It was not a surprise when I spoke with a Product Manager who was the only happy person in the room of Alumni at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the 2016 graduate welcoming ceremony. When I asked him what his day to day was like, he simply said “Fun stuff, let’s get together for coffee this week”.
Even although we never met again, that was enough for me to search on Google “What is Product Management?”. What I found was mind-blowing, a feeling of when you find the answer to the most complex math problem in high school examination.
Without any relevant experience, getting into Product Management was not an easy one. But the more I learned about the position, the harder I tried. It took me 5 months, and about 1000 applications to land 1 interview call for an internship, and now I am working in that company for 3 years enjoying every single day so far.
Here are my 7 reasons why product management.
- Change
- Finding problems
- Express
- Travel
- Initiate practices
- Lead
- My Life
1. Change
It took a while to understand who I was. I remember having a conversation with one of my previous bosses in Mumbai who told me, “Jagan, find what you are really good at, and double down on becoming the best at it. Good enough for people to remember you when they think of that”. My first instance was to find what others find me good at.
For some people, I was remembered as a good football player, for some as a really good dancer, for some a really good singer and a guitarist, for some a really good photographer, for some a really good actor. Those qualities never stayed, it was a few months of 100% dedication, giving my best to learn something new, and once I reached a place where I saw some recognition, I stopped pushing more on that and moved onto the next.
Product Management was exactly it. For 3 months you work on creating really good marketing content for your product. Next 1 month you work on just math and projections to figure out how your product is doing. Next quarter you work on making your product’s user experience beautiful and creative. That “change” in what I do is what I needed to not lose interest in my career and give the best in all those phases.
2. Finding problems
“A problem well stated is a problem half solved.” — John Dewey
A lot of people are good at finding solutions. But for many, it’s hard to find a problem. Growing up in India, I was surrounded by problems. Unfinished roads, discriminations based on caste, electricity shortage due to corruption to name a few. I started finding problems with everything around me. Why doesn’t the electricity socket be closer to me? Why is there no spacesuit to live in hot weather conditions? Why can’t we cook anywhere we want? My solutions may not have been pragmatic at that time, but I believed those problems were worth solving.
As a Product Manager, I constantly need to find the problems/gaps in the product. Not only from a capabilities standpoint, but it could also be that the marketing content is not enough, sales executives have issues with the pricing, account executives need my help to close a larger deal, engineers need to know which problem to fix first.
3. Express
Would you believe if I said I got a full-time job because I stood up and spoke in front of 100s of people? It was June 18th, 2017, my first day of internship, and I was made to fly from Boston to San Fransisco to attend a “PM All Hands”. A two days workshop that involved a lot of discussions and presentations from the management. I was assigned to sit on a round table with 5 other product managers I have never even met before. To break the ice, everyone was given 3 minutes to learn 3 things about the people beside them. It was awkward to ask questions to people around me, but the gentleman who was sitting on one side, a jovial German shared a few things about him voluntarily. Whilst listening and noting down, looked at the time, and it was 90 seconds, I had to abruptly stop him and switched my focus to the lady to my right side. I still remember the way she expressed her love for her parrot. Once the three minutes were over, the host requested volunteers to raise a hand and share what they learned. I lifted my hand up to take that opportunity to introduce myself, and I thought they would pick someone else who has been with the company for a long time. I turned around to find no one but me lifting the hand. As awkward as it could get. I stood up and shared what I learned and the host, who was the manager of all PMs in the room responded, “If you want detail-oriented, you know whom to go to. It’s Jagan!”.
The German that I shared about turned to be the one who was looking for someone to take over a product when I finished my internship. He called me up one day and said, “Jagan, I still remember the day you stood up in front of so many people and spoke. That’s the guts you need to be a good product manager. Would you like to join my team?”. He is now my best friend in the company and my boss.
