From Whale Watcher to Product Manager: Grace Hayes-Larson chimes in on how to own your career

Grace Hayes-Larson’s decision to shift her career from a cruise director on a whale watch to a role in tech was a multi-step process. “I had mastered the skills necessary to run a cruise and decided it was time to find what was next,” she says. “I wanted to go in an entirely new direction, which has since become a theme of my career: sometimes, you need to go somewhere untraveled to discover new and interesting problems to solve.”

After being a cruise director, Grace went on several adventures, wanting to travel alone and see the world before she settled into her next gig. On her travels, she stopped briefly in San Francisco to see a friend who was working in tech. “My friend told me that tech is an industry where everyone can make an impact,” Grace says. “I was raised by a research professor and a lawyer, both industries that work at a slow pace, so the idea of a career that could affect real change at fast speeds was exciting to me. Plus, technology had been really helpful to me while traveling, so I was intrigued.”

She later spoke to another friend who had just accepted a job at a small company called Chime. “He told me about the work Chime was doing, and I immediately saw how important and impactful the company’s mission was,” she says. Grace had identified the next set of problems she hoped to solve and soon applied for a role at Chime.

Transferring her skills to a new industry

Going into the interview process at Chime, Grace clearly saw parallels between her work in whale watching and hospitality industries and customer service for a tech company. “Creating delightful customer experiences is part of every industry, in order to deliver, you just need to know the tools you have at your disposal,” she explains. “A lot of it comes down to following through on the experience basics and then delivering delight on top of that — whether on a boat or through a digital product and services.”

In her experience working on the water, Grace learned the importance of being cool, calm, and collected in the face of emergency situations. “You have to confidently direct the circus, and take all the right steps to quickly respond to an emergency on a boat — which isn’t all that different from incident management in an operations role,” she says. “The ability to remain calm in the face of challenges and ambiguity is very important in both positions, even though they might seem worlds apart.”

Working on a boat also taught Grace the importance of working as a team, the value of ownership mentality, and the necessity of rigorous preparation to respond to tough challenges. “I saw that many of my cruise directing skills were very transferable to a role in tech operations, and it turns out I was right,” she says.

Changing roles as Chime scaled

Once she joined Chime, Grace wore many hats, from content creator to trainer to product operations manager. As Chime matured as an organization, roles changed as they became formalized, novel business needs emerged, or opportunities arose to try something new. Grace’s first role change was from training manager to program manager.

“I went from building out materials to support our agents and customers as a training manager to having an internal focus as a program manager,” she says. “As a program manager, I used my organizational perspective and skills to help Chime’s Member Services team develop formal feedback loops with the Product team.” A year later, when it was time for the team to be formalized, Grace became a product operations manager. The shift felt like a natural progression, allowing her to focus on a smaller subset of product relations and support building a team — which is now made up of nearly 20 Chimers.

Pursuing her passion for Product

Grace’s transition into the Product organization at Chime happened as a result of her interest in Product roles and her passion for providing product insights. “As a result of working so close to our members for several years, I’m vocal with feedback and sharing my opinions on how Chime’s product can better serve them,” she says. “I’ve never been shy to share my insights while in the room with the Product team and have acted as a strong execution partner with all of the product managers (PMs) I’ve worked with.”

So when a new Product team leader joined Chime, Grace grabbed some time on his calendar to tell him what she thought his team should be addressing in their work. “In essence, I gave him a product roadmap — although I didn’t use that specific vocabulary back then,” she remembers. “I also expressed interest in any roles he might be opening on his team. A week later, he asked me to interview.”

“I went through the interview process — which I found stressful and different from operations roles — and received the offer,” she says. “As it turns out, knowing your members well is the core functionality of being a PM — and that’s something I had in droves. The interviewers saw how my operations skills would transfer to a PM role, but looking past the many biases that can exist toward operations backgrounds.”

Once in her role, Grace bounced ideas and questions off of the PMs she’d formerly worked with as an operations manager. “They were an invaluable network as I got started on the Product team,” she says.

The importance of knowing yourself

The moves Grace has made throughout her career have come after much self-exploration and learning. “You have to know yourself and what you want out of your career first,” she says. “That doesn’t mean having a several-year plan, but it’s important to know what kinds of challenges you’re excited about.”

As she’s moved through various roles and across different teams, Grace has learned that she loves tackling new problems and working with diverse stakeholders from whom she can learn. She also cares about executing with a sense of urgency.

“It wasn’t an overnight process to discover what I want out of my career,” she says. “It took years of knowing myself and recognizing when I was or wasn’t doing the right job for me. At each step, I would try to articulate what about my role didn’t feel right or could be better — those became the breadcrumbs I followed to the most rewarding roles of my career.”

Learning lessons at every turn

Through every change in her career, Grace has learned many lessons:

1. It’s a lot of work and sometimes, you have to go above and beyond

When she reflects back on her career progressions, Grace identifies periods of intense investment. “Progressing through your career with direction and purpose involves a lot of work,” she says. “When it comes to changing roles, you have to show you merit the new position, and sometimes, the most obvious way to do that is to go above and beyond.”

2. The logistics of transitioning teams aren’t always easy

“When transitioning roles, there are always pieces of your last role that come with you,” she says. “It can be tricky to pass everything to new owners to make sure your former and future teams are set up for success.

3. Investing in your teammates is critical and rewarding

Grace cherishes the relationships she’s built with peers and leaders who have supported and advocated for her. “There will always be biases to work around, so win yourself advocates by being a great teammate to people,” she offers. “Foster relationships with people who will support you — it’s a positive feedback loop: By doing good work and supporting your team, you’ll naturally build a group of advocates for yourself.”

She’s learned that being invested in her teammates has led to them being invested in her. “Looking for ways to support others is my default as a person, and echoing that in my work has helped me make these transitions. After all, it’s not just about getting through the door into a new role, it’s about being supported as you transition into and own that role, too.”

The effort for Grace’s career changes and stretching herself to be a great teammate has paid off in the long run. “Once you know yourself and find your way into the right role, it’s incredibly validating and rewarding,” Grace says. “I love the daily challenges of my current role, which positively impacts my entire life.”

What have you learned from your own career progressions? Let us know in the comments.