Visualizing your profile as a Product Manager

in 5 steps

When you’re applying for a new role, people want to know who you are. They want to be able to decide, if you’re the right fit for the team and what kind of mindset you bring. If you will be able to do the job and do it well.

I created an “About me” visualization, to help people understand who I am and what’s important to me as a Product Manager.

Today, I am sharing with you how i did this and how you can do it for yourself.

1. Collect the topics that you care about

   Do this during a long period of time. Do it all the time. Observe the things that happen in your daily business, read books and compare the theory with your own experience, listen to podcasts, find out what aspects you care about most. For me those topics were for example:

   • user centered mindset

   • prioritization

   • nonviolent communication (NVC)

   • healthy team dynamics

   • product quality (engineering, UX)

   • psychological safety

   • continuous improvement

   • data-informed decision making

   • purpose

   • working on a product that improves people’s lives

2. Group those topics and find overarching themes

   In my case, all my topics could be grouped under three areas:

   1. people

   2. product

   3. progress

3. Find your own personal values

   • What are your values? If you haven’t done so, it really pays off to invest an afternoon or at least an hour and find out about your values. They can be the basis for all your big decisions and small actions. So it’s not only good for your job search but hiring managers do appreciate someone who knows their own values.

   • There are helpful tools like this Miro template or this Notion template that you can use. (When I did it, I had to add some values that were not included in the Miro template.)

4. Other input

   • What do you always say to yourself and to others, that guides your actions? For me it’s “done is better than perfect” and “assume good intentions”.

   • What are your superpowers? My superpowers are (live) visualization of complex problems and topics, an inclusive and empathetic leadership approach, and my entrepreneurial drive.

   • What else do you bring to the table? I bring 7+ years of PM/PO experience.

5. Visualize

   Now it’s time to draw something. If you have your overarching themes, try to think of a visual image for those. Get a friend an tell them about those things. Let them observe, what visual language and what metaphors you use. This might give you a hint on how to structure and visualize your content.

   My idea for “People, Product, Progress” was, to draw myself juggling these three topics, because I feel like I always need to keep all three in the air — keep them in mind all at the same time. While simultaneously balancing on a balance board, which stands for the environment of changing requirements, suboptimal availability of data, etc.

That’s it. After you have drawn it, you can use it as a conversation starter. And while doing it, you get to another level of knowing yourself, which is an art in itself.

Here’s my visualization of myself as a Product Manager:

I even printed them on DinA5 and put a QR Code to my LinkedIn profile on the back, distributing them at Product Management Festival. It was a bit out of comfort zone to do that, but it resulted in many interesting conversations and new connections — especially from people who like proactiveness and courage.

If you need help creating your own visualization, someone asking you the right questions and drawing/visualizing for you, get in touch here: www.annalenakoenig.de or leave a comment below this post!