About the Author:
Rohan Gupta ( IIM Calcutta Batch 2017, working as a PM in a conversational chatbot company and also, previously helped fortune 500 clients in consulting assignments while working in Tier 1 consulting firm.)
MA: How did this journey begin? Were you always inclined towards Product Management?
Rohan: Yes, I always wanted to build products that will have a direct impact on the community, and also PM role gives you to wear different hats be it Strategist, UX designer, Data Analyst, Business Analyst, Sales/Marketing. It broadens your horizon to think beyond your boundaries.
MA: From choosing the subjects in college to now working in the field, how does this transition feel?
Rohan: It's great, every day is day one and solving real-world problems and helping the customers provide satisfaction that you are doing something meaningful for society.
MA: Can you tell us about your job role?
Rohan: My role involves helping enterprise clients solving the toughest problems through chatbot implementation. It involves a lot of business understanding, stakeholder management, data analysis, and strategy.
MA: What do you think are the qualities that are needed for someone who wants to excel in this field?
Rohan: A PM should be a “jack-of-all-trades” mentality, collaborative nature, and a passion for the company’s product and mission. Below are some skills required to be a great PM: 1) Ability to balance business and user needs. 2) Attention to detail. 3) Curiosity to explore new ideas. 4) Ability to deliver factual data in-time. 5) Empathy for customers. 6) Creativity when crafting user stories. 7) Ability to build strong relationships with other teams.
MA: What skills should these people develop to grab their dream roles/jobs?
Rohan: If you’re just starting out in product management, or if you’re thinking of making the move over to product management, these are some of the fundamental skills you’ll need. 1) Understanding of the data: You definitely don’t need to be an expert mathematician or statistician, but a basic understanding of how to read data and interpret data accurately is a necessary skill to have. 2) Industry Insights and KPIs: Knowledge of the market and industry trends and being able to set and track key KPIs, such as customer acquisition costs, customer conversion rate, daily active users, features usage, user churn, Net Promoter Score, customer satisfaction, and customer lifetime value. 3) Strategic Thinking: Defining the company’s vision and then working towards that vision with realistic and achievable goals 4) Basic Business Skills: Once again, you don’t need to have a business degree behind your name, but it’s definitely important that you know the business basics. You might know all the ins and outs of your product, but you also need to be aware of what’s happening in the company because this can have a direct or indirect impact on your product and its development. 5) Design and User Experience Knowledge: Decent understanding of UX design etc. is a must-have for product managers in the SaaS world. For SaaS companies to succeed, they NEED to provide an inimitable customer experience
MA: What message would you like to give to the Product Management enthusiast?
Rohan: Always lookout for new products/product features coming in the market and evaluate them from the user perspective (What is good, what can be done, what is pain point missing). Be on the top of technology and learn upcoming technologies like AI, ML, Computer Vision. Try to draw sketches around how you want different apps to be like Uber, Swiggy, etc. Below are some good reads for PM enthusiast:
1) Hooked - How to Build Habit-Forming Products 2) The Lean Product Playbook 3) Decode and Conquer 4) Inspired: How to create Products Customer Love Trends and blogs: Medium, TechCrunch, UX Magazine, Next Design, VentureBeat, The Ken, Product School, Product Hunt, Blogs on AI, and ML.
No comments:
Post a Comment