners
14. The need for a Product Apprenticeship
16. We Are A Small Team The need for a Product Apprenticeship 12 People 8 Developers, 2 Designers, 1 Operations, 1 CEO (Product Manager)
17. The need for a Product Apprenticeship 1 Product Manager
18. Let’s run an apprenticeship to Level Up our Skills
19. How we do it at Subvisual? 10 Weeks, 40h/week, in-person Always have a mentor We pay a basic salary In the end we hire or introduce to partner
20. How we do it at Subvisual? 10 Weeks, 40h/week, in-person 10 Weeks, 20h/week, in-person
21. How we do it at Subvisual? Always have a mentor Always have a mentor
22. How we do it at Subvisual? We pay a basic salary People already have their salary
23. How we do it at Subvisual? In the end, we hire or introduce to partner In the end, we hire or introduce to partner
24. How we do it at Subvisual?
25. How we do it at Subvisual? Shadow work on a Project
26. How we do it at Subvisual? Weekly Meeting for Clarification
27. We Are A Small Team The need for a Product Apprenticeship 8 Developers (2 Product Manager), 2 Designers (1 Product Manager), 1 Operations (1 Product Manager), 1 CEO (1 Product Manager)
28. Want to know more?
29. Want to know more? subvisual.co/apprenticeship/ freshtilledsoil.com/aux/ 8thlight.com/apprenticeship/
31. Want to know more? roberto@subvisual.co
32. Thank you! @rmdgb