Coffee with Nadia Barbot

This week, we’re getting coffee with Nadia Barbot. Nadia is a PM at about.me. Before joining about.me, Nadia was a PM at Bazaarvoice.

Nadia writes about what she learns at product meetups in SF here.

How did you get into product management?

I started in client services, and didn’t realize it at the time but I was building a number of skills relevant to product management.

Whilst in that role, I had an opportunity — which had never been presented to me before — to try for a product position. I said “Hey, can I try out for this role?” and the response was “We’re not sure…”. However, one thing lead to another and it worked out. After multiple years in client services, I moved to product.

When I knew there was an opportunity in product, it felt like a natural challenge to set myself. I hadn’t thought about it until I knew there was an opportunity though, which is something I tell people to do — if you want to move into product, stretch yourself to think about what you could do even if there isn’t a position open.

The first step to being “technical enough” is to stop saying you’re not technical enough.

What lessons have you learned as a PM?

• Saying thank you and recognizing people’s hard work goes a long way. I work hard to maintain a positive attitude and outlook in every interaction I have.
• To stay in touch with stakeholders as much as possible, even for the little things — “Hey, I’m editing this spreadsheet and I see you have it open too…”. It shows you care about the details.
• To be available and super responsive. I feel bad if I keep someone waiting for 10 minutes. Depending on what their question is, I’ll either respond immediately or let them know when I will.

I would find myself saying “Oh, I’m not technical enough”, then I’d be reading and remind myself that I know a lot about certain things.

How did you combat being told you weren’t “technical enough”?

I was kind of lucky because my first role was in SEO, which is the most technical type of marketing that exists so I am very knowledgeable about that. When that was my role, I was seen as technical. When I’m not “technical enough”, I try to be really humble. I’ll stay open and pay special attention to my relationship with my Development Managers — “I just need to learn, tell me everything”.

I learned to repeat back almost verbatim what I heard. It’s amazing — you hear it from one technical person, you say it to another technical person and you sound like you know what you’re talking about! And you do know, you’re learning.

I would find myself saying “Oh, I’m not technical enough”, then I’d be reading and remind myself that I know a lot about certain things. I needed to double down and be confident about what I brought to the table.

What advice do you have for someone starting a new PM role?

• Get to know your team — spend the time getting to know everyone, what they’re in charge of, how long they’ve been there etc.
• Get to know the data about your users — you cannot spend too much time on this. Dig into the weeds of the data, then pull out and ask the big picture questions.
• Get to know your users — conduct user interviews to understand your users, what do they use your product for, what are they doing, what are they not doing, what could be improved.

What books do you recommend to PM’s?

I really like non-fiction, specifically biographies and autobiographies. I love that they give you a slice of history — usually across many years — of someone’s life. I’m drawn to leaders of countries, including Nelson Mandela, Indira Gandhi, and several of the Queens of England. I also love Malala Yousafzai’s and Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s autobiographies.

I think being aware of these different people and hearing about their struggles from their perspective allows you to think broader and challenge yourself.

What do you consider the traits of a great PM?

• Empathy is number one. It’s becoming boring now to say but, honestly, before I got into product management I didn’t feel like the PM’s around me were modeling empathy. Empathy is incredibly important — empathy for your users, your team, your stakeholders.
• Being organized. There will always be a lot of priorities — being organized and staying on top of what you’re doing is incredibly important.
• Asking questions. This gets you through not knowing certain things, like not being “technical”.

I left coffee with Nadia ready to check myself whenever I say “Oh, I’m not [blank] enough”. After all, the first step to not being “not [blank] enough” — whatever your “blank” might be — is to stop saying you’re not [blank] enough! Thanks for grabbing coffee, Nadia!

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