A Day in the Life of a Product Manager at Bukuwarung
A Product Manager's day at Bukuwarung involves a dynamic mix of collaboration with multiple stakeholders— "setting up a meeting with the sales team," working with data teams, and pitching ideas to engineering—and focused reflection to refine ideas and align stakeholders. This balance of active communication and deep thinking is crucial for translating customer needs into tangible products, a process that often includes "fire fighting" to solve last-minute issues.
Collaboration, Communication, Problem-Solving, Product Strategy, Stakeholder Management
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Garima Yadav
Product Manager
Bukuwarung
Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India (graduated in 2017)
UCLA Anderson School of Management (Full Time MBA, current student)
Engineering - Electrical
Finance (Banking, Fintech, Investing)
Product / Service / Software Development and Management
International Student
Video Highlights
1. Product managers collaborate with many stakeholders (sales, data, engineering) to translate customer needs into tangible products.
2. A product manager's day can vary between deep thinking and reflection to active communication and collaboration.
3. Data analysis and tracking are important aspects of evaluating product success and user retention
Transcript
What does a day in the life of your role look like?
Your schedule will be very busy, with many meetings on your calendar. This is mainly because you'll be collaborating with multiple stakeholders.
As I mentioned, these are difficult decisions. It's about translating what the customer wants into something tangible they can experience. You can't and shouldn't make these decisions in isolation, or they will be bad decisions.
So, you will be collaborating with multiple people. What does that collaboration entail? It could mean setting up meetings with the sales team to understand customer pushback during pitches, or what customers say they wish existed.
This provides another channel to gauge customer needs. You might also work with the data team to review past launches, track performance, and identify insights that indicate better user retention.
You could talk to the engineering team to pitch your idea, explaining your belief in it and asking if it's buildable and how long it would take. You'll have various conversations at different stages with your stakeholders.
On another day, you might have a completely quiet day. I've found it very helpful to spend time writing and thinking about ideas. This is where you can refine your thoughts and translate them into something everyone can understand.
It's crucial for a product manager to get all stakeholders on the same page. To do that, you need time to step back and reflect on your own thoughts.
So, your day could be at either end of the spectrum, or split 50/50. Half your day might be reflective, and the other half communicating with many people, sometimes even firefighting last-minute issues. It's a mix of deep thinking, interaction, and active participation in various conversations.