Appetizers

Starting with some basics.

Fun Starters

Getting to know the human side.

 Main Course

A quick deep dive into the day-to-day job.

Tell us about yourself and your job.

Hi! My name is Jennifer, an experienced consumer-facing product manager focused on growth and engagement experiences. I've worked in several industries including e-commerce, entertainment, and health care.

I currently work at Google on the mobile app advertising product team. I work closely with advertisers who are interested in driving re-engagement (e.g starting the next level of Candy Crush, purchasing their next bed frame on Amazon). I work closely with engineers, product designers, data scientists, and sales across our platform to drive adoption and drive value for advertisers. I like to tackle interesting user problems with a hypothesis-driven approach to define the right success metrics and achieve results.

How did you end up in your field? What do you like about it?

I was hired as an Associate Product Manager at 21st Century Fox out of undergrad and have been a product manager ever since! I enjoy the cross-functional nature of product management working with design, research, engineering, marketing, and clinicians. I love working with different cross-functional teams to build a product that truly helps consumers. Additionally, I love tackling interesting user problems with data and shaping the future of mobile app strategies at Google.

What does a typical morning look like on the job?

Every day is so different but a resonating theme is lots of meetings! I'll usually do a morning stand-up with my engineers regarding progress around our current engineering work and roadmap while sipping my morning coffee. After standup, I'll meet with different teams across design and engineering to review our go-to-market strategy for upcoming launches and initiatives. I'll also spend some time reviewing our data and writing SQL for some analyses around our recent feature launch.

Cool, then what does a typical afternoon look like?

Around lunchtime, I will block out some strategic time to reflect on our product strategy and future roadmap for the quarter. In the afternoon, I'll brainstorm with my designer on designs for our upcoming feature launch and connect with our engineering team around implementation.

What types of projects and meetings are you involved in?

My work is a combination of execution, analytics, design, and strategy. On the highest level, I define our product strategy around how we will position and grow our product based on our company’s goals, market opportunities, and key strengths of our product. 

From our product strategy, I define our product roadmap for the next year, allocate resources, and define how we will grow and expand our product for our customers. Once we define our product roadmap, I will break this down into tactical work for our teams to execute across design, engineering, operations, and marketing. In parallel, it is critical for us to collaborate across these teams to drive alignment and execute our timelines.

Who do you collaborate with in meetings and projects? Cross-functional teams? What's it like?

I collaborate closely across our organization from design, research, engineering, sales, and marketing.

 Dessert

Now for some juicy insights in the tea room.

What's the most challenging thing about your job?

Being a product manager requires grit. The best product managers are able to push against inertia to tackle the biggest problems and serve as a steward across your teams. However, when you're able to drive success and collaboration across your teams, there is truly no greater reward!

What are some characteristics that can help someone succeed in your role?

Curiosity and influence. The most successful product managers are naturally curious and constantly ask questions. They are not satisfied by the status quo and are truly the voice of the customer. They tackle and illuminate problems they see across the product and take full ownership to drive success. It is also critical for product managers to be able to set a clear vision and align teams.

Any advice on how to stand out and get hired for those just starting off?

Build something! Anyone has the skillset to be a product manager. The best way to learn about product management is by doing it.

Find a group of friends or start with an idea you have. Where do you see an unaddressed user need or a distribution problem that truly bothers you? Define the problem, customer segment, secondary research, customer interviews, and try building a prototype. Think about what distinguishes your product from the market and what success metrics you would need to validate your hypothesis. Showcasing your work and speaking about a passion project you led is the best way to begin putting yourself in the mindset of a PM.

What's something that surprised you about your job?

Albeit cheesy, what I love about product management is the constant pursuit of knowledge! Working with such diverse perspectives from designers to advertisers really teaches me something new every day.

Any last thoughts, advice, or recommendations for someone who wants to do what you do?

Product management is commonly referred to as the "CEO of the product." While this statement has driven the popularity of product in the past few years, product is truly driven around galvanizing the full potential of your teams to work together towards a common business goal. Each team is unique and a great product manager will elevate the skillsets of his / her teams by setting an aligned vision for the team.

 Drinks

Chat more over coffee or tea?