4. Travel
I know what you are thinking. “Who doesn’t love to travel?”. I agree, who doesn’t. But it depends on what you are traveling for. Ask someone who traveled for work, not all are a fan of Monday to Thursday traveling. Especially when you are setting up your lifestyle, there are multiple complications when it comes to Monday to Thursday traveling. Most importantly, you need to do laundry right after you return when all you want to do is chill. Let alone the healthy lifestyle chart that you prepared to stick with. I love to workout, but I don’t feel like it when I am staying in a luxury hotel in the middle of San Fransisco Financial District. I would rather go to a live music bar, get some drinks, meet new people, and relax in the evenings after all-day meetings.
I learned to be a minimalist when it comes to lifestyle. I sleep on the floor most of the time, okay with just a few pairs of clothes until I want to replenish. It took time to understand how to make travel work, but once I did, it was easy. Traveling for me is also to learn about the city, people, and culture. It’s never boring. As a PM, I get to travel a very few times every quarter to my head office or to the customer’s location. It’s not as bad as a Business Analyst who needs to travel to a single location for months. A PM can define when, where, and why to travel and request for budget approval. Usually, it’s approved if there is a valid ask.
5. Initiate practices
There are always new practices in every team. Some teams have a daily standup, some teams have a weekly check-in, some teams have a thirsty Thursdays, some have Friday fun-days. You don’t have to be a PM to bring some interesting initiatives that could bring the “change” to keep your work interesting. But, as a PM, I get to explore every single group within the company because I need to be involved in everything when it comes to my product. UX team might have lunch and learn, the marketing team has a weekly blogging challenge, engineering teams have monthly hackathons. My role helps me get my foot in all these practices, find what works where and introduce to test the hypothesis. By all means, it’s a suggestion than a full-blown command. Usually, the teams are always ready to try something new. So far, all my initiatives were appreciated. This keeps me going!
6. Lead
Being a leader makes you responsible for all the actions of your team. If the team succeeds, the credit usually goes to the team, if the team fails, the critics go to the leader. As a PM, one wrong decision could make the company lose in millions. Eventually, the PM will be removed from the organization. PM should also be empathetic to listen to the angry customers, yet not get distracted and demotivated by the comments made. My boss after an angry rant call with a customer, “Jagan, did you see my elephant dance on that call? It’s part of our job. We shouldn’t take it personally. Rather take that as constructive feedback and realize they love the product and just want it to work better. Now let’s take it to our team and resolve this.”.
As a PM, I must now direct my team to resolve this issue for these customers, and for that, I need to be a responsible leader who should convert these rants to technical requirements, help in planning a resolution, and delivering value back to those customers. I use the word “direct” instead of “dictate” because the term leader is usually misunderstood to be arrogant. Often times, it’s a lonely, hyper adrenalin rushing life or death decision-making skills that need to be made while managing 100 other operational tasks.
7. My Life
I always dreamt of starting my business one day. It doesn’t mean I don’t want to work for anyone. Everyone works for someone else at the end of the day. You are either working under an immediate manager, or you are working for your customers/investors. But, my goal is to bring something to this world that is created by me and my team before I leave. My parents are from a humble middle-class family who is satisfied with what they have. A stable job and a good reputation in the society, and educated next generation is an achievement that was a dream for their previous generation. But, my parents let me think big, explore what I wanted to, encourage to travel for studying, and ready to invest in my education keeping their hard-earned savings at stake. I might not have the inherent qualities of a successful businessman, but I know I can learn those skills.
The more I learned about Product management, the more it reflected what the CEO of a company does. They call Product Managers as the CEO of the Product. This is the final reason why I chose to take Product Management as my career. There was never a dull moment ever since.
Conclusion:
Sometimes we don’t know what we don’t know. And it’s never too late to start something. It was not until I turned 24, I decided to move to the US without a goal but hope, and curiosity to learn new skills. If that PM on that stage was not the happiest person, I may not have asked that question, none of this might have happened.
What are your reasons behind what you are doing? Comment below!
