Personal branding for Product Managers

It feels like everyone’s talking about ‘personal branding’ these days - but what exactly is it? Back in the day, this was simply called your reputation and was what people knew you for.

But now, how you showcase that reputation has completely changed. It’s no longer just about doing good work and hoping someone notices it; it’s about how you intentionally put yourself out there and tell your story.

So, let’s break it down and see what personal branding really means for us in Product.

What is personal branding and why does it matter?

Your personal brand is the unique combination of skills, experiences, and values that shape how you present yourself - and, crucially, are perceived by other people.

It can help you succeed in your Product career in three ways:

1. Creating visibility and opportunities: Stand out in a crowded field and make it easy for others to recognise your expertise. This can open doors to new opportunities, whether that’s a job offer, speaking engagement, or collaboration.

2. Building trust and credibility: That all important know-like-trust can lead to stronger professional relationships and greater influence in your career.

3. Shaping your career and growth: Personal branding enables you to craft your professional story, and position yourself for roles that align with your passions and goals.

Before you dive into creating your personal brand, it’s worth asking yourself: what is your goal in creating your personal brand?

What goes into a personal brand?

Your personal brand is made up of your values, skills, strengths, passions, personality, and a little thing I like to call your ‘secret sauce’ (the one thing that you can do better than anybody else)

So before you can create your personal brand you need to first understand yourself. Use these self coaching questions to help you get clarity:

• What values are most important to you in life? (if you need help with identifying your values, you may find this exercise useful).

• What projects or milestones in your career are you most proud of?

• Think back to a really challenging time in your life: how did you overcome it?

• What do you find super easy to do that others struggle with (or may even come to you for help with?)

• What three words would you use to describe yourself? (You can also ask friends, family and colleagues, and compare the answers!)

Once you’re clear on this, then you can use this as scaffolding to create your personal brand.

"It’s no longer just about doing good work and hoping someone notices it; it’s about how you intentionally put yourself out there and tell your story"

Caroline Clark - Founder @ Caroline Clark Coaching & Fractional Product Leader

What goes into a personal brand?

Your personal brand is made up of your values, skills, strengths, passions, personality, and a little thing I like to call your ‘secret sauce’ (the one thing that you can do better than anybody else)

So before you can create your personal brand you need to first understand yourself. Use these self coaching questions to help you get clarity:

• What values are most important to you in life? (if you need help with identifying your values, you may find this exercise useful).

• What projects or milestones in your career are you most proud of?

• Think back to a really challenging time in your life: how did you overcome it?

• What do you find super easy to do that others struggle with (or may even come to you for help with?)

• What three words would you use to describe yourself? (You can also ask friends, family and colleagues, and compare the answers!)

Once you’re clear on this, then you can use this as scaffolding to create your personal brand.

Creating your personal brand

Using your goal for your personal brand, you now want to define who you want to reach (in marketing speak this is your niche and your audience).

For example, if you are creating your personal brand to support your job search, then you want to reach recruiters, talent teams and hiring managers. What do these people need to know about you? What is it about you that is going to make them want to have a conversation and get to know you more?

Your secret sauce that you identified in the last step is your unique value proposition, and your personal brand needs to focus around this. There’s several ways of framing a value prop, but I like to keep it simple and use this format:

I help (X) do (Y) by doing (Z)

A worked example could look something like this:

I help B2B healthtech startups build 0-1 platforms, by developing high

performing Product teams with strong technical expertise.

Once you’re clear on this, your personal branding becomes a lot more straightforward.

Building an online presence

So now you have a lot of the ingredients for your personal brand, you’re ready to get started on building an online presence. And you can do this very cheaply (or even zero cost!) and simply to start with.

Choose a social media platform where you know your audience hangs out. Professionally, this is most likely going to be Linkedin. I always recommend picking one to start with and really nailing that before going to other platforms.

You could also consider creating a personal website, or starting a blog or newsletter on a platform like Beehiv. These enable you to showcase your abilities and experience through a portfolio, online resume, projects or case studies, and articles.

Now you get to create content and explore your voice. Keep your audience in mind when you’re writing - what are they going to find most useful? What problems do they have that you can show them a way to solve? This is a double whammy as you can not only solve their problem but showcase your expertise in doing so.

And remember to be consistent: if you’re going to use social media you need to be showing up regularly to build your presence. For Linkedin this could mean posting 3 to 5 times a week: pick a cadence that works for you and stick to it. Your efforts will compound over time so you will see traction in engagement - which will lead to your desired outcomes.

A note of caution: don’t spend too much time on ChatGPT. Any content you create should be in your own, original voice. It’s very easy for readers to spot where AI has written an article, and it will detract from your credibility. The same goes for automating comments and responses - just avoid it if you’re serious about building your personal brand. That said, it’s totally fine to use AI as an ideation partner to generate options for content before you write it.

And don’t forget your offline presence too!

Good old fashioned networking at meetups and other real-life events are a great way to build your network. It gets you in front of people’s actual faces, which helps with building know-like-trust.

When you’re introducing yourself, as well as your job title you’ve now got your value proposition that you can share. This is super useful if you’re open to new opportunities as it shows your connections what you’re interested in and how you could help them.

If you get nervous with networking, it may help to reframe it. Networking isn’t about meeting loads of people and making small talk: it’s more about making one or two meaningful connections at each event, connecting with people already in your network, and being interested in what they’re up to.

Here’s some questions that can help spark a conversation:

• What are you currently working on?

• What is it you enjoy about X? (where X is their job, a project they’re working on, or anything else they’ve mentioned)

• What are you finding most challenging about X?

• What’s coming up for you in the next few months?

As well as traditional networking events, I’ve seen a rise in speed networking - both online and offline. These events can be a lot of fun, where you get the opportunity to connect with many people in a short space of time. Look out for relevant communities (such as Product Tank, Women in Product UK) for details of when these events are happening - and join in.

So now you know enough to get started, what are you going to do next?

You can let me know how you get on with crafting your personal brand, by connecting with me on Linkedin.