Entering the PM space: a conversation with Blueprint alum Gibson Chu
At Blueprint, we strive to incorporate and celebrate all roles that bring code to life: developers, designers, and of course, Project Leads. Yet still, navigating the Product Management (PM) space can be murky because so many different backgrounds, experiences, and skill-sets can lend themselves to being a good product manager. So, we talked to Blueprint alum Gibson Chu about his personal experience as a product manager and his insights on succeeding in the role.
Gibson Chu, c/o 2020 Cal grad and Blueprint’s Spring 2021 External Vice President, is currently a Product Manager at Indeed.com leading the Match Employer Recommendation Experiences team.
How did you enter the PM industry?
I originally wanted to do journalism and I think that first got me interested in talking and meeting different types of people, especially learning about the different types of problems that were in those different communities. This was a great way to expose myself to those issues. I also often found it challenging to display and tell these issues, so I learned data journalism, which enabled me to share these stories. I worked with someone who was a data journalist, and he inspired me to take some data science and computer science courses. I used that to weave myself into the tech space, which led me to meet a lot of people who, instead of trying to write about issues, were trying to solve them instead. This led me to product because product would actually tackle some of the problems that people had, but instead of working in a more technical space where I’m directly building things, I’m on the ground and listening to user feedback and then providing direction to solve those issues. I also think that product is for me as a person because I am someone that likes more general types of solutioning.
What does your day to day look like?
I think it ranges from some days being heavy with meetings and trying to move projects along to days where I spend a lot of time looking at data and trying to understand what are the right opportunity sizes or priorities, as well as the health and status of product features. This mixture allows me to talk from a leader perspective, but also the on ground perspective where I learn how the engineers and designers are working on the project and what are the next steps so that we can prepare for the next project.
What has been the biggest obstacle you have encountered in PM?
I think, for me, there’s 2.
One is trying to get stakeholder buy-in because it’s hard to convince people that a certain product or feature is the right priority and what you should work with. It is often even more difficult when teams are siloed not trying to communicate or work together very well, which is not always the case, but it does happen with different external teams. So, it’s just making sure that everyone is aligned on the same page, feels heard, and there is agreement on what the next steps are. This happens at every stage of the project, so it’s just something that you have to get used to.
The second more personal caveat for me is opportunity sizing and prioritizing different types of work. It’s often hard for me to decide which item should the team work on because there are some intuitive projects that make a lot more sense, such as the vision of the product that we should move towards, but then it’s often hard to justify if I can’t back it up with data. That is why it’s important to ask the right questions.
What is your favorite thing about PM and what is something you wish was done differently?
My favorite thing about PM is that I get to talk to so many people and interact with different people and their perspectives. That’s the thing I carried over and enjoyed the most from journalism, and still remains one of the biggest highlights of my career so far. That type of exposure is something anyone who wants to get into product should be open to, because you are going to be super social, but then you also have to be okay with not being the dominant force, and instead moving forward with the different steps that are ongoing in the process.
One thing that can be done differently is that on a broader scale, making sure that people are open to feedback and communication. I think this stems from the first big problem of companies as people tend to be siloed in their own specific ideas. I think this comes with good reason because their own teams have certain goals and objectives, and these may not align with other teams. Each team also belongs to a higher level of management, and those people also have to agree upon what to do moving forward. However, oftentimes people are gunning for how they can get a promotion or how their team can be the most successful, and this doesn’t always lead to the user benefit. The other side to consider is that with small startups, you can often move a lot quicker between levels of management, but then the reason for why one step is important may be unclear as bigger companies are able to designate teams to a task.
However, I am also not at a director level, so I don’t see things as much and I’m sure there are things that I’m missing, but I’m also sure I’ll gain more experience as time goes on.
What is one takeaway you learned that you would like others to know?
Don’t underestimate the power of telling a good story. This is often something that goes overlooked because it’s easy to share what the bullet points are or the goals and expectations of certain projects. However, being able to tell things as a story helps to get more people involved, gets them to believe in what you are doing, and buy in to a certain project you’re moving towards. This helps everyone visualize what is the outcome in this solution and why is this even an issue to begin with.
What has been your favorite project?
I don’t think I have a favorite project yet and I think that’s because I feel like there’s a lot of gaps that I still need to improve on with the projects I am working on right now. However, I recently started at Indeed and we were able to launch the release of a pretty important feature for the employer side where we help employers accept and review candidates. I think I’ve been the most proud of this because I was able to see it from start to finish and that’s one of the best feelings.
What advice would you have for any aspiring PMs?
Advice I would have is that getting pretty good at communicating and selling a story will help you the most, especially the way you talk or the way you present it. Technical skills you can always learn, but learning how to approach and tackle a problem takes time.
