Shopify APM Experience and Application Tips

Candid perspective from an internal transfer candidate

TL;DR The Shopify APM program is one of the best ways to break into Product Management, however, it isn’t for everyone. You will be challenged, learn immensely, and ultimately come out as a better product manager.

Hi there! I’m Marco and I recently went through the Shopify Apprentice Product Manager program, a 12 month full-time program with two 6 month rotations (info session here with more info - apply here). This program is for both new grads as well as people with working experience looking to transition into product management. The restrictions are:

1.  <1 year of full time Product Manager experience

2. Eligible to work in the US and Canada

3. Program is remote, however, you need to live in the US / Canada during the program 

My APM experience

Prior to the APM program, I had experience in a variety of roles from management consulting, operations/launch/strategy, and most recently product operations (more about what Product Ops at Shopify here). While in Product Ops, I started working on side projects that helped me learn the product craft in a safe space. I will be forever grateful to the Director of Product for giving me the opportunity to do product work and advocating for my transition internally. 

By the time I entered the program, I had spent 2.5 years at Shopify on the Core Ecosystem team (i.e. app store, theme store). I had touched a variety of merchant and developer facing products and was interested in learning how other parts of Shopify operated.  

Matching Process 

For each rotation, the APM program team prepares a list of all the teams taking in an APM along with a video and doc telling you more about the space and projects that you would be working on. You will then submit a ranking of the product teams that you are most interested in. APM Leads will also provide input around which APMs they feel would be a good fit for their team. 

The program team will then match you based on the inputs and balance meeting most people’s requests, while also rounding out your development as a PM (e.g. if you worked on a Growth team in your first rotation, doing a second rotation in a Growth focused team may not be best even if that’s what you requested). You may not always get your first choice, however, there are so many interesting problems across teams and you may be surprised by how much you like an area even if it may not seem as “sexy” initially. 

Rotation 1 - Financial Services

For my first rotation, I was matched to the Financial Services team working on Shopify Balance, a product that gives merchants access to a spending account and card to manage their finances. In the first rotation, your projects are more framed for you and the focus is more around executing effectively. There are still many design and engineering decisions during the building phase that allow you practice valuable product management skills while not overwhelming you. Depending on the size of your projects you work on, you may get exposure to product discovery and shape projects from an earlier stage (e.g. you may go through the entire project lifecycle if you work on an experiment). 

In this rotation, I got exposure to fintech, mobile app development, and backend development. I had more exposure to technical concepts given the nature of the teams and it was valuable diving deeper into systems design, APIs, and data pipelines. 

Sample projects:

1. Launch push notifications for the recently launched Balance mobile app and a framework to scale notifications. 

2. Increase the eligibility of Balance to more merchants while mitigating risk. Expand feature eligibility (ACH pull, instant payouts) to more merchants.

3. Conduct user research for bundling Shopify Payments with Balance

Rotation 2 - Ads

For my second rotation, I was matched with the Ads team working on growing  Shopify Audiences, a product that leverages Shopify’s scale to improve merchant’s ad performance on major social media platforms. In the second rotation, there is much more of a focus around managing a team. I worked with a team of 10 engineers, data scientists, designers, and go-to-market folks to drive the product forward. I had to work with my eng, design, and data counterparts to create a roadmap, understand what to build, and then rally the team around driving business metrics. I was responsible for regularly reporting progress of projects and business metrics to senior leadership. There was a big learning curve from first to second rotation, though my Lead was there to check-in and support whenever I needed it.

In the second rotation, I was exposed to the Ads industry, partnered closely with data scientists around analysis and experimentation, worked with UX to dive into our existing user flow, and supported GTM campaigns to drive product adoption and conversion. I also had a chance to work with more enterprise type customers given the product was limited to Shopify Plus merchants. 

Sample projects:

1. Analyze funnel metrics and ship 13 UX improvements to improve comprehension of the product and drive value earlier in the funnel to increase ad spend and conversion.

2. Partner with product marketing and data scientists to launch an updated marketing claim and amplify visibility of the claim in-product.

3. Experiment with surfacing merchant success with the Audiences product and productionizing it after initial success was proven. 

What I liked about the program

1. Exposure: Working on different products broadens your learning and ultimately will make you a better product manager. The types of teams available ranged from Growth teams to Core Product teams to Platform teams and having two placements will give you perspectives of what you like and what you don’t like. You can also learn how different teams run rituals to keep their teams aligned. This can vary greatly from team to team and it is interesting to compare and contrast how leaders in different teams operate and still succeed.

