Most Important Skills for a Senior Program Manager at Deliverr
Nicholas, a Senior Program Manager at Deliverr, emphasizes the critical need for "ability to sell ideas," citing early customer-facing roles as highly beneficial in developing this skill, essential for proposing and advocating for initiatives in mid-to-senior level positions. Further, strong analytical skills, including understanding data logic and using tools like SQL and Excel to interpret "what data tells you from like a story perspective," are highlighted as equally important for success in this role.
Communication, Data Analysis, Project Management, Leadership, Sales
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Nicholas Fong
Senior Program Manager
Deliverr
UC Merced, 2014
None
Economics
Technology
Strategic Management and Executive
Honors Student, Scholarship Recipient, Took Out Loans, Worked 20+ Hours in School
Video Highlights
1. Highlight 1: The ability to effectively sell ideas and influence others is crucial. This involves building relationships, demonstrating credibility, and presenting compelling arguments to gain support for proposals.
2. Highlight 2: Strong analytical skills are essential, focusing on understanding data logic, interpreting data narratives, and using tools like SQL, Excel, or Google Sheets to gain insights.
3. Highlight 3: While specific technical skills can be beneficial, the emphasis is on the ability to understand and communicate data insights to drive decision-making.
Transcript
What skills are most important for a job like yours?
I think the most important thing is the ability to sell ideas. A lot of early customer or B2B selling experience helped me a lot with that.
When you're trying to get something done, you're often asked to develop a proposal for leadership or your manager. You have to convince people that your point of view is the correct way.
Early in your career, you're often told what to do. But when you get into mid-level or senior roles, you become the person who's supposed to come up with the idea in the first place.
So, the selling side is really important, and that's heavily a relationship space. Can you meet someone and quickly convince them you're credible, that you've done your research, and that your perspective is the best way to carry something forward? I think that's probably number one.
Number two is analytical skills. This doesn't necessarily mean being a SQL expert, although that certainly helps. In all the roles I've been in, there's been some element of understanding SQL. If not writing it yourself, you'll often work with data analysts or data engineers who help build those queries.
More important is understanding the logic between the pieces and knowing what the data tells you from a story perspective. You need to understand what the inputs are and what's driving the outputs.
In terms of actual tools, it's SQL, Excel, Google Sheets, and things like that. I can think of many more, but those are probably the most important.