Director Product at one of the respectful US based Product company in logistics space. AMA.
AMA. Happy to answer anything about the Product. I'm looking forward to it.
Talking product sense with Ridhi
9 min AI interview5 questions
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Have seen a lot of people in PM want to move towards a customer facing app front role from a platform role. What is the drive for this? Do you think it's necessary to experience all the flavours like growth, data product, etc also over time for a successful career or specialise in one of these.
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How do you define boundaries for your product or system with respect to other teams or BUs. Specifically, how do you decide when to own something vs asking the other team to own it and you just use it.
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Have you seen people starting out in PM having issues setting boundaries between product management and program management. If so, how do you suggest figuring out this part
I'll answer this in sometime for sure. It will need goo time to answer :)
Please answer this 🙏
Not a single answer. WTF kinda AMA is this?
Anyway. I feel product management roles are eventual stepping stones to sales/marketing. Change my mind.
All these roles have intersections but different destinations so definitely not a stepping stone
I was stuck in some personal errands. IMO it is not, all of them are completely stand alone streams with their oaths crossing of course but I won't consider them as a stepping stone.
What are the companies in Supply Chain /logistics tech space in India where PMs should target.
There are many in India. A couple which comes right into my mind:
Delhivery Locus Blackbuck
Expressbees was doing layoffs, A friend working there mentioned
Your yoe and current $$. And indepth of how your day to day looks like broken into work/interaction with stakeholders/roadmaping 3tc.
10+ in product and overall 12 years. Current remuneration: 400k USD + ESOPS
Day, if I have to paint down in one liner, if I have to paint down in one liner would be an analogy I use; I'm building a mall with what kind of shops are going to be constructed, and then my team is the one who is responsible for getting their shops "running." My day, therefore, therefore is more into strategy and solving the problems my teams face. I'm not that close to execution but I definitely know what is happening and where the bottlenecks are, and how we can unblock them. A good chunk goes into people management as well, which I think is a super important part. Aligning with stakeholders eats up a good chunk as well, and then the remaining time is consumed by analyzing the competitors, our data analytics, and so on.
Thanks for your time!. Small follow up question are you currently based in US? And how did you transition there?
What inspired you to pursue a career in product management, and how did you get started in this field?
My inspiration was the connection to the users. In 2012, I got my first smartphone and with WhatsApp, Facebook and other apps on my hand, I always asked why they did it like this. Why don't they have a feature which can solve an X problem? These and many more questions led me to connect with people over Quora, and I eventually found out that this (PM role) is what I would like to make my career in. I started as a Software Engineer which helped me to know how software works but I never liked coding.
How to climb the leaderahip ladder quickly?
I don't think there is a quick way. I'll suggest doing the following:
- Be firm in what you are doing as a PM. Empathise with your customers, understand the problem, use data and show the results. Be fast, responsible and be the owner of what you own.
- Seek feedback: ask for it every day from everyone and work on it. Use it to build a network with people as well.
- Always be proactive, don't let anyone come to you and show that you are open to leading on projects, tasks or anything critical for the business.
Many more to add, but these will be top on my list.
What’s the most frustrating/not-fun part of being a director?
There are many, but if I have to point out one, it is my constant "fight" with stakeholders to align on the roadmap and the bigger picture. We almost talk about it every day and are still not convinced enough :) it is healthy but sometimes not fun exercises which I have to do.