What a Junior } should know

Understands the purpose of API documentation. Can read API docs (Swagger/OpenAPI). Can use Postman for API testing.

Uses ChatGPT/Claude for routine PM tasks: writing user stories, competitor analysis, preparing presentations. Knows the main capabilities and limitations of AI assistants.

Knows about GitHub Copilot and its capabilities for accelerating development. Understands the impact on engineering productivity. Can discuss adoption pros and cons with the team.

Uses AI tools to draft product specifications and user stories. Formulates prompts for competitive analysis, market research summaries, and feature prioritization assistance. Understands how to provide business context to get relevant AI outputs.

Understands basic architectural concepts: client-server, REST API, database. Can communicate with developers using technical language. Reads architectural diagrams.

Understands basic Git advanced concepts relevant to product management: release branching and tagging for version tracking, pull request workflows for feature delivery visibility, changelog generation from Git history. Follows team conventions for reviewing and approving merge requests.

Maintains product backlog in Jira/Asana/Linear. Can create user stories with acceptance criteria. Keeps the backlog up to date: closes outdated tasks, clarifies priorities.

Uses analytics tools (Amplitude, Mixpanel, Google Analytics) for monitoring product metrics. Builds basic dashboards and reports. Configures event tracking.

Understands the concept of A/B testing and its role in product decisions. Knows the difference between A/B tests and multivariate tests. Can formulate a hypothesis for a simple experiment.

Understands the conversion funnel concept (acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, referral). Can read funnel reports in analytics tools. Identifies bottlenecks in the funnel.

Understands the structure of a product hypothesis (if we do X, then Y will happen, because Z). Can formulate testable hypotheses. Distinguishes between strong and weak hypotheses.

Understands the JTBD framework (Clayton Christensen): People hire products to do jobs. Distinguishes between functional, emotional, and social jobs. Can formulate job stories.

Conducts basic market research: competitor feature comparisons, user surveys, and TAM/SAM analysis. Synthesizes findings into actionable product insights for roadmap prioritization.

Understands the difference between OKR and KPI, knows the Objective + Key Results structure. Can track product metrics in dashboards. Formulates simple KRs for their tasks.

Understands the purpose and types of product roadmap (now-next-later, timeline, feature-based). Can read and interpret the roadmap. Helps keep the roadmap up to date.

Understands what product vision is and why it is needed. Knows the difference between vision, mission, and strategy. Can explain their product's vision to colleagues.

Understands who stakeholders are and why managing their expectations is important. Can take meeting notes and follow up. Communicates task status to stakeholders.

Understands the main UX research methods: interviews, surveys, usability tests. Can conduct simple customer development interviews using a script. Documents research results.

Understands the User Story Mapping concept (Jeff Patton). Can participate in story mapping sessions. Distinguishes between backbone, walking skeleton, and release slices.

Actively participates in Scrum ceremonies: daily standup, sprint planning, review, retrospective. Understands Scrum roles (PO, SM, Dev Team). Can maintain the sprint backlog.

Understands key delivery metrics: velocity, lead time, cycle time, throughput. Tracks sprint progress in Jira/Linear. Prepares basic delivery reports.

Understands what dependencies are in projects. Can identify blocking dependencies. Communicates dependency status to the team.

Knows main estimation techniques: story points, t-shirt sizing, planning poker. Participates in estimation sessions. Understands the difference between estimate and commitment.

Understands Kanban principles: visualization, WIP limits, flow management. Can work with a Kanban board in Jira/Trello. Tracks task flow.

Understands the release planning process. Helps track release scope and readiness. Participates in go/no-go discussions.

Understands risk types in product development (technical, market, usability, value). Can identify risks. Maintains a risk register.

Creates diagrams to visualize product concepts: user flows, wireframes, process maps. Uses Miro, Figma, draw.io.

Maintains product knowledge base in Confluence/Notion. Documents decisions, specs, meeting notes. Keeps documentation up to date.

Understands the importance of user documentation. Helps write help articles and FAQ. Knows UX writing basics.