My non-linear catch-22 path to Data PM: lessons you can apply to any career
Hey there!
Today, we are celebrating 100+ subscribers! Thank you for all your support. And, apologies for the delayed sub-stack this week. We will be back on Thursday, next week onwards, promise!
For this edition, I wanted to talk about my journey into Data Product Management. No, this is not a “Hey! Look at me, I got all of this figured out, follow my path” kinda post. This is more like a “Hey! I was in the same soup as you (if you are in one), and maybe it helps your soup too!” kinda post.
Bottomline…
Before I tell you all about myself, the one lesson I want you to definitely take home is “what you believe to be true today about yourself, will not hold true tomorrow, so you are always a WIP, and it’s okay to take small steps, evaluate, move on until you find what you want to do.”
Also, if you would prefer to hear than read, here’s a podcast hosted by two amazing PMs where I shared the same story:
For this post, I have divided my career into specific chapters where I had a specific realization/learning about myself, and what you can learn from it.
When I started my career in 2013, I wanted to be a policy researcher and had no idea about tech. I had never heard of Data Product Managers, not even Product Managers at the time. Nor did I know that I wanted to work in a tech company, and would have never imagined living in the Bay Area in this lifetime. So, if you have no idea how the next 5 years will pan out, relax, do what you want to do now, and try that to see if that’s a role for you. If I were to visualize my excitement across roles, this is how my career would look like:
The key is to keep experimenting with yourself until you want to go all-in. :)
Chapter 1 - I think I like Tech…
I was a graduate of Economics Hons. and at the time was passionate to build a career in policy research. But, 1 year into the job, I realized that I geek about “technology” more than “policy” and decided to jump ships to join a technology startup that builds data platforms for policy teams, called “SocialCops” and loved doing all things tech and data at this company.
How did I realize? As a policy researcher, I loved building Tableau dashboards (could spend days doing data analysis in Stata or building dashboards) than actually thinking about how this policy change is going to make an impact.
What did I learn?
I learnt about myself that I am actually excited to build technology so wanted to work in a tech startup.
What can you learn?
At the time, moving out of policy research seemed like a big gamble, because I was “deviating” from my path, and had no idea what would happen career wise. But, I went with my gut to pivot to a tech startup. Also, this startup had policy teams as a customer, so while it was an industry pivot, I could contribute from Day 1. Therefore, wasn’t 100% out of comfort zone, and it helped me to pivot easily.
Chapter 2 - I like building products, not customer relations
SocialCops (now Atlan) didn’t have a policy researcher, so I joined as a “Resident Entrepreneur” which meant I can take on different roles from time to time.
Now, SocialCops was just 15 people, and we are talking 2015, so technology startups didn’t really have a good understanding of org structures. The first time we got a Product Manager was in 2018 who was also an internally promoted engineer. I had no idea what all roles existed in tech startups, and I thought I could mostly be on the business side as I wasn’t technical — either in the sales department or customer success or as a project manager.
I started in Sales and realized that while I love working with the customer and solving their problems, I don’t like doing the operational work that it takes to close the deal. I realized that I can’t be doing this, not good for me or for the company, and I moved into a Solution Engineering/Customer Success role: helping customers use the product well, but not be tied to closing the deal.
After another year of doing a dual role of customer success and tech project management, I realized that those roles did not have an impact on product decisions (which is what I was craving..). I wanted to focus on a role that drives product decisions. So, I became the lead of SocialCops’ data platform team and started acting as a Product Manager for the product, working closely with Engineers on prioritizing what we should be building, and handing off customer success and project management responsibilities to other individuals. I was still involved a lot in customer conversations, which I recommend every PM at a 50-people startup should do, but that wasn’t my main responsibility.
An important thing to note here is that I was lucky, that I had the opportunity because my career needs aligned with the company's needs. You might have to pivot out of a company, and it might be a completely different path at a larger company.
What did I learn?
Understading your customer’s pain point is essential for any role, that will help make sound product decisions/suggestions.
The fact that you like talking to customers/understanding their needs doesn’t really mean you should do a customer-facing role only.
What can you learn?
Meta lesson here is that the fact that you are good at one thing, should not define your role. See what all you want to do, and match the role accodingly. There might be other things that you crave for, get into a role that offers it all.
Chapter 3 - I like building data products, but I think I should be technical…
As I was leaving Atlan, it was clear to me that I was super interested in building data products. I also naively assumed that I might not be a good PM later in my career because they had to be super technical, and I was not. So, I shouldn't consider PM roles any further.
