Lesson 7: Prepare Your LinkedIn Profile (and Resume)

You now have a list of people that represent your target personas. So as Steve Blank would say in his book Four Steps to the Epiphany, it’s time to get out of the building. Your goal is to connect with your customers, learn about their pains, and understand how your product can help them solve those needs.

Keep in mind that, just like with Lean Startup, your goal is to learn more through customer development, but if you find people that are interested in your product, then you should try to move the sale forward. At this stage, you are focused both on gathering information and on selling yourself.

Before you start networking and reaching out to people in your target list, it’s important to prepare your resume and your LinkedIn profile. There’s a lot of material out there on how to write a good resume, so I won’t cover that in detail here. See the additional resources at the end of this lesson for more information.

The truth is that your LinkedIn profile carries as much weight as your resume, if not more. Your resume will include some more “private” or company-specific info about your achievements, but in general, a lot more people will see your LinkedIn profile before they see your resume. Your LinkedIn profile will be your most important tool as you start connecting with people.

Think of LinkedIn as your marketing vehicle. It will help you with inbound leads and serve as your sales collateral. Not to mention that it acts as your product’s website, where recruiters and other professionals will find you and learn about the features and benefits of your product.

Keep in mind that all of the fields in your profile are indexed by LinkedIn. So putting some thought to your word choices will improve your chances of being found by people searching for PMs with what you have to offer. Use your positioning statement as a guide for which keywords to use.

The basics of a LinkedIn profile

A word of caution before you begin making any updates: Make sure to turn off the setting that notifies your network of any profile changes. Notifications of profile changes are usually a clear indication that you are looking for a new job. You don’t want your colleagues or your boss to start asking you what you are up to.

Having a complete and professional LinkedIn profile is a must. Here are some of the key items:

Include a professional photo. People are more likely to reply to your requests if you have a good photo. That means you should be in a professional outfit, in a professional setting or blank background. Some industries are more formal than others—use your judgment here. But don’t crop your photo from a group photo in which you think you look good. Take a photo that is specifically meant for your LinkedIn profile.
Include a good headline. The headline doesn’t have to be your official work title. This is an opportunity to showcase some of your positioning statement. For example, you might say, “Mobile Product Manager.”
Create a good introduction. Just like any book, this content determines whether people will continue reading or go to the next profile. Surface keywords that align with the pain points of your personas.
Describe your work history, including major accomplishments. Notice I say accomplishments, including results, not just listing what you did. The more info you include, the easier it will be for recruiters and hiring managers to determine if they want to talk to you. Don’t wait until they ask for your resume to give them some good details. Every view of your profile is an opportunity for you to sell your product.

The most common mistake I see with LinkedIn profiles is that they don’t convey, “I’m a Product Manager.” Many profiles are all over the place and alternately read like an Engineer, Marketer, or Sales professional. Our profession is relatively new, and many of us come from diverse backgrounds. But that’s not an excuse for not highlighting the areas of your expertise that tell others you are a qualified PM.

If your previous titles are not Product Manager, then you have more explaining to do. For that reason, I recommend you draft your profile in a way that showcases your experience through Product-like activities. Focusing extensively on your technical expertise and all the coding you’ve done is actually a detractor. Recruiters don’t have time to thoroughly read profiles to see if they actually match what they need. Your profile will get a 10-second scan, and in that instant, you have to show that you have the right product experience. Always keep that in mind.

So how do you find out what works or doesn’t? Well, as any PM would do, you can do some research:

Use LinkedIn to find PM job posting from companies in your target list.
- How do they describe the position?
- What commonalities do you see in all of them?
- What can you highlight from your experience that resonates with all of them?
- More often than not, PM job descriptions revolve around the four pillars, so take advantage of that.
Use LinkedIn to find profiles of PMs that already work in the companies in your target list.
- How do they describe themselves?
- What part of their profiles scream to you “Product Manager!”?

Once you have these basic items in your profile, you have the minimum necessary to start connecting with people (more in the next lesson). But I do suggest you go the extra mile to make sure you stand out. Below are some additional items you can use to convey your product expertise.

