Paragraph by paragraph
I've owned Stripe Invoicing since 2021, a product more than 400,000 businesses use to bill their customers, and I'm applying for the Group Product Manager role on Gusto's payments team.
The product she owns, then the role
One sentence gives the product, its scale and the role she wants. A reader knows her level and her domain straight away.
In that time the product's monthly revenue has grown 32% year over year. Three initiatives I defined and shipped added $12 million in new annual recurring revenue, and our subscription billing feature cut churn by 22% in its first six months.
The business, then her part of it
The revenue growth belongs to the product as a whole, so it is stated as the product's. The ARR and churn figures are tied to things she defined and shipped.
Before each of those launches I ran customer calls myself, and I cut each first release down to what most of those customers needed. That got each release to users sooner and gave us real usage data for planning the next one.
How she works
Customer calls and cutting scope show judgment without a long story. It also explains how the results above came about.
At Intercom I led an AI support feature that 60% of our enterprise customers adopted within three months, and our NPS rose from 42 to 67 over a series of releases shaped by user research. I started as an associate product manager at Salesforce, where I ran more than 50 user interviews for Sales Cloud.
Intercom and Salesforce, in two sentences
Adoption and NPS are outcome measures from her Intercom years, and the Salesforce line shows she started close to users.
Gusto's customers are the same kind of small business I've built for at Stripe, and payroll is where getting payments right matters most to them. I'm based in San Francisco and could start after a month's notice.
A reason built on their customers
A reason drawn from who the customers are, then location and notice. It is specific to the company without flattering it.
Product metrics, and which ones are yours
Product managers work on numbers that many people move, so say which ones you can claim.
| Metric | How to word it |
|---|---|
| Revenue or ARR | Say whether it is the product's total or what your work added, and how that was attributed. |
| Churn or retention | The change, the period and which customers it covers. |
| Adoption | The share of which customers, over what time. |
| NPS | The before and after and the period. NPS runs from minus 100 to 100, so a change from 42 to 67 is large. |
| Sprint completion, team output | Leave them out or keep them for the interview. They measure how the team delivers, and what the product achieved is a separate question. |
For a recruiter or an application form
Tech recruiters and many application forms ask for a short summary first. This version keeps the scale, the results that are hers and how she works.
Show a decision as well as a result
Product hiring managers are looking for judgment, and results alone don't show it. One sentence about how you decided is often the most useful line in the letter.
- What you cut, and why it was the right thing to leave out.
- What evidence you used: customer calls, usage data or an experiment.
- A trade off you made between speed, scope and quality.
Keep internal numbers and unreleased plans out of it. If your employer hasn't made something public, describe it in general terms.
Other product roles and their first lines
Associate PM or new graduate
Show user research, a project you shipped and how you work with engineers.
In my final year I ran 30 interviews with student renters and built a lease comparison tool that 1,200 students used in its first term.
Engineer or designer moving into product
Show product decisions you already make and your contact with customers.
As the lead engineer on our checkout team I have written the specs for our last four releases and joined every customer call about them.
Technical or platform PM
Describe the internal users, the APIs or systems and a result for the teams you serve.
I own our payments API, and this year our new versioning approach let 40 product teams upgrade without a single breaking change.
PM in a regulated industry
Show how you work with legal and compliance without slowing the product down.
I run product for a lending app, where every release goes through compliance review, and we still ship every two weeks.
Director or head of product
Talk about the team, the strategy you set and a result across the product area.
I lead seven product managers across our small business products, and this year we moved the whole area to a single quarterly planning cycle.
What to stress at each PM level
| Level | What the letter should show |
|---|---|
| Associate or junior PM | Closeness to users, research you ran and features you helped ship. |
| Product manager | A feature or product you owned and the result you can attribute to it. |
| Senior PM | A whole product, its strategy and results across several releases. |
| Group PM or director | Several products or a product area, the PMs you lead and how you set direction. |
Five mistakes in product manager letters
Claiming the company’s growth
Revenue for the whole product is the work of many teams.
Separate the product’s results from what you shipped.
Delivery metrics as results
Sprint completion and velocity describe the team’s process.
Use outcomes such as adoption, retention or revenue you can attribute.
No decisions
A list of launches says nothing about how you choose what to build.
Add one sentence on a decision and the evidence behind it.
A feature list
Naming every feature you touched hides the one that matters.
Pick the work closest to the job and give its result.
Jargon
Phrases like "0 to 1" and "north star" are everywhere in PM letters.
Describe what you did in plain words.
US format and length for a product role
- Length: one page. Priya's letter is about 210 words.
- Greeting: Mr. or Ms. with a period and a comma after the name, or Dear Hiring Team.
- Numbers: give each dollar or percentage figure the time it covers, such as "in its first six months".
- Confidentiality: only figures your employer has made public or that you are free to share.
The main points from this page
- 1Separate the product’s results from the ones you can claim.
- 2Leave delivery metrics out of the letter.
- 3Add one sentence that shows how you make decisions.
- 4Match what you stress to the PM level of the job.
- 5Give a reason tied to the new company’s customers.
Frequently asked questions
What should a product manager cover letter include?
The product you own and its scale, two results you can attribute to your work, how you make decisions, the role you want and why this product.
Which metrics should a PM put in a cover letter?
Outcomes you can attribute, such as new revenue from features you shipped, churn, adoption or NPS, each with a period. Leave out sprint completion and velocity.
What is a good NPS change to mention?
NPS runs from minus 100 to 100, so give the before and after and the period, and say what you changed to move it.
How do I show product judgment in a cover letter?
Describe one decision, such as what you cut from a release, and the evidence you used to make it.
How long should a product manager cover letter be?
A page at most. Hiring managers will ask for the detail in the interview.