From AM to PM: How I became a Product Manager over the span of nine months

Nitar Lo
Nitar Lo
Jul 21, 2017 · 5 min read

I started my career at my current company in November 2015 as an Account Manager (AM). I’d been out of college for a few years and never found anything that stuck. I worked at a couple startups, I started my own startup, I freelanced, I punched in my hours at a corporate gig, and still, I was lost (but I would never admit that). Confident that my heart would lead me to my destiny, I packed all my belongings into a U-Haul and drove from LA to SF.

My role as an AM had its learning curve, but started to get a bit repetitive after a few months. All I craved was a challenge, but I was too comfortable to go out looking for one. By June 2016, I faced a traumatic experience that can only be described with one sentence, “I am a victim.”

In retrospect, that must have been the challenge I needed in my life. A couple weeks later, I sought out anything that would help piece me back together and found yoga teacher training. My training and practice then gave me power to own my life again, and eventually, my career. I picked up what most women in technology had already read, Sheryl Sandberg’s “Lean In.” I treated every word in that book as if they were instructions written just for me. By October 2016, I started having conversations about my career with anyone who was willing to listen.

In January 2017, I took a 10-week Product Management Course through General Assembly and quickly started working on a project from work. Once my coursework was completed, I asked for an 80/20 role: 80 AM and 20 PM. I was given this new split role with no real path, but a simple hope that it would someday lead me to a product role.

Fast forward four months, headcount opens up on the team I’d been dedicating a small fraction of my day towards. And, here we are…

My Five Truths

I‘ve been asked to be a mentor, to give career advice, to “help me get to where I want to be,” but there’s no perfect formula for what I did. However, this is what I learned along the way:

1. Find what defines you

The trauma of my past defined me, and I hated that. The line between “what happened to me” and “who I am” was not very clear. I made it my mission to redefine myself as a person. I am not the woman of my past. I am not just a victim. I will not back down in the face of adversity. This “redefining myself” became my anchor.

2. Make a mentor

At first, I went about this all wrong and asked someone who inspired me, “Will you be my mentor?” Her response was, “I’d rather be your friend than your mentor.” I then wondered how such a flattering question could elicit rejection as a response.

I learned my lesson. I took my next question straight from Sheryl, “How can I help you get to where you need to be?” Most people don’t necessarily want to help others, but most people are open to unsolicited help!

I used this question a lot. Any person who was willing to accept a 1:1 invite from me, got this question right off the bat.

Why did it work?

  1. I found more meaning in my work.
  2. I made measurable impact.
  3. I built strong mutually beneficial relationships.

3. Invest in yourself

The PM course I took was a big financial investment. I had just completed yoga training and my funds were depleted. When I interviewed for a spot in the upcoming course, the representative mentioned that many students were sponsored by their work; asking my company for funding was definitely worth a shot!

I remembered a coworker had taken a class in the last year sponsored by work so I took a dive into our Employee Handbook to find this program. For some reason, I was unable to find anything about continuous education. I then personally reached out to my HR contact and he had told me that the program no longer existed within the company.

Well, I’m improving myself as an employee. There had to be funding somewhere, right?

I took this course program pitch to my manager, who then took it to her manager, in hopes that my team had additional funding to spend. The answer I received, “Sorry, we don’t have any funding for your course.”

The first thought I had was, “How could I be working for a company who doesn’t support my career growth?” I let the resentment settle in for a few days until I announced to myself, “If my company doesn’t believe in me, screw them! I believe in me!” Then, I reached into my wallet for my credit card and signed up for this course on my own dime.

4. Leverage what you have

I didn’t attend a brand name school or have a fancy title at my previous job or have any previous experience in product management. Those are all things that worked against me. What I did have was: in-depth product knowledge, deep empathy for my customers, persistent drive to improve our current product offerings, and willingness to keep learning. Sure, all of those things don’t necessarily make for the perfect PM, but it’s definitely a start!

5. Take risks

“It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission.” This statement holds true in many situations, but particularly so in my role as an AM. When I didn’t understand how something worked, I found the engineer involved and kept asking questions. The more answers I received, the more interested I became in why we make certain decisions and why everything works the way it does. I need to invest time in this, I need to make these necessary changes. So I did.

When it came time to have my weekly 1:1 with my manager, I told her what I had been working on. She didn’t agree to it at first, but I kept pushing back on how important this was to me, to our team, and to the company as a whole.

Had I stopped working on this project when my manager doubted me early on, I wouldn’t have made any advancement in my career.

Conclusion

The last year and a half in SF has not been without fail, but when you make the most out of your situation, you may surprise yourself with what you’re able to achieve.

“[Because] when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” — The Alchemist

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Nitar Lo

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Nitar Lo

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