#1 How I became a Product Manager?
The journey from being a startup founder to a product manager at Swiggy
The biggest problem which plagues the entire Indian tech industry is the lack of a specific path for professionals/freshers to break into product management leading to total anarchy and a lack of clarity on how to become a PM.
Not solving this problem will lead to disastrous effects as it will become massively difficult to produce top talent on top levels if the entry-level problem is not solved.
I want to share my story of how I broke into product management as a start to help the next-gen of professionals ready to break into product management.
Why did I decide to become a product manager?
Back in early 2017, I was doing my own startup and realized that the ecosystem of tech companies will grow big and product management will be one of the most sought-after skills that will enable this growth. The reason why I decided to become a product manager :
In tech companies everything moves through code and being a PM gives u the ability to shape the fortunes of the company than any other role.
The short-term increment in the salary would have been minimal but had a belief that product management will help in high monetary growth in the long term.
As a workstream product management was very challenging and the PMs I knew back then were very happy with their jobs as they had to do new and challenging stuff on a regular basis.
How did I get my first product interview?
Wherever I used to apply I got rejections with the message “We need folks with PM experience”. I decided to use my personal network to help me get a PM job and luckily a batchmate of mine pointed out that a semi-PM role was available at Swiggy. The role was in the product team where they required a person to handle the integrations with 3rd party players enabling restaurants to directly receive the order in their POS systems. The team at Swiggy thought that is not a PM role but a quasi product/business role and eventually, the person can be grown into a PM.
How did I prepare for my interview?
A person with close to zero knowledge about tech had to work on the most technical aspect of product management which was API product management. I got the help of some of my developer friends and tried to understand about API. On the PM front, the number of resources available was really less as compared to what is available today, I read everything from the book “Cracking the PM Interview”.
What was my interview experience?
There was an assignment that I had to submit before the interview regarding building the API documentation of a restaurant with Swiggy.
Question: Attached is the API documentation of Restaurant x and swiggy, Come up with a plan for integration. It should have both an operational plan and a tech-level plan. The Tech plan should call out all the necessary fallback and edge cases.
Answer
Had to prepare a 7-8 page document regarding the same.
The interview had mainly 5 rounds :
Hiring Manager Intro Call: This was about my experiences and I was able to sell the story of an entrepreneur and the ability to own things and demonstrated proof of quick learning.
Program manager round: This was focused on project management skills and I used my startup experience in this round.
Engineering manager round: I got a download of tech we used from my startup cofounder and used the details of the assignment to navigate this round.
Business round: This was mainly based on past experiences and my experience as a startup founder who has high ownership levels and a good understanding of business helped me navigate this round.
Product leadership round: This round was taken by the VP of product and they wanted to access my first principle thinking and willingness to learn. I was asked the revenue of youtube is down by x%, how would you investigate. It was my enthusiasm and positivity which helped me navigate this round.
Why did the company give me my product management break?
My experience in the product was next to zero and my answers to product questions were not very structured(very few people knew the structure at that point in time) and well thought out but I was able to hustle and figure out the solution. The reason why they selected me :
Positive attitude
Learners mindset
High ownership levels
Ability to understand problems and evolve them.
I was ready to take a lower designation and also negligible increment in my salary in order to become a product manager because I had belief in this role which paid dividends in career growth in the long term.
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That story truly serves as an inspiration for someone like me, who lacks any prior experience in the product role. Congratulations on your remarkable journey and achievements!
I eagerly anticipate the opportunity to learn from you.
Awesome