Q&A with Sparsh Agarwal from Earnin

Meet the Manifesto Team!

Who are the 12 product people that stepped up to form the Product Management Manifesto working group? Meet Sparsh!

Each week we’re introducing you to two working group members with Q&A on their perspective on why a manifesto is so critical today.

This week’s spotlight is on Sparsh Agarwal, Product at Earnin, and former Linkedin. Find out his thoughts on:

How product management has evolved

Key challenges that a manifesto must address

Why do we need a manifesto now

What’s motivating his journey as the team kicks off

What drew you to this Product Management Manifesto and working group?

I have been fortunate to have started my career in the technology industry, and transitioned from a software engineer to a PM fairly early on. I learned the skills required to be successful in my role through trial and error, observing peers and role models, and making my fair share of mistakes over the last 10 years. I view the Product Management manifesto as a way to distill key practical insights and principles from decades worth of cumulative experience of the working group. I wish I had this resource when I started out as a PM. It is a privilege for me to work with this group to give back to the PM community.

How have you personally seen the Product Management role evolve in your career?

The PM role has varied significantly within each organization I’ve worked in. In my view, the role is a function of company type (public, startup) and nature of the product (consumer, B2B, etc.). I have worked in teams where my primary responsibility was to work closely with UX designers to solve a user problem, conduct user research and run several A/B tests. I have also worked in teams where PMs drive strategy and play the General Manager role with a ton of autonomy over a large cross-functional team (R&D, biz dev, sales, marketing, PR). 

As with any knowledge work, PMs today need to continuously upskill themselves. As an example, most successful technology products today have some application of artificial intelligence. To stay competitive, PMs will need to understand how AI works and how they can best support engineering teams. In the words of Tomer Cohen, CPO of LinkedIn “If you want to build successful products, it’s not enough to sound excited (or apprehensive) about AI, you have to learn how to operate it, manage it and ultimately lead it. You need to become an AI-first product leader.” Luckily he also has a LinkedIn Learning course on this topic.

What is one major challenge you see product people grapple with frequently that our principles should address?

Our success as a PM is defined primarily by our ability to inspire, influence, and lead a team towards a common goal. As such, building relationships and working effectively with different personalities and cross-functional partners is key to a PM’s success. This is an area I'd love to see the manifesto address.

What are some of the reasons you feel a Manifesto specific to Product Management is needed now?

We’re seeing a historic pace of new tech companies being created. Product Management is one of the fastest-growing careers in technology, but also a really hard one to break into. The manifesto will help early career and aspiring PMs break through the noise to find reliable and actionable principles to drive their success.

In what ways do the Agile Manifesto for Software Development and/or other existing frameworks fall short for Product Management?

There is a lack of shared understanding of product management as a discipline, and what it takes to be a successful PM. The agile manifesto was created 20 years ago, and primarily focuses on delivering software. It falls short on principles to help Product Managers define the ‘why’ and the ‘what’ behind great products. Existing frameworks also do not cover managing teams and interpersonal relationships that are so critical to a PM’s success.

We’re in a critical moment for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I). In what ways do you hope to see greater DE&I reflected in the work and contribution of product people?

Product Management is notoriously hard for non-product people to break into, especially for experienced professionals. It’s a chicken and egg problem - companies want PMs to hit the ground running and have prior experience to be successful. But how does an individual with no prior experience, break into their first PM role? As technology becomes ubiquitous, we need to ensure that product teams reflect the diversity of thought, experience, race, gender, etc. of our user base. I hope to see more companies create programs for people with non-traditional backgrounds to become PMs.

What I love most about my job is getting to work every day with smart, passionate, and driven individuals to build products that change people's lives for the better. I love my team, and it's a privilege to get to work with them in the service of our users. As a PM, relationships matter above all else, and this is my favorite part of the job.

-Sparsh Agarwal