What A Senior Product Manager At Amazon Wishes They Had Known Before Entering Product Management
Hema, a Senior Product Manager at Amazon, wishes they had known the significant amount of writing required, noting that "writing is big for product manager," and the necessity of hands-on data analysis, stating that "you kind of have to get your hands dirty with your own data." This highlights the unexpected technical and communication skills needed for success in the role.
Communication, Data Analysis, Project Management, Writing Skills, Problem-Solving
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Hema Chalamalasetty
Senior Product Manager
Amazon
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
UCLA Anderson, MBA
Engineering - Chemical
Technology
Product / Service / Software Development and Management
International Student, Immigrant, Worked 20+ Hours in School, First Generation College Student
Video Highlights
1. There is a lot of writing involved in the role of a product manager, requiring clear communication to different stakeholders.
2. Product managers need to be comfortable working with and analyzing large datasets, sometimes requiring hands-on data extraction and analysis.
3. Developing strong writing skills and data analysis skills are crucial for success as a product manager.
Transcript
What have you learned about this role that you wish someone had told you before you entered the industry?
I think it's company-specific. Someone had told me that there is a lot of writing involved with this role.
Although English is my first language in my country, writing in English is not something I'm really good with. So, when I had to start writing different documents within Amazon, I had to go through a very steep learning curve. I learned from my peers and fellow colleagues, and then read a lot about it using different tools.
Writing is important for a product manager because you end up writing many documents where you have to communicate everything clearly. There are different sets of stakeholders, from a VP in the company to an engineer who might read that document and need to understand the details. So, that's definitely very important.
Secondly, I think being well-versed with managing data. I don't come from a background where I was dealing with the size of data that I am dealing with at Amazon. I didn't realize we kind of have to get our hands dirty sometimes with data from SQL databases and then do our own analysis and present it.
Yes, there are a lot of people who can help you with that on the data team. But having the time to rely on somebody else is sometimes very rare. So, you kind of have to get your hands dirty, pull your own data, do the analysis, and then do your work.
These two things, I think I was not really aware of, but I wish I had known.