Biggest Challenges Faced by a Product Owner at Foreign Bank
Cynthia's biggest challenge as a Product Owner is "depending on other people," requiring negotiation and prioritization to overcome dependencies and occasional roadblocks caused by external factors. When direct collaboration fails, creative problem-solving and iterative solutions are necessary.
Project Management, Teamwork, Problem-Solving, Communication, Overcoming Challenges
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Cynthia Panez Velazco
Product Owner
Foriegn Bank
Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, 2014
UCLA Anderson School of Management, MBA
Engineering - Industrial
Finance (Banking, Fintech, Investing)
Product / Service / Software Development and Management
Immigrant, Worked 20+ Hours in School
Video Highlights
1. Dealing with dependencies on other teams and individuals is a significant challenge for product owners.
2. Effective communication and collaboration are crucial for overcoming these dependencies and ensuring project progress.
3. Developing creative solutions and prioritizing tasks are essential when facing delays or roadblocks due to factors outside of one's control. This includes finding proxy solutions and iteratively improving.
Transcript
What is your biggest challenge in your current role?
The most challenging part of being a product manager, and I think I've mentioned this a bit already, is depending on other people. There were a few times when my teammates in daily meetings couldn't move forward with their projects because they were waiting on others.
This could be because they were waiting for another team to provide data or for our team to finish certain analyses. We needed that information to come up with a strategy to improve our process.
To solve this, I sometimes talked to the other team and tried to show them how we could all accomplish our goals by working together. I would advise taking that strategy when you face this situation.
However, there are times when it's out of your control, and also out of the other person's control. Maybe they have their own dependencies, or life happens. People get sick, take vacations, and so on.
So, I would say that's the most challenging part: convincing people to help you prioritize what you need. People have their own backlogs and their own priorities.
What do you do when you cannot accomplish that? When they won't prioritize what you need or give you the attention you need when you need it? When that happens, you just have to get creative.
You have to come up with a proxy solution for your problem and keep iterating and improving later on.