I am not a Product Manager…but I talk to them. Episode 3: Candice Seenyen (Hubtype)
Hi! I’m Candice Seenyen. I was born in Mauritius and left my tropical motherland to pursue tertiary studies in Computer Science in snowy Upstate NY. Through circumstances of life, I ended up in Barcelona where I have been living for the past 10 years. I started my career as an Android engineer, working on applications for different sectors, from banking and finance to entertainment, news and more. I always knew that I wanted to impact what I was building through more than code and I went through Project Management, to Scrum Master to Product Ownership, finally Product Management. I have been in this role, although different companies, for 4 years now and I’m loving it, for better or worse.
1) If you were a product, what product would you be? Why?
That’s a complicated question… I would say (almost) anything Apple makes! Yes, I am a fangirl, although not a die-hard one. I like Apple products because they are beautifully simple to use on the surface but have their level of complexity down under, and it’s not easy to get to the core of the products. Some people love them, some people hate them but they do one thing well, learn from the best and make it their own.
2) In your own words, what is a Product Owner? And a Product Manager? Which one do you prefer to define your job?
For me, a PO — which is a role that exists within Scrum — takes care of translating business needs and goals to actions for the team. She makes sure that the most important things get done first, that the team is aligned and can do its job, and that value is being delivered to the user with every release. A Product Manager can also be a PO. On top of that, she needs to know the business, the users and the opportunities to grow the product so she is able to take it in the direction that brings most value both to the user and the company. Plus, a PM is a leader for the team with a responsibility to make sure everybody moves forward in the same direction and with the same purpose.
I consider myself a Product Manager as I have been working on both the strategic and tactical aspects of my products as well as building and leading cross-functional teams.
3) Why do companies need Product Managers?
A PM’s role is to deliver products that solve real needs for right users in the long term. Building and growing products in this way gives you the highest chance of surviving in this world where there is aggressive competition and lower fidelity from customers. To be able to do that, you need to learn everyday about your users, about your product and your business to make sure that any bet you make is the best you can make with the information you have available. You don’t always make the right one but at least you are prepared to invest as little as possible and learn as fast as possible. It requires full dedication and motivation to do it well.
4) What is the difference between a good Product Manager and a bad Product Manager?
In my opinion, a good PM has several qualities (in no specific order of priority):
• She asks why, over and over again and is able to challenge any decision made.
• She is ok with being proven wrong, she is always learning through experimentation and improving
• She has empathy to relate to users, to build strong relationships with her team members and to speak the language of different profiles across the company to reach common goals.
A bad Product Owner would be somebody who holds a weak opinion strongly. He doesn’t really know why the team is doing what it is doing but has his mind made up.
5) What do you enjoy the most as a Product Manager?
There are two parts of my job that I love. On the product side, I love testing ideas and hypotheses and with my team and learning whether you were right or wrong to build something that moves the metrics in any direction. The other is helping to form a team that works well together. This takes time and the commitment of everyone but it is rewarding to see a real team working together to achieve great outcomes.
6) What is the worst part of being a Product Manager? What frustrates you?
Dealing with difficult stakeholders! It’s frustrating to have conversations with people who don’t understand how a product team should work and ask for feature roadmaps with dates, or who believe that you should build what they ask just because. I have learned to be patient with stakeholders even if it sometimes means giving in, and to educate them through results and success stories.
7) If you could ask any question to any Product Manager on Earth, who would you choose and what would you ask him/her?
Julie Zhuo. I would ask her so many things… for example, what was the hardest thing for her being a woman PM and leader, what is one thing that she thinks she did well and made a difference in her career, what is the one thing she would change if she could and many more, but I’ll settle with those ones for now.
Note: this post is the third of an ephemeral set of articles based on my conversations with eight Product Managers. I will publishing a new article in the next five days. You can read Episode 2 — interview with Amaia Calvo-Fernández from eDreams ODIGEO- through this link.