Nils Davis

I help product managers ramp up their confidence and impact. Start with one free call! | secretsofpm.com/free-call

I’ve reviewed hundreds of resumes, and in just one call I can show you why yours isn’t getting interviews - and how to fix it.
Book *your* review using the “Make your resume amazing!” link in my profile.

If you are having problems getting interviews when you apply to jobs, it's not you. It's your resume and your LinkedIn presence. 

I help amazing people like you *sound* amazing in your resume and your LinkedIn profile. 

Most resumes are terrible - and I've seen a lot of them!

* They're boring.
* They all sound the same.
* They are hard to read.
* And most importantly: They don't show the real impact you've had.

If your resume is boring and doesn't show how amazing you are - you won't get the interview.

WHAT OTHERS SAY:

* "Nils turned my overlooked skills into impactful stories and helped me land my next role." (Brenna B.)
* "He pushed me to tell outcome-driven stories—now my resume finally feels like me." (Summer H.)
* "Nils brought out the business value of my achievements—I got multiple interviews and an offer." (Sifat R.)

ABOUT ME: Nearly 30 years in enterprise software product management, discovering market problems, creating innovative solutions, and helping sales and marketing teams succeed. I thrive on new challenges, cross-disciplinary insights, and finding solutions where others see roadblocks.

Senior Product Manager

Ensuring our customers' first experience with TriNet technology is stellar by curating their onboarding process from signed contract through first payroll.

If you are getting into PM because you "want more decision-making power," it's time to think again.

The reality of product management is we don't really have any power. 

We have influence, yes. 

But our decisions can be overridden by lots of people. Or just ignored.  

This leads to a key insight: the most important skills for PMs are not technical, and not domain-specific. They are the skills related to navigating rounds of tradeoffs, constraints, and tough conversations, all in the interest of making sure the right thing is done. 

This means:  

• Soft skills. 
• Persuasion skills. 
• Political skills. 
• Code-switching skills. 
• Sales skills.

To be happy as a PM you'd better love that stuff. 

And if you want to be a 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 PM, focus on improving in those areas. Not learning SQL.

Resume and LinkedIn coach | 25+ yrs of enterprise software product management | perfectpmresume.com | Resume, LinkedIn, and interview coaching for product managers and professionals seeking $150K-$300K+ roles.

If you want or need to increase your traction on LinkedIn, here's the easiest first step.

People who "do stuff" on LinkedIn are more likely to show up in searches. Commenting on posts - especially good quality comments - counts as "stuff."

But there are more benefits than that instrumental value.

• Commenting (kindly) builds your reputation. 
• Commenting sharpens your thinking and helps you surface your own insights. 
• And, if you have ambitions toward becoming a "content creator" - i.e., writing posts - your comments often turn out to be the "first draft" of a post. (Like this post, which started from a comment.)

How?

As you're reading posts, pay attention to your instant internal reaction and start from there. Do you agree? Disagree? Have something to add? Feel they are missing something? Want to amplify a point? 

The first two reactions (agree/disagree) are only useful to introduce your comment. 

The other reactions (add/missing/amplify) then become the meat of your comment. What would you add? What could use a little amplification? Write that down. And you're started. 

For example, this post started as a comment on someone else's post about commenting to add/amplify that commenting builds your LinkedIn "juice."

Resume and LinkedIn coach | Enterprise software product manager | 20+ yrs exp | perfectpmresume.com | Resume, LinkedIn, and interview coaching for product managers and professionals seeking $150K-$300K+ roles.

A line illustration of a product manager in a hoodie effortlessly picking a fruit from a low-hanging branch of a large tree. The scene is black and white ink, except for the single low-hanging fruit which is a vibrant red.

Here's my dirty secret: My expertise is not in resumes per se.
It's in helping you tell the stories of your big wins. And then putting those stories onto your resume in a way that makes someone want to talk to you.

No matter what you think, you are not doing that very well. (I've reviewed hundreds of resumes - I've never seen it.)

Persuading someone to bring you in for an interview you is like getting a prospect to click the "Free Trial" button on your website. If they don't see clearly what's in it for them - and why you're a better choice - they aren't going to click. 

And it's not your skills that make them click. It's your impact.

If you only use one resume-writing prompt for the rest of your career, use this:

“What was the problem worth solving — and what would have happened if we hadn’t solved it?”

