Women in Product SF: Product Management in Emerging Technologies
Last month I attended the Women in Product SF: Product Management in Emerging Technologies event at Cruise Automation. The event was a Women In Product San Francisco chapter kick-off event featuring female product leaders in emerging technologies including Yardley Pohl, chief Product Officer at Thrive, Yana Welinder, Head of Product at IFTTT, Betsy Masiello, Former VP of Ecosystem Development at Rigetti Computing, Beth Witten, Senior Technical Product Manager, Ground Truth, Jackie Shannon, Product Lead, Wei Zheng, VP of Product at Trifacta, and Sonia Sarao, VP of Product and Engineering at Fluxx.
I have been a long time member of Women In Product, a non-profit organization dedicated to advocate for diversity and inclusion as well as empower female product professionals in all stages of the career cycle. It was exciting to see the SF chapter come to life as one of the five Bay Area chapters under Women In Product. If you are interested in getting to know women who work in technology or product management, or you’re interested in learning more about leadership skills and personal development, follow Women In Product on Facebook so you don’t miss out on their events in the future!
Yardley Pohl, co-founder of Women In Product and Chief Product Officer at Thrive gave the keynote speech at this event. The keynote was followed by a panel discussion by the rest of the speakers on how one can grow as a product manager in emerging technologies.
Keynote Highlights
Don’t be afraid to go into an industry you’re not familiar with! — Yardley Pohl
Yardley’s first Product job was at Dun & Bradstreet in risk management which she had no previous experience in. What she did to build herself up as the subject matter expert among sales team was she asked to travel with the sales team to be in the front line working alongside the team with the customers. Quickly, she learned the ins and outs of the industry and gained trust from other teams internally. When the financial crisis hit, Yardley’s deep empathy for user pain points allowed her to create products that were sticky thanks to her understanding of the users the company was trying to serve.
Yardley advised that regardless of the industry, focus on understanding the customers. At her first product job, Yardley worked on creating products that could distinguish the company from its competitors. With hard work and determination, she brought in 10M in two years which was 2M more than her initial proposed goal of 8M.
Yardley’s tips:
- Understand the problem you’re trying to solve both internally and externally as a PM. If people say monetization is the goal then the product manager is expected to find way to generate revenue. If growth is the pain point then look for ways to grow such as work with marketing to generate demand.
- Find your superpower. This can evolve overtime but ask yourself the following:
- What comes naturally for you?
2. What makes you happy?
3. What do people say about you that they find to be your strength. Going through these internal Q&As is a self reflection that gives you feedback and should happen more often than your annual performance review
- People are big on the concept of self-care nowadays where women talk about taking care of our mind and body in terms of wellness but our career also needs the same attention.
Panel Discussion
How to become a Product Manager?
- Anyone can be a PM. With interest in Product and volunteer to own or do things no one wants to do at your company.
What did you do to accelerate your career?
- Be willing to solve messy problems that others stay away from.
- Think about your company goals and how to make things happen.
How do you find mentors?
- Just ask! Even though it sounds easier than it is.
- Build relationships with your manager. Look at people who you respect and work cross-functionally with at your current company.
- Find role models and then follow them. Ask them how they’ve done _[what you want to do]_?
What are some challenges you have encountered as a PM?
I force myself to step back to do creative problem solving… and be OK with not having an answer right away. — Beth Witten
I can get so busy that I have no time to strategize… need to zoom in on execution and zoom out to strategize. Time box things helps.— Jackie Shannon
I had to figure out how to get over imposter syndrome due to not having a formal CS background. — Yana Welinder
I decided to be OK with the lack of technical background and ask questions. Despite how insecure it feels, I try to find ways to add value by asking good questions. — Betsy Masiello
How important is it for PMs to be technical?
CS background is very helpful but should not be a blocker for PMs. Listen for technical phrases that get repeated by the engineers. Dive deeper into them in your own time to understand them so you can ask better questions. It is important to balance learning both technical and learning management skills.
How to cultivate relationships with stakeholders as a PM?
PMs work with many different stakeholders from Design, Marketing, Legal, to program management to name a few. The development process at each organization can also vary so strive to understand the stakeholders and respect the differences in objectives and processes help.
How do you do user research on products that don’t already exist as is often the case in emerging technologies?
Often times the number of use cases is small for emerging tech products. Due to the nature of limited use cases, user research is often done through very focused interviews. As a result, the product development process can tend to be less data driven due to the nature of working with emerging technologies and more driven by intuition.
Work In Progress is a platform where two women discuss transitions in life and career. Founded by twin sisters ✨and 💫. The Tech series contain our recap and learnings from attending tech and community events, as well as our take on building technical passion projects at local coffee shops.
