My First Experience as a Product Manager: Building with Purpose
"So, you're the new product guy?" 🤔
That's how my journey started—with a senior developer's skeptical look and a question that made my impostor syndrome kick into high gear. I wanted to respond with "Actually, I have no idea what I'm doing here," but instead, I smiled and said, "Yes, and I have some ideas I'd love to discuss with you." 💭
Most product management stories start with "I always knew I wanted to be a PM." Mine starts with sweaty palms, a racing heart, and the crushing weight of responsibility for two products I had no idea how to build. 😅
🔍 The Visual Recommendation Engine Saga
Day one at AI Research Centre. My manager drops the bomb: "We need an AI system that can look at photos and recommend products. Think Google Lens meets personal shopper. Can you handle that?" 🎯
Inside my head: panic intensifies. What I actually said: "Absolutely. Let me dig into the requirements." 😰
Here's what they don't tell you in PM school (not that I went to one): your first technical meeting feels like watching a foreign film without subtitles. I sat in that first architecture discussion, nodding along as the ML team debated the merits of different YOLO implementations. 🤓
"But what about the latency issues?" one engineer asked. "I'll look into that," I replied, while frantically Googling "what is latency" under the table. 🔍
The turning point came three weeks in. I was staying late, again, reviewing product images for our training dataset.
"You know," He said, leaning against my desk, "most PMs would've delegated this by now." 👀
"I probably should," I replied, rubbing my eyes. "But how can I make decisions about a product if I don't understand its foundations?"
He smiled. "And that's why the team is starting to trust you." ✨
♻️ The Sustainable Campus Revolution
Then came our sustainability platform. Different challenge, same stomach-churning uncertainty. But this time, I had a secret weapon: failure experience. 💪
Picture this: a whiteboard covered in user flows, empty coffee cups everywhere, and me, trying to convince our dean why students would want to use our platform. ☕
"Students already have Facebook Marketplace," he said. "Why would they switch?"
"Because, sir, this isn't just about buying and selling. It's about building a community that cares." 🌱
🌟 The Moments That Changed Everything
Remember that skeptical developer from day one? Three months later, he was the one staying late to help me debug our recommendation engine. What changed?
"You know why I trust you now?" he said one evening, as we celebrated our first successful deployment. "You're the first PM I've worked with who admits when they don't know something." 🤝
💡 The Truth About Product Management
It's not about having all the answers. It's about asking the right questions and being honest about what you don't know.
Like the time I had to present our metrics to the board: "Our engagement is up 25%," I stated. "And what's driving that?" the CEO asked. "Honestly? We have three theories, and we're testing each one. I'll know more next week." 📊
He later told me that was the moment he knew they'd hired the right person. ⭐
📝 The Real Lessons
- 🗣️ The best product decisions often happen during random conversations. I learned more about user needs from lunch chats than formal interviews.
- 🤝 Your team's trust is your most valuable metric. As our ML engineer put it: "I don't care that you don't know ML. I care that you care about getting it right."
- 💫 Sometimes leadership means saying "I don't know, but I'll find out." Actually, most times.
🔭 Looking Back
A year later, seeing students using our sustainability platform still gives me goosebumps. Last week, I overheard two freshmen: "Can't believe people used to throw these books away." "I know, right? Such a waste." 🌿
That moment was worth all the late nights, all the confusion, all the uncertainty. ✨
For anyone starting their PM journey: You'll feel lost. You'll feel scared. You'll question every decision. That's not just normal—it's necessary. Because those moments of doubt are what make you dig deeper, ask better questions, and ultimately build better products. 🚀
P.S. I still Google technical terms during meetings sometimes. But now I do it on my laptop, like a professional. 😉