Product manager cover letter: step-by-step guide

Product Management is a hot field. Top tech companies and start-ups recruiting PMs routinely receive 500+ applications for a single position. Candidates usually don't know this, but the most competitive step in the recruiting process is the cover letter and resume screening. That's where more than 60% of candidates get eliminated.

So how do you do it? How do you craft a PM cover letter that gets you interviews at top companies like Google, Facebook, or Amazon? What exactly do these organizations expect to read in a PM cover letter?

Here’s what you need to know. PM cover letters are quite different to application letters for other jobs. So, let's step through the product manager cover letter basics and writing tips you should be aware of. And let's also review a cover letter sample that landed multiple PM interviews.

1. Basics
2. Top writing tips
3. Google letter sample
4. Q&A

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1. Basics ↑

The first step towards writing a strong application is to understand why some tech companies and start-ups ask for a cover letter in the first place. And what specific skills hiring managers will be looking for in your letter.

1.1 Why ask for a letter?

Let's put ourselves in the shoes of a hiring manager for a second. Before investing your time and your team's time, what are the top three questions about a candidate you want answered?

1. Have they had a strong impact as a PM or in another role before?
2. Product management can mean different things at different companies. What aspects of product management are they interested in?
3. Have they thought about why they want to work for us and not another company?

If you answer these three questions in a structured and impactful way, the hiring manager reading your letter will be thankful. They'll immediately know whether you could be a good fit for their team. This is why every cover letter should be structured as follows:

1. Why you?
2. Why product management?
3. Why company X?

The second reason some companies ask for a cover letter is to test your writing skills. PMs write all the time: product requirement documents, emails, power points, user stories, etc. They spend 50% of their day writing. And a lot of the time their job is to summarize very large quantities of information in a succinct way. So be sure to do that in your cover letter. You have to:

• look back on all your past experiences
• select the relevant experiences to convince the reviewer that you are the right person for the job
• summarize all these experiences in a way that's easy to read and digest

Cover letters are a disguised writing test. Your objective when you write one should be to answer the questions above and to demonstrate the PM skills hiring managers will be looking for.

1.2 What skills to demonstrate?

We've extensively discussed what skills you should demonstrate in your PM applications in our product manager resume guide. In summary, you should highlight a mix of technical skills including:

• Strategy
• UX / UI design
• Coding
• Digital marketing
• Data analytics

And also soft skills including:

• Leadership
• Communication
• Organization

Your cover letter shouldn't simply repeat what's in your resume. It should focus on the most relevant aspects of your achievements for a given company and expand on them. The two documents should complement each other.

In general, your resume will be similar for all your different applications. But customizing your cover letter to each company is a good idea as it enables you to select the best parts of your experience for each company.

2. Top writing tips ↑

So how do you make it easy for your reviewer to put your cover letter in the "Accept" pile? Below we have put together ten tips to make sure you can achieve this and avoid common mistakes.

Tip #1 Keep it to one page

One of the unwritten rules of cover letters is that they should not be longer than one page. The trick to achieve this is to only select the MOST RELEVANT experiences from your resume and to summarize them. The points you decide to highlight should clearly demonstrate that you are or would make a great product manager.

Tip #2 Standard format and font

It's tempting to use an eye-catching font and format. But it's actually a bad idea. You only risk your hiring manager thinking, "I've never seen this font, it looks really weird. Who is this person?" Your cover letter should stand out because of its content, NOT because of its format. Stick to standard format and font (e.g. Arial, size 11).

Tip #3 Go beyond the resume

A common mistake we see applicants making is to simply repeat what's on their resume in their cover letter. Instead, you should use the letter as an opportunity to expand on those bullet points which are most relevant to the specific job you are applying for. Your cover letter should complement your resume, not repeat it.

Tip #4 Network, network, network

This might sound surprising but a big part of the cover letter is how much networking you have done. Having talked to people from the companies you are targeting has two benefits. First, they might recommend you to the hiring manager. And second, you can mention you know them in your cover letter which increases your chances of getting an interview. In fact, your chances of getting a PM offer at Google increase from less than 1% to about 5% when you are referred by a current employee.

Tip #5 Write one letter per company

One question we often get is, "Should I write one letter per company?" The answer is YES. But it's not as hard as it might sound. Every cover letter needs to answer three questions: Why you? Why product management? And why this company?

The main paragraph you will need to change in every letter is therefore the one about "Why this company?" For each company, you will have to do the networking mentioned above to clearly articulate why you are interested in working there.

Tip #6 Don't apologize if no experience

You should not apologize for having no experience in product management. Instead, you should focus your efforts on showing that your skill set overlaps a lot with a product manager's skill set.

Storytelling matters. Instead of writing, "I was never a product manager before," you could write, "I was never exactly a PM, but the role I held required very similar skills. I wrote and prioritized epics and user stories, as well created initial UX wireframes for two projects. I analyzed large datasets to drive strategy and make feature requests, etc."

Tip #7 Don't be shy

Your cover letter is not the time to be shy. If you went to Harvard and have three Olympic medals, now is the time to say it! Most of us don't, and that's fine. But the point is that you should really push yourself to bring your most impressive accomplishments forward.

Tip #8 Use short sentences and the active voice

Your cover letter must be easy to read and digest. A great way to achieve this is to use short sentences (e.g. less than two lines), and the active voice. If you're not sure what the active voice is you can take a look here.

