Analyst to Product Manager — Emma Yee, Senior Data PM, GoodRx

Emma Yee is a current Senior Data Product Manager at GoodRx, after starting her career as an analyst for five years. In this Path to PM blog post, Emma and I discuss breaking into product management as an analyst, and the importance of saying “no” as a PM.

How did you break into product management?
I had been an analyst for five years and was looking for the next step in my career. I was actually researching Data Science masters programs, but was reluctant to go back to school, when a former coworker told me Cornerstone was hiring a reporting product manager. The requisition didn’t mention reporting and I wouldn’t have applied otherwise. (Referrals are everything. People change careers 5–7 times over their lifetime. Don’t burn bridges — you never know who will be in a position to help you one day)

The chance to make reporting software better for users like myself was very appealing. I decided to try it, and obviously I love product management.

Afterwards, I was the Reporting Product Manager at Cornerstone. Cornerstone is a B2B (business-to-business) SAAS (software-as-a-service) HR software that helps companies realize employee potential through learning, recruiting, performance, and compensation.