Additional LinkedIn profile items that will set you apart

LinkedIn publications

For a hiring manager, it’s very difficult to tell apart the good candidates from the bad ones. And there’s a lot of bad ones out there, believe me. The problem is that on paper, everybody looks great. Everybody has driven engineering teams, prioritized features, launched amazing products, etc. So what can you do to stand out? Here’s one way: write articles that showcase your philosophy and expertise in more detail.

Writing your own articles on topics related to PM can help you in several ways:

It shows your expertise in a more concrete way.
It gives you visibility within your network and can attract recruiters and new connections.
It automatically demonstrates that you have great writing skills—one less thing that a hiring manager needs to worry about.

A simple way to get started is by publishing articles through the LinkedIn platform. It’s easy to do and will give you great visibility. Popular articles attract both connections and recruiters.

Having your own blog is even better, but that’s a much bigger commitment. If you are truly interested in becoming a blogger, then starting a blog is worth it and will help you big time. But if you are just interested in writing articles to help with your job search, then using LinkedIn as your publishing platform is your best choice.

Be aware that gaining visibility can be a double-edged sword. If your content is shallow, is unprofessional, or has typos and grammar issues, then the whole exercise will backfire.

LinkedIn groups

LinkedIn groups are an excellent way to get plugged into what fellow PMs are sharing and talking about. I recommend finding a few groups that match your positioning statement. The narrower you get, the better the connections you’ll be able to make. As you join a few groups, it’s a good idea to display the group logo as part of your profile. That’s yet another way to strengthen your image as a dedicated PM.

To get started, research whether the companies in your target list have their own groups. Additionally, check to see which groups people in your target persona list belong to, and join the most common groups you find.

You will get the most out of your groups if you are active in them. Ask questions, share relevant articles, and most importantly, post answers to other people’s questions to showcase your expertise. If you are making quality contributions, then you’ll gain a lot of visibility very quickly.

This might sound like a lot of work, but it doesn’t have to be. Remember, the key is consistency and focus. Select a couple of groups and become a regular. You’ll not only increase your visibility, but you’ll also learn a lot. This will help you identify influencers and overall become more plugged into what’s going on within the PM profession and/or the industry in your positioning statement.

LinkedIn recommendations

Getting a recommendation is a great opportunity for others to highlight your skills and expertise. It is the equivalent of getting a customer quote on your product.

In general, the easiest way to get a recommendation is to give one. Once somebody offers to give you a recommendation back, then it’s okay to discuss what areas you want them to highlight. You are not writing the recommendation for them, but you want to make sure they focus on the areas that support the story you want to tell. Look back to your SWOT. Your recommendations should be highlighting your product-related strengths.

Just make sure to get recommendations from people that you feel very comfortable to have representing you. As a hiring manager, I might reach out to this person directly and ask about you. Yep, it’s a double-edged sword.

LinkedIn skills & endorsements

Listing PM skills in the “Skills & Endorsements” section of your profile provides a quick way for others to confirm that you have those skills. Plus, those skills become a keyword used by recruiters when searching for qualified candidates.

You should list “Product Management” as a skill, but also think about other areas that a PM should have. Things like Agile, Project Management, cross-team leadership, roadmaps, etc. are great skills to highlight. Go back to the four pillars to get some ideas for valuable skills. Look at the profiles of your target hiring managers to see what skills they have listed. Also include items from your positioning statement, for example: mobile, B2B products, etc.

Regardless of what skills you list, I recommend keeping this list short. Remember, the goal is to support your focused positioning statement, not to list every skill possible.

At first, you won’t have many endorsements, but here’s where karma goes a long way. If you spend some time sincerely endorsing your connections, chances are they’ll reciprocate. Make sure you thank them after each endorsement. The idea is not to collect endorsements blindly. Instead, this is an opportunity to showcase your skills and to strengthen your relationships with people in your network.

Ready to move on?

Updating your resume and polishing your LinkedIn profile will take some time, and will always be a work in progress. Don’t obsess about them. Just get started and bring them to a point where they showcase your skills. Remember, these are just tools. The real progress happens when you start connecting with people, which by the way, is the topic of the next couple of lessons. See you there!

Additional resources:

Stephanie Sammons has great material on making the most out of your LinkedIn profile.
Manager Tools has some of the best material for writing resumes.