This single question exposes the truth behind 99% of weak PM resumes:

They describe the work… but not the reason the work mattered.

Take a totally normal bullet like this:

“Led the product development lifecycle for WWE SLAM which generated $3M in its first year.”

Not bad.
But it’s missing the stakes — the “why this mattered to the business” part that makes the story land.

Watch what happens if you add the problem worth solving in front of the exact same bullet:

“Topps needed a WWE digital launch to seize a major market opportunity, but the content was unfinished and GTM hadn’t started. I led the product development lifecycle, launching on time and generating $3M in year-one revenue.”

Same action. Same result.
But now it’s a story — with a beginning (the problem), middle (your action), and end (the result).

Here’s the rule:

If a bullet can’t answer
“What was the problem worth solving?”
it’s not an achievement — it’s a chore. Delete it.

If it can answer it, put the problem first and watch your impact snap into focus.

I’ll drop two more before/after examples in the comments so you can steal the pattern.

"AI has made product management existential"

Turning Data Into Better Decisions | Follow Me for More Tech Insights | Technology Leader & Entrepreneur

Coding is no longer the bottleneck. Product management is.
One of the godfathers of AI just dropped a bomb:

Andrew Ng correctly noted that coding is no longer the challenge.
It's product management.

And he's right.

In technology, we become so obsessed with coding.
 ↳ With building.
 ↳ With writing specs.
 ↳ With pushing releases.
 ↳ And shipping.

With AI, there's been a shift.

Building isn't the problem. 
An amazing team can build anything. 
The real work is deciding what is worth building.

And what is not worth building.

Too many tech leaders get this wrong. 
They chase shiny features. 
And the latest emerging technology.

But without a real problem to solve,
Or building to solve the problem, there is no impact.

As a leader, it isn't your job to accelerate the processes, 
Sometimes it's to slow the processes down and lead the project in the right direction. 

Before moving forward with any project, you should ask yourself: 
 ↳ What problem are we actually solving? 
 ↳ Why does this problem matter?
 ↳ How will we measure the results?
 ↳ Who does this problem matter to? 

Trust isn't built on more shiny features. 
It's built on better decisions.

How has AI changed your approach to creating products?

How has it changed your strategic direction?

Share below.



♻️ Repost to help someone in your network.
➕ Follow, Ashley Nicholson, for more tech insights.

“How do I show my impact on my resume when the company I worked for failed or the project wasn’t completed?"

It's a common question when I'm reviewing peoples' resumes. 

Maybe the company ran out of money, the product never launched, or external factors derailed the business. It happens.

(Or maybe you left the company, for whatever reason, before the fruits of your efforts were realized.)

But here’s the key: your impact - and what the hiring manager wants/needs to see - isn’t just the results. It’s about how you tackled a meaningful business problem.

As a product manager, your accomplishments are rooted in solving problems that matter. Did you:

• Identify a business problem worth solving?
• Persuade leadership that they should fund a solution (allow you to work on it)?
• Design and execute a solution to address it?
• Work towards an outcome that would have made a significant impact if circumstances had allowed?

Here’s how to frame it:

• Focus on the problem you solved and the solution you developed.
• Use phrases like “expected results” or “projected outcomes” to show the potential impact.
• Be transparent about the external factors, but don’t let them define your story.

For example:"Customer churn was going up, customer sat was going down and revenue was flat. I created and drove a go-to-market strategy projected to reduce churn by 20% and increase revenue by $2M annually."

In interviews, you can expand: "Yeah, the company unfortunately ran out of runway due to another product's failure before we were able to see the full impact, but early indicators - customer sat and profit margins - showed we were on the right track."

The bottom line? Your career isn’t defined by a company’s outcome. It’s defined by your ability to focus on meaningful problems, create actionable solutions, and drive towards big business impact—even if circumstances didn’t align perfectly.

What’s the toughest challenge you’ve had to frame on your resume?

Remember: The job description is not the job. 

The 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭 job is solving problems the hiring manager/company has that are NOT mentioned in the job description. 

The job description is 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘺 the base requirements for being able to do the job. If you can do those things, that doesn't mean you can do the job. 

So don't make your resume "match the job description." 

Instead ensure it shows the hiring manager you will be a great solution to their problems. 

That you will make a difference for them.

