Why Product Management?
I have been a product manager for the last 6 years, yet yesterday was the first time that I came across the question; ‘Why Product Management?’ In all honesty, my response to the question was a hearty laugh for 5 minutes, followed by 2 minutes of introspection on my impulsive carrier choices. Eventually though, I believe I found my answer. So here it goes…
My experience in the BFSI sector of over 6 years included leading teams, evolving and releasing the GoTo branded software that generates good amount of annual revenue. My decision of taking up diverse roles in the digital banking combined with urge to constantly learn and grow, helped my transition from business relationship manager to business analyst and eventually to product manager. My decision to opt for the role of Product Manager was based on certain skill sets that I believe to have inherited and acquired.
So, first things first; Who is a Product Manager?
According to me and loosely put, a product manager sets the tone for a product, understands the customer’s pain points, leads the team, takes various forms of input, and ultimately makes the product-related decisions. Beyond shipping new features on a regular cadence and keeping the peace between engineering and the design team, the best PMs create products with strong user adoption that have exponential revenue growth and perhaps even disrupt an industry.
TLDR; Product Manager is someone who solves problems at scale.
Following are the some of the skills that made me a Product Manager
1. Ringleader
One thing that I realised when I was pursuing engineering was that I was few of those GoTo person in a friend circle and later as I entered corporate world same quality of being a people person or a team player was appreciated by peers as well as seniors, somehow this became genesis for my Transition to a Product Manager
People who like other people, who have the ability to wrangle and lead various folks, (while respecting their opinions and differences) are what I might call Ringleader. The corporate jargon for Ringleader is ‘Team Player’
2. Observation
If you are a Sherlock Fan [The BBC One :P] I’m sure you are familiar with Sherlock’s ‘You do See, You just don’t observe’.
Well there are some people who love observing the curiosities of life and work. They wonder why things work a certain way and if there might be another way. This is just how they tick — all the time.
And in one by 1:1 I understood ‘Damn! That’s me’.
My manager said: constant and relentless curiosity is the most essential tool in a product manager’s toolbox.
This made me realise that I could be on a right path.
3. See opportunities than problems
Once you spot a problem or something that could be made better, do you instantly go into thinking, evaluating, and what-if mode, running quick calculations in your head and sketching rough ideas?
In one of my recent assignments, I was asked to develop a website for a strategic SBU without developer. Instead of raising that as a problem, me and my team perceived this as an opportunity. We had to explore ‘No Code’ website development platforms. After a few days of research, we stumbled on Webflow and struck gold while delivering the project with no development cost and faster time to market. We believed, hypothesizing the possible ways they can make a difference. Subsequently, we experimented and iterated rapidly in order to make the MVP live.
5. Adaptable
Quoting Bruce Lee ‘Be like water, my friend’.
Last but not the least; uncertainty, change in prioritization and being adaptable to it while planning for it is what I have learnt the hard way. Change is inevitable, whether or not you appreciate it. Companies, plans, roadmaps and management change constantly. Write your own playbook where there isn’t one.
Adapt, Improvise and Overcome; this mantra helped me to do better in my professional life.
To sum it up, knack for challenges, deeper thinking and being people oriented made me venture into product management and boy can’t explain how much I love my job.
Thanks for reading 😊
Lets Connect: www.linkedin.com/in/parimalyasatwar