But there were two career moves right after Atlan that made me realize that I wanted to be a technical PM (not I should be).
I had a 1-year entrepreneurial stint building a mobile app for SMBs to manage sales data. As one of the two co-founders, I felt that I had to get technical because I liked contributing to architectural decisions.
I had another 1-year stint at a product strategy firm, where I got exposure to building B2B and B2C products, but I realized, the products I liked to build were more technical, heavy on data problems, and needed complex solutions.
Both these experiences made me realize that getting some technical skills would be good. So, I decided to get a Masters's degree, take a break, and then get into roles that appeal to me.
What did I learn?
Even though I was on an exciting journey of building a startup, to make it successful, my current knowledge wasn’t enough. So, it’s better to fill in gaps in knowledge first, before jumping into building something again.
What can you learn?
Figure out what will improve your career path, and always try to fill those gaps. Don’t do a role because the world tells you to. Be intentional. Keep re-analyzing yourself, given your future goals, and make career moves that open doors for more fulfilling career paths.
Chapter 4 - Use Masters to be the Data PM you always wanted to be.
As I decided to apply, I had a few things in mind. While my master’s will help me move countries (and be closer to my now husband!), that should not be the only reason why I should apply. So I decided on a few principles for choosing the right program, the right university, etc.
I am doing a masters because I want to spend some time getting technical. So, no MBA. I have worked across multiple functions already (read Chapter 2) and therefore, MBA won’t be a big add-on.
It needs to be closer to where innovative companies are. So, Bay Area is preferred.
Use masters to flex product and data knowledge.
Brand matters. Make it to a good university, if you are spending the $$$.
While PM is a good outcome, it’s not the only outcome. (At one point during my master’s, I was literally considering doing a Ph.D.)
How did I decide on my program?
With the above in mind, I started to look for programs that were flexible and technical, but not super technical, and MIS programs stood out as a perfect fit. Now, while MBA is the right program if you want to be a PM in general because most employers hire from MBA programs. My goal was to get technical, so I went with an MIS program, knowing this would mean extra recruitment effort. Also, made more sense financially.
How did I make the most of my MIMS program at Berkeley?
Being in the Bay Area, and at UC Berkeley, gave me access to top startups and also a lot of innovative researchers and thinkers.
Designing each semester to do courses that helped plug career gaps: taking courses in data engineering, advanced data science, pricing (never did that before), and international marketing. And, courses that flex existing knowledge: interaction design, lean launchpad, and lean/agile product management.
Developed my soft skills further by participating in campus competitions and taking social science courses that help me articulate my reasoning better.
I decided to make a career move that’s in my comfort zone so for both my internship and full-time roles, I only targeted Data PM roles and networked heavily in the circles.
How did I land my internship and a full-time job?
It’s true landing a job out of college in the US is not an easy feat, especially in limited roles such as product management. And, I had seen the struggle firsthand with my husband’s recruiting.
I was sure not to change too many variables. I kept my industry and my role the same - a Data PM at a data startup or in the data team of a big company. Now, not everyone will have the same situation, but changing too many variables can be catastrophic.
I networked, networked, networked. At conferences, through LinkedIn, etc. In fact, my boss at Sisu created the role for me because of a cold LinkedIn reach out!
I applied full-heartedly to only about 30-40 companies using personalized outreach and the rest were (around ~500+) LinkedIn click-through to cover bases. But, for each company, I got a chance to speak to, I could write a thesis on them. I tried their products and always formed an opinion about their product strategy by consuming every possible information online about the company and the market.
Therefore, in most interviews, I was easily able to demonstrate my experience was relevant, and that opened the door to almost finding a dream role: being a Data Platform PM (super technical!) at a late-stage startup (10x the size of a company I have ever worked in), Clari.
And, that’s how an Econ graduate from Delhi University, became a technical Data PM at a Valley startup, 10 years later. Could I have predicted this? Not even in my wildest dreams, but did I enjoy this journey? Yes. 💯
Conclusion
Thank you for reading through my entire journey, I hope some parts clicked, or will help you make your career moves.
There is no way you would know what you exactly want, just take small steps towards a goal, move that goal as required, and twist and turn your path, it’s okay! It will all come together.
Be lean. Always be MVP. Treat yourself as a product (the most important product you will ever manage!) and build upon your strengths as you make bigger moves in your career.
You won’t always know what you want, but as a good PM, discover people whose journey you relate to, and network to know how people made their life decisions. There is no right path, but you can always ask around to minimize regrets.
Signing off,
Your Chief Data Obsessor,
Richa