Do this by telling the stories of the meaningful problems you've solved, and the impact you had on the company.

Simply being qualified - aka matching the job description - will not do that. (And you'll be indistinguishable from the other 100 people who did the same thing.)

The JD is surface level. The real needs run much deeper. And your resume must speak to the real needs.

====

Want some help with this? I've done this for 100s of product managers - who are getting interviews and jobs.

Most PMs are failing at the one skill that matters most: telling why, not what.

Poor storytelling is the fundamental problem of most product manager resumes. 

Poor storytelling also explains much of the decline in the reputation of product management as a discipline.

We are not telling good stories about what we've achieved, why we exist, or the impact we have on the business. 

We expect "the data to speak for itself." But human beings can't hear what data tells them. They need a story to go around it.

The fastest fix? Always surface the 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 to show why what you did was worth doing. 

(As technologists we fall in love with "what we did." But we often fail to mention the "why" behind what we did.)

Most resume advice tells you bullets must be short and punchy. Starting with an action verb and including a metric. That’s why most resumes sound like they were written by a committee of bored robots.

When I started resume coaching, I followed the standard advice. 

I had learned this in a training on telling success stories in interviews. The structure was simple: 

• There was a problem worth solving. 
• I did something difficult and challenging to solve it. 
• As a result, there was an impact or transformation.

That story framework works brilliantly for 200-word interview answers. 

But in the same training, they said use "<Results> by <solution>" for your bullet points. 

After trying this for many resumes, I could see that something broke when the problem disappeared.

Without the problem, the bullets sounded like every other resume: generic, bloodless, impossible to care about. Functional, but forgettable.

So I evolved my methodology. I went the opposite direction from conventional wisdom. I stopped stripping context out. I started writing 45-word mini-stories instead: problem + what you did + the transformation you created.

The reaction from clients was immediate and visceral.

“Wow.”
“This finally sounds like me.”
“I guess I’m kind of a badass.”
"Stating the problem makes it a lot more clear."

And when I ask, “If you were the hiring manager, which bullet makes you want to interview the person?” the vote is about 97% for the story version.

Because once you include the problem, the impact becomes unmistakable.

The old template capped their value. The story-based approach unlocked it.

Example

Traditional bullet:
Executed schedule optimization project on behalf of Central Operations team within scope, time, budget and regulatory constraints, thus increasing district bottom-line by $100,000 in 2024.

Story version:
A flawed scheduling rollout led to staff pushback, overtime spikes, and compliance risks. I took over, educated staff, and established a clear, flexible schedule. The result: consistent staffing, improved client care, more than $100,000 savings, and full regulatory compliance across all facilities.

The first bullet says, “I completed a task.”
The second says, “I rescued a failing initiative and protected the business.”

When you show the problem, you show the stakes.
When you show the stakes, your work becomes meaningful.
When your work is meaningful, you get interviews.

Your resume is a marketing document, for you. To help a hiring manager understand why they should choose 𝘺𝘰𝘶 for an interview over many other qualified candidates.

Q: What is the #1 characteristic of a marketing document that most resumes don't have?

A: A differentiator. Something that sets you apart from all the other qualified candidates. A 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯 to choose you. Something that makes you interesting and a better choice than their other alternatives. 

Most people have no idea what makes them actually special - and none articulate it on their resumes.

Of course, it can't be something on the job description. (Although I see this 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦. The job description says "We're looking for someone with a track record of XYZ." So the resume says "Track record of XYZ." Not differentiating - everyone who's qualified can say the same thing!)

How do you figure out your differentiator? Questions you can ask yourself: 

• Why have people chosen 𝘺𝘰𝘶 in the past over your other colleagues in the same role? 
• What do people say about why they like working with you, compared to others in the same role? 
• What have you become known for in your various roles that sets you apart? 

Or you can work with me, and I can help you find it.

Everyone has a differentiator. At least that's my experience.

My controversial take: Many companies could double their sales without changing their product. They just need better marketing.

And product managers hold the key to making that happen.

It's part of our job - making products successful - to ensure our products are marketed well. We can't just abdicate that to the marketing team and wonder why our great product isn't getting traction.

But here's the hitch. Most PMs can't articulate why their products actually matter.