Tip #9 Edit and proofread

Writing an outstanding cover letter is actually very hard. Most candidates underestimate how much time it takes and start this process too late. You'll need to take a step back and reflect on everything you have done to date to highlight your most relevant experiences. This takes multiple iterations. Start early, edit, and proofread multiple times.

Tip #10 Get feedback!

One of the keys to success is to get feedback from peers or experienced product managers. These people will be able to point out which parts of your letter they don't get or don't find impactful enough. In our experience, great candidates all look for feedback and iterate their letter until it's truly as good as it can get. It's a lot of work but not many people do it, so it will help you stand out from other applicants.

3. Google letter sample ↑

Now that you know about the ten most important tips to craft the perfect product manager cover letter, let's use them to build a cover letter sample you can reuse for your own job applications at top tech companies. Every PM cover letter should be split out in five sections:

1. Introduction
2. Why you?
3. Why product management?
4. Why this company?
5. Conclusion

Let's step through each section one by one and highlight the important elements you need to take inspiration from in your own cover letter.

But before we dive in, please note the following points about the template:

• This is an anonymized cover letter from a candidate who got PM interviews at top tech companies. So you can trust this template works.
• A lot of people use this template. Get inspiration from it, but every sentence in your letter should be written from scratch.
• This cover letter might sound impressive. Even if you have not achieved as much as this person, you can still get an interview.

Finally, if you're applying for a company that doesn't ask for a cover letter this section can still be helpful for you. Indeed, sending a cover letter along with your resume when you're networking can be a great way to explain your background more comprehensively.

3.1 Introduction

This section is a formality. It should simply state the following information:

• Your name and email address (You can replace your email address with a postal address, although those are not commonly used anymore)
• The date at which you are sending your letter
• The position, company, and office which you are applying for

Keep it short and sweet.

3.2 Why you?

This is the first section of your cover letter and therefore the most important one.

It should state the top three achievements which make you an ideal candidate for a product manager position. If you are a product manager you should focus on the main products and features you delivered and what business impact they had. If you are looking to become a product manager then it's a good idea to focus on the key skills required for the job.

For instance, notice that the three points we make in the paragraph above are about 1) coding, 2) strategy, and 3) UX / UI design. These are three of the technical skills you'll need as a PM as we've explained in our resume guide.

To write this section you need to step back and ask yourself, "What are the most impressive things I've done so far which make me a great PM?" This is not an easy question to answer. In our experience discussing this with close friends or experienced PMs can help. It's sometimes easier for them to quickly point at the impressive and relevant things you've done, as they are an external observer.

In addition, notice how achievements are QUANTIFIED in the example above. Saying you have worked on a strategy project and "achieved $1m in sales in year one" is much more powerful than saying it was a "success". You should quantify your achievements whenever possible.

This section is your chance to grab the reader's attention. If there's nothing impressive in it, they will stop reading and just scan the following paragraphs. So don't miss your opportunity!

3.3 Why product management?

Once you have convinced your reviewer that you have impressive achievements under your belt they'll be thinking, "Ok, this person seems to have the right skills to be / become a PM. But do they REALLY know what product management is about?"

Product management means different things to different people. The best approach for your "Why product management?" section is therefore to write about past experiences that are most relevant to the company you are applying to. The perfect situation is if you have been a PM at some point in time or did a Product internship.

But even if you haven't been a PM in the past, there are plenty of angles you can use to connect your past experiences to what you will do as a PM. For instance:

• You might have enjoyed working with multiple stakeholders when you led a project in school
• You might have enjoyed setting KPIs on one of your projects and measuring improvements driven by changes you were making
• You might have enjoyed creating a product to solve one of your own problems as a side project

You should use these experiences to say that you know product management is something you would enjoy doing.

When they read this section, your reviewer should think, "Ok, this person is impressive AND they know what they are getting into." 

3.4 Why Google / Facebook / Amazon / etc.?

If you have managed to convince your reviewer that you have an impressive background and that you really want to be a product manager you stand very high chances of getting an interview. The only question that's left for you to answer is, "Why work for this specific company?"

Top tech companies compete for the same talent. But they're not desperate enough to hire employees who don't truly want to work for them and will only stick around for a few months. So what should you write about in this section?

In our experience, the most efficient way to set yourself apart is to write about the following three aspects. As a side benefit, researching the three points below will help you figure out if you actually want to work for that company, so it's really worth doing.

1. People
2. Industry
3. Values

When you write, "I've worked for Michael Smith," or "I'm interested in industry X," or "Values X and Z resonate with me," you are making an argument that's specific enough for your reviewer to think, "Ok they've done their homework."

If you stay too generic, your argument will be much less credible. For instance, writing something like, "I'm excited to join Google and have the opportunity to work with talented people on complex problems," is a weak argument because you could swap Google for Amazon or Facebook in that sentence and it would still work.

In fact, this is the ultimate test. If you can swap Google with another name in your "Why Google?" section you are not being specific enough. You need to work on your paragraph again and mention specific people, an industry, and values that you find interesting.

3.5 Conclusion

The last section of the cover letter is a formality. It should include the following elements:

• A sentence or two saying that you are enthusiastic and available for interviews at any time
• Your final signature

Keep it short and sweet!

Additional resources

If all goes well, hopefully these steps will help you to create a cover letter that helps you get an interview for your top choice PM role. Before you start doing interviews though, you'll need to learn how to answer the different types of product manager interview questions.

If you haven't already done so you should check out our free product manager resume guide. It's packed with writing tips and also includes a resume example that landed interviews at Google.