From Barclays IB Analyst to CarGurus Product Manager
About us: Andrew (AM) and Chandrika (CM) met during their MBA program at MIT Sloan and connected over their passion for product, growth and paying forward the help they got transitioning into product management. AM currently works as a Product Manager at Moveworks and CM works as a Product Manager at DocuSign.
In the 3rd series, we are covering our peers who made the transition into Product Management from a variety of different backgrounds so they can share insights and lessons learned. For this post, we spoke to our friend Dan who is currently a PM on the Consumers Team at Cargurus. Prior to Cargurus, Dan worked for over 5 years at Barclays Investment Bank as an Associate and Analyst. He also obtained an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.
As a Product Manager at CarGurus, Dan is focused on the Digital Retail product, which is striving to enable a fully online car purchasing platform connecting dealers and consumers. When he started, he was focused on growing the Consumer Finance product experience that allows buyers to quickly get pre-qualified for financing as they search on the platform. Now his team’s mandate has expanded to the overall experience which includes everything ranging from finding a vehicle to finalizing a purchase. As part of this roadmap, he enhances this overall experience by strategically partnering with 3rd parties and building out new integrations, while adding new UX experiences.
Why did you want to become a PM?
My “windy path” story began after I graduated with a liberal arts degree from college. I went into Investment Banking (IB) to learn practical skills within a very fast paced environment. Although I was learning a lot, I grew fatigued of not really building anything, but rather serving in an advisory role. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to get partnered with a start-up within Barclays’ global FinTech platform, Rise. In the role, I served as a product advisor which was perfect since I was the targeted persona. Through this experience, I became energized at the idea of pivoting into PM.
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced transitioning into PM?
There were two big challenges that I endured when transitioning into PM and during my first months on the job:
“Not knowing a little about everything” - In IB, I had a lot of experience communicating well, developed a strong financial acumen, and was capable of working on a fast-paced, highly cross-functional team. On the other hand, I had no technical, programming experience and lacked sales, marketing and product development, e.g. AGILE, knowledge. As I thought about transitioning into PM, I wanted to leverage my strengths but not let my weak areas drag my progression or credibility on the team.
“Managing engineering conversations” - One truth is that a PM will most likely be the least knowledgeable person in the room when it comes to technical discussions. When I started, there was an adjustment period in which I didn’t know what conversation points were relevant or what areas to probe deeper and ask for clarity. Contributing within these types of engineering conversations is important to gain the respect of the ENG team. It’s our goal to demonstrate that the PM cares about the implementation details and also the importance of cleaning up tech debt.
What did you have to unlearn?
I had to unlearn the notion of perfectionism which is ingrained within IB. To be specific, I had to learn that it is OKAY to share something that doesn’t have all the details fleshed out. In PM, there is a lot of merit to sharing something with minimal effort to facilitate the conversation. This is particularly useful to A) align a group on the outcome; and 2) iterate on a design idea with UX. Overall, you won’t get it right the first time but that’s okay.
What skills and experiences you found were transferable to PM?
Good communication: By far, the most transferable skill that has allowed me to align on a vision, work with engineers on setting requirements, and communicate upwards to leadership (and not get caught out of the blue).
Forecasting: There is value in conducting this well, especially with revenue-producing products. In the exercise, I lay out aspects of the conversion funnel and identify what is influenced by macro factors.
Attention to detail: This helps during mocking up design and developing scripts within QA. For example, I write down the 5 different use cases for a customer journey and create a meticulous testing script to work through them all.
What was the one most important resource you had to make the transition? Why?
Besides the MBA, I found the following activities to be very helpful:
Taking a python class on Udemy: This helped me get programming literate and obtain a basic understanding of engineering terminology. Also I took a web development class, which was $10 during a Flash sale.
Getting certified as a Scrum Master (on scrum.org): There is a lot of value to learn about the AGILE framework. At Cargurus, my team utilizes this framework to help manage both tech debt and executing on new feature requests.
Reading good books: “Decode and Conquer” & “Cracking the PM Interview”