Career Spotlight: Product Team Manager
Fergus McHugh joined Distilled SCH in 2018 as a Product Owner Lead and has since progressed to Product Team Lead. We chatted to Fergus about life, career, and the advice he would give people starting out on the same career path as him.
Tell us about your career before Distilled!
My career started in summer of 2009. I had just completed a degree in mechanical engineering and secured a role in Accenture’s graduate programme, due to start the following September. However, with the downturn in full swing, the programme was paused until the following March at the earliest. With all the uncertainty and a need to build up some savings, I jumped at the opportunity to mix paint and stock the garden centre in Homebase, Longford! While it made a very enjoyable summer, when Accenture brought the programme forward, I was more than happy to hand in my notice and move back to Dublin.
In Accenture, I worked on two major projects as a business analyst for Bank of Ireland and Microsoft. While the official role was BA, it really gave me a wide range of experience across QA, project and programme management. In 2012, an opportunity came up to join Paddy Power as a BA. It was a chance to focus on the BA role and join a company that I’d used and admired for many years. It was a very exciting time to be there and was given some great opportunities to grow my career as the company grew. I progressed through various roles such as a product owner, BA manager and engagement manager across the business. In 2017, I moved to Hostelworld to work as the mobile product manager. Again, it was a chance to focus on the PM role, bringing all my experience to a new team, company and industry.
Why did you choose Distilled at the time you joined?
Throughout my career, I’ve found myself gravitating towards big Irish brands across various industries — there’s something about working on products that me, my friends and most of the population use on a daily basis that appeals to me. I’d also moved from large corporate environments to smaller, more fast-paced companies along the way, so when I considered Distilled, I could see that it ticked both those boxes. I must say, choosing Distilled had a lot to do with my hiring manager at the time. She brought me in for a couple of interviews and gave me the opportunity to meet the team as well as senior members of the management team. It gave me a real feel for the company and culture, making my decision a lot easier.
What was your first role in Distilled? How have you progressed since first joining the company?
I started out as the Product Owner Lead, managing a team of product owners across the Adverts, Donedeal and Daft. It was a really exciting time to join Distilled. We had just set out on a huge replatform project and were restructuring the delivery teams to adopt agile in a more structured manner and something I had lots of experience from previous roles. There was so much to be done, from forming new product processes to creating roadmaps and all the time delivering products to ensure the company continued to grow. About two years ago, the commercial, product and tech teams split into verticals — property and marketplaces. My role evolved into the Product Team Manager for Daft, leading the product and design team.
What would be your advice to graduates just starting out their career in this field?
Ask lots of questions…about everything! Starting with your interviews, understand as much as you can about the companies and people you will be working with. Asking good questions shows a genuine interest in the company you’re looking to work for and gives you a chance to obtain information that can help with your decision if you are offered. Once you secure your job, continue with the questions and soak up as much information as possible. Don’t be afraid that your question is stupid — especially when you’re new, you’re expected not to know things. By asking questions early on, you’ll avoid making mistakes later. And continue to ask questions throughout your career. Don’t just accept that things need to be a certain way — ask questions and challenge the status quo.
What is the best piece of advice that you’ve received that has helped you get to where you are today?
Build your network. This definitely came from my consultancy background, but is very valuable advice and is the reason I am where I am today. Build relationships with everyone you work with from day one. As well as providing you with a support network while you’re working with them, these will be the people that you keep in contact with well into the future. You never know how or when your paths will cross again professionally, but it will happen. You might be trying to fill a role in your team or even looking for a new challenge — these are the people you can reach out to.
