Learnings from a Newly Minted Product Manager
Recently, IPL alumnus Ajay George (EMBA class of 2015-A) transitioned from Infosys to Satmetrix as a Product Manager. He wrote back to us talking about his first few days in the new role.
Over to Ajay:
First of all thanks to IPL and the cohort for helping me get into this role. If it weren't for IPL and you guys I would not be a PM today. I want to share a few learnings from my first few days:
From 2,00,000 crowd to 200 people organisation:
It was a great revelation when I moved from Infosys - a nearly two lakh strong workforce - to Satmetrix - a 200+ employee org and this is how it unfurled:
● No long boring mundane procedures! My induction and formalities took less than two hours.
● I already know half of Satmetrix employees by name. This is not possible in a lifetime in Infy.
● The campus is just one floor. Infosys is so large I could not cover enough ground in 7 years!!!
Notable notes from my First Day as PM:
● Talk to your customer: I was asked to be in a customer call, understand the features suggested by customers, and go through the customer logs for insights.
● Understand the product well: I worked to understand the answers to some vital questions - Who is the product for? What is the market need for the product? How has it evolved? I made time to understand the technology architecture.
● You own your feature: The senior management made it clear that I am not here to do documentation or to delegate tasks to anyone. You own your features and the product Period.
● Fab Mentor: I am lucky to have Lokesh Tripathi who is Director of Products who will mentoring me in this role. He is humble, an exceptional conversationalist and has really influenced the QA, Engineering, Support and Sales teams.
I have a long way to go as a Product Leader. I am sure we all will collaborate and learn from each other’s experiences. I am definitely very happy that I took the decision to be part of the wonderful IPL family.
It was a great revelation when I moved from Infosys - a nearly two lakh strong workforce - to Satmetrix - a 200+ employee org and this is how it unfurled:
● No long boring mundane procedures! My induction and formalities took less than two hours.
● I already know half of Satmetrix employees by name. This is not possible in a lifetime in Infy.
● The campus is just one floor. Infosys is so large I could not cover enough ground in 7 years!!!
Notable notes from my First Day as PM:
● Talk to your customer: I was asked to be in a customer call, understand the features suggested by customers, and go through the customer logs for insights.
● Understand the product well: I worked to understand the answers to some vital questions - Who is the product for? What is the market need for the product? How has it evolved? I made time to understand the technology architecture.
● You own your feature: The senior management made it clear that I am not here to do documentation or to delegate tasks to anyone. You own your features and the product Period.
● Fab Mentor: I am lucky to have Lokesh Tripathi who is Director of Products who will mentoring me in this role. He is humble, an exceptional conversationalist and has really influenced the QA, Engineering, Support and Sales teams.
I have a long way to go as a Product Leader. I am sure we all will collaborate and learn from each other’s experiences. I am definitely very happy that I took the decision to be part of the wonderful IPL family.
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
