21: Mentorship: Strengthening Mentor-Mentee Relationships

In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board member Red Russak and Soumeya Benghanem welcome Wade Pinder (Mainline), Ana Maria Garcia (The Home Depot), Carol Tyger (Vivante Health), and Martie K. Burris (Salesforce) to talk about strengthening mentorship. For new PMs, finding the right mentor is essential while learning the foundations and disciplines of product management, therefore, it is important to take note that forming a genuine connection between the mentor and mentee is the root of all successful mentorships.   Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 07:50 The three types of mentors 10:43 How do you find the perfect mentor? 12:13 Asking someone to mentor you is a huge commitment 16:15 How do you reject a mentee? 22:28 The best type of mentor-mentee relationship is the informal type 25:33 Finding some sort of personal connection makes relationships last 28:08 How do you decide whether to take somebody on as a mentee?    31:54 How to make sure that the mentor-mentee relationship runs smoothly 35:46 Look for frameworks for prioritization and discipline 40:36 PMs should know about the ins and outs of product management 43:13 The difference between a mentor and a sponsor 47:33 Once you learn the discipline, you can be any type of PM 50:47 It’s important to find a mentor early on in your career 52:17 Go back to the fundamentals when communicating 55:04 Mentorship is helping people identify their blind spots  57:20 Transparency is key and always share your intentions