2. Learning: Most of the learning was on the job and I could not have been more grateful to my managers during the program. The APM Leads are all vetted and proven product managers within Shopify and I was able to learn so much from them both in terms of the PM craft as well as how to navigate Shopify more broadly. Beyond the work, there are frequent sessions taught by experts on topics ranging from technical skills like SQL to soft skills like communicating effectively. For extra learning, there is a learning stipend that you can use to subscribe to programs such as Reforge or buy books. There are also intimate AMA sessions exposing you to top product leaders within Shopify.

3. Flexible: The program has a structure, however, there is a lot of flexibility within your team based on your comfort level. There is almost an infinite amount of work that could be done and as you gain the trust of your manager, I’ve found that they’ve always been more than willing to hand off more responsibilities and provide additional learning opportunities.

4. Feedback: Within the year, there are 4 rounds of reviews spaced 3 months apart. This consistent and timely feedback is invaluable in helping you understand where you stand in the program and areas that you need to focus on. I found the feedback super helpful and I made sure to set up frequent informal growth sessions every 6 weeks to make sure I was on track. 

5. Camaraderie: The APM program can be stressful and it is comforting to be able to go through experience with other people going through the same thing. The program helps facilitate small group sessions with your cohort and a mentor to discuss craft topics and act as a support group.

6. People: I met and worked with a ton of fantastic people during the program. Most people are incredibly approachable and generous with their time to help from team members to random people I ping on Slack. I’ve made a lot of friends during the program and these relationships make your everyday working experience that much more enjoyable.

Considerations for joining the program

1. Remote: Working in a remote role can be an adjustment and there are both pros and cons. Early in my career, I benefited greatly from working in an office to have more opportunities to build relationships and jamming on a physical whiteboard. Nowadays, I appreciate the flexibility of remote work to accommodate my personal life and the reduction of inefficiencies like finding a meeting room or traveling for a meeting. To bridge this gap, there are offsites where you can come together with your team. I had the opportunity to go to San Francisco and Toronto during the program, which were great experiences collaborating in person and bonding over meals. It made working remote afterwards much easier once rapport had been established in person. 

2. Length: 12 months is not a lot of time and the program is closer to 11 months of actual product work if you remove the 2 weeks of initial onboarding and ~2 weeks of winter holiday. To succeed, you will need to ramp up pretty quickly for each rotation to start showing impact in your product area. 

3. Compensation: For this program there is limited room for negotiation. The compensation is competitive for early career folks, however, if you are coming in with more years of experience, your compensation may not be matched. This may be a tough pill to swallow, however, it may end up benefiting you in the longer arc of your career to transition careers. After the program, you will exit as a full fledged Product Manager and in rare cases, a Senior Product Manager.

4. Full-time Conversion: Not everyone will convert to full time after the 12 month program. The uncertainty is definitely scary, particularly if you are early in your career. For internal transfer candidates, you may have the opportunity to rejoin your previous team, which provides a safety net for career switching. Despite the risk, the learnings, connections, and brand name that you will gain will be invaluable in helping you land your next role. 

Application Experience

I was an internal transfer so my recruitment process was different from external candidates though there were many similarities. 

Recommendations:

1. Shopify appreciates entrepreneurs and high agency people. This can include things like starting a company/club or a side project that you do. If there is a Shopify / technical component, definitely call that out in your application, however, it isn’t necessary. 

2. Showcase how you have been a high performer and drove impact in the past. This can be academic performance, previous internships, volunteer experience, or other experiences (e.g. athletics, side projects). 

3. Diversity of experience is appreciated. You do not need to have worked in tech in the past and having a diverse background can be an asset if you can show how you bring a different perspective.

4. Demonstrate product thinking even if you haven’t done product work. You don’t have to have worked in a tech company to learn the core PM skills. From any given experience, show how you identified a user need, conducted research to validate a need, made decisions and tradeoffs to build a solution, and measured and iterated the product after you built it.

5. Get familiar with case interviews (sample framework here). The interview process will consist of 2 case interviews and I would highly recommend focusing more attention on deeply understanding the problem before diving into any solutions. The best way to get better at this type of interview is by doing live mocks and if you don’t have any practice partners, join this Slack community to find other people preparing for interviews.

6. Understand the Shopify business model. Before joining the company, I thought Shopify was mainly a website builder for eCommerce. Over time, I learned that the company is involved almost all facets of the merchant experience. This video gives a great overview of all the different areas that Shopify touches. It is slightly out of date, but still largely relevant.

Sign up for email notifications here for the next cohort of the APM program. If you end up receiving an offer, congratulations and welcome to Shopify! Do give me a shout on Slack - would love to have a coffee chat and hear about your application journey :)