I see this constantly in resumes (that is, you marketing yourself):

𝗧𝘆𝗽𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘁: Led 0-1 build for metadata extraction and comparison utilizing OCR technologies with accuracy up to 90%
 
This tells me 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 you built. It doesn't tell me 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦.
 
𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆-𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘁: Our manual contract metadata process created delays, errors, and compliance risk. I led end-to-end discovery, designed a new UX, and implemented a hybrid LLM/OCR solution. The result: 10x accuracy, 2x speed, 50% cost reduction, and a dramatically improved onboarding experience for customers.
 
Now I understand the value. Same product, completely different impact.
 
Your prospects are facing the same challenge with your marketing and sales processes. They see lists of cool features. But if you don't show how your product solves their problems or the transformations it creates - they won't care. 

The fix is simple: Problem → Solution → Transformation.

Every compelling story follows this structure. There was a problem worth solving. Someone did something difficult to solve it. As a result, there was a meaningful transformation.

When you start with the problem, the benefits write themselves. The benefits are simply what life looks like when that problem no longer exists.

This framework works everywhere you need to drive adoption:
 
• Sales enablement materials
• Marketing copy and positioning
• Feature announcements
• Roadmap pitches to execs
• Stakeholder updates
• Customer conversations
• And yes, your resume

Making products successful means making sure people understand why they matter. That's our job, not optional.

𝗧𝗿𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀: Take one of your product's core features and write it as Problem → Solution → Transformation. If you struggle, that's exactly the gap your marketing and sales teams are facing. Reply with what you come up with and I'll give you feedback.

How to win an argument. 

We go into discussions about contentious topics with high confidence we're right, that our idea/opinion/knowledge is correct. But how often are we really right? 

When you're trying to persuade someone who just doesn't seem to be "getting" your argument, what do you do?

The answer isn't "argue harder."  

Instead, ask questions. 
• What led you to that conclusion?
• How have you taken X into account in your thinking?

These types of questions will sometimes (often!) uncover the fact that you actually didn't know what you thought you knew. 

E.g., maybe they considered X, realized that X was a red herring, and found a better option, Y, that you hadn't even thought of, since you were so obsessed with X. 

One implication - be prepared for cognitive dissonance 𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯 when you ask good questions!

And this works both ways. Sometimes those questions will help the 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 person recognize a weakness in their position. One can always hope!

(How did you "win" the argument if you were wrong? You learned something, and now your thinking is better. It's a good outcome.)

Here are two things ChatGPT and the other LLMs 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 know about how to show your impact in your resume: 

1. Impact is almost never related to keywords in the *job description.* Impact comes from turning around or resolving a business problem. These business problems rarely show up in job descriptions.

2. To show impact, your *accomplishment* needs to be put in the context of the business problem it solved. That is, impact = "<a problem existed>, so <I did a thing>, and <business benefits resulted>." 

Your resume must show impact for the hiring manager to bring you in for an interview.

Review your resume's bullet points. 

Is it clear what business problem your accomplishments address? 

Is it clear why the result was meaningful? (I don't mean, "Could someone 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴?" I mean is it explicitly clear, no guessing required?)

Are your bullet points showing your impact? Or are they simply saying, in effect, "I did my job."

(ChatGPT does not know how to write bullet points that do this.)

Here's a bullet point that shows impact (based on a story from a client I worked with): 

* Brattle had struggled to quantify analyst performance, fueling customer mistrust, operational drag, and constant internal disputes. I developed an accurate algorithm and internal tool that supported analyst decisions, gave managers clear tracking, and became a competitive differentiator - accelerating sales cycles and removing a key barrier to growth. 

This bullet does the following:

• Sets the context of a meaningful problem ("failure to quantify analyst performance") and why it was worth solving.
• Shows the business outcome ("decision support" and that it created a competitive differentiator leading to faster sales).
• Implies mastery of many key product management skills - discovery, prioritization, working with developers, etc. 

---
Yes, I know it's long, and it has no metric. 

But it's still 10x more likely to get my client an interview than his previous bullet point - because it shows his impact. 

Here's the original: "Developed improvement processes around data quality of risk analytics, resulting in greater confidence in the attribution platform and reducing the team’s manual efforts by ~20 hours per month." 

Nothing about competitive differentiation or accelerated sales. Nothing about a long-term struggle to come to grips with this analysis. Just a useless metric that may or may not represent a meaningful change.

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