Meet The Leaguers: Omer Amsel and Gabriel Lipschutz (By Avital Julia Bayer, Contributor)

Although their relationship began as a mentoring project, it has now grown to become a relationship of so much more — friendship, fun, and mentorship.

Upon meeting with them it’s instantly apparent that although the relationship began as a mentoring project, it has now grown to become a relationship of so much more –friendship, fun, and mentorship — I sat down with them to find out more:

Omer Amsel (Mentor) is a startup founder in the Real Estate / Technology and finance junction, devoting most of his time to perfecting product experience throughout its lifecycle. Before that Omer was Director of Products at Yeloha and Co-founded WeTrip.

Gabriel Lipschutz (Mentee) is an oleh chadash from Belgium who is a PM at Wix Code. He holds a BSc in Industrial Design Engineering from TU Delft and an MSc in Technology Entrepreneurship from UCL where he studied and practiced various
user-centered design and lean startup techniques.

Omer and Gabriel were paired by the Product League team, based on their resumes, experience, and questionnaire they filled out upon applying to the program.

What did you discuss at your first meeting:

Omer: I believe that there is no right way to make a mentee/mentor relationship work which is great because it means you can create your path.

Our first meeting was about working out what would suit us and this involved: Humility, Empathy, Context. We discussed:

*How often we would meet

*How often we were happy to speak

*What we wanted to learn and therefore what our weaknesses were

*What our goals were and where we wanted to be in 1 month, two months and three months

*Agreed to treat each other as equals and recognize that we were both in some way the mentee/mentor — we each bring something different to the table

How often do you meet:

Gabriel: Initially, we tried to schedule a weekly meeting, but after a few weeks, it became apparent that we both had quite flexible schedules and so for us flexibility was vital.

We have an official meeting once a week by Skype or in person, but we don’t have a set time. We regularly speak throughout the week, discussing ideas and giving one an feedback on ideas and issues.

By the time we meet in person — we’ve covered so much during the week through phone, email, and WhatsApp– we’re often discussing new issues rather than reviewing the old ones.
For us, the relaxed and open nature of the relationship works very well.

Why do you think we paired the two of you?

Omer: Product Management is very broad, and I think we’re a pair who both brings different skills to the table. I am more technical, whereas Gabriel has a better understanding of design and that means we can both learn from each other.

The best mentor/mentee relationships are when you both feel you are learning and gaining from experience.

I also think our personalities complement each other. We are at different life stages — (I am a married father), but at our core, we are both honest, ambitious, open and flexible which makes the relationship feel very easy.

Gabriel: For me, I think that I was looking for a personality fit but also for someone who could help me with a specific issue within product — managing teams abroad or that have been outsourced and Omer is a real expert in this field.
Personally, I think that the match couldn’t have been more exact.

Why do you like being a part of Product League?

Omer: Because of 3 core reasons:

*I am very proud of the community that we are developing and think it serves a real gap in the market

*I like to help people on a personal level, and this has given me an opportunity to do this

*At the same time, as an individual, I also want to grow, and I feel this was an excellent opportunity
to learn some skills I lacked in

Gabriel: For me, I only moved to Israel a year ago, so this has given me an opportunity to become integrated with the PM world in a different country, which I think is unique.

Besides, I am at a relatively early stage of my career, and being exposed to so many other PM’s at different stages has been very useful for me because now I can see different ways to map my PM trajectory.
I also like that I can bounce ideas with someone and received such quick and honest feedback.

I think what I like most about this relationship was how open, honest and flexible these guys are. As true PMs do, they have built a relationship based on their goals and made their schedule to work around it”.