From GoPro Data Scientist to ServiceNow 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 Paty who is currently a Staff PM on the outbound platform and analytics team at ServiceNow. Prior to transitioning into the PM role, Paty worked as a Data Scientist at GoPro and ServiceNow.
In Paty’s role she is focused on maintaining platform level consistency in customer experience across the suite of products at ServiceNow; specifically on the data analytics and visualizations. Paty describes her role using an inbound vs outbound PM framework. Inbound PMs are usually building products for their customers based on the market signals. They own the roadmap, backlog and metrics for the product, and interact with the outbound PM to get a sense on the market and for product validation. For Paty at ServiceNow, one of the products that she supports, which is owned by an Inbound PM would be the Vendor Manager Workspace. As an Outbound PM, Paty leverages Platform features and applications like ServiceNow’s Performance Analytics and incorporates them into products like Vendor Manager Workspace so customers can make data driven decisions and immediately see the value from adopting ServiceNow’s platform in their organization.
Why did you want to become a PM?
I was a Data Scientist for ~9 years before I transitioned into PM. I studied Math and Statistics and have always loved data. This was even before Data Science was a big field. Then I moved into tech on the mobile side first. I was always working with PMs to help them define the market, the customer segments, understand user data. I always say PMs are the decision makers, the leaders, driving the product forward.
I provided a ton of feedback. So much that the Director of Product for that org asked me if I wanted to be a PM. And he saw me as someone who could add a lot of value and started including me in meetings. After a few months he pulled me aside and asked if I seriously wanted to consider being a PM. At the same time my husband was transitioning into PM. He had read a lot of books, he went to Product School and was even leading a course at General Assembly about transitioning into PM. Seeing my husband do the transition and hear him talk about the role, I thought I might like that role. I was in a dilemma since my manager in Data Science was also giving me a lot of opportunities. So I had to make a choice on whether I wanted to grow in Data Science and take on more managerial responsibilities or transition into PM. It just so happened that the PM opportunity came before and I wasn’t sure when the opportunity to progress in the next role in Data Science was going to come up. So I went to the Product Director who had been asking me to seriously consider the role. He wasn’t the hiring manager but he was a big sponsor and vouched for me. I went through the regular PM recruiting process and ended up getting this role. I had to do a product case where I got a prompt and had to present my solution the next day. The case involved the whole 9 yards of the product lifecycle and I did a whole deck. I had the privilege of having my husband who was a huge help throughout the process.
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced transitioning into PM?
In Data Science, my world was the computer, looking at data and doing visualizations. I had some people skills in terms of presenting the analyses to so there were definitely days when I did not have any meetings. I definitely had to develop more people skills. The biggest challenge for me was shifting from depth to breadth. As a PM, you don’t need to be the subject matter expert in one field but you need to know enough about all fields related to the product. You need to make sure that you are voice of the customer, you are influencing different teams and really bringing everyone together to work with a shared vision.
I also had to learn more of the soft skills. I definitely had a bias towards more technical and hard skills and thought that those were more important and valued. So when I transitioned into PM, I had to work on both my written and verbal communication. There is a lot of time you spend communicating as a PM and that helped me develop more appreciation for good communication skills.
The last one was getting comfortable with ambiguity. As a Data Scientist, you rely on the data to influence others and you look for patterns to tell the story. As a PM, I don’t always have the time to dig into everything and I don’t always have the right answers. So what I found is that I need to not always know all the right answers but I can at least start the conversation and ask the subject matter expert to chime in. That’s even a skill that I’m working with my manager on, just getting comfortable with not knowing everything but still being able to drive the conversation forward. In soccer speak, it's like being the “midfielder” where they see the whole field and know who to pass the ball to next vs. the offenders or the defenders who need to be the subject matter experts.
What did you have to unlearn?
The soft-skills piece that I touched on in the last questions. I still sometimes have to try to not be the data scientist for the project. During meetings, I observed some technical PMs who transitioned from Engineering to PM answering on behalf of engineers. I have taken note to not do the same; as a PM with data scientists or other subject matter experts.
What skills and experiences you found were transferable to PM?
I believe a successful PM needs to be data driven. You don't need to be an expert but you do need to have some basic skills. I still use data to influence most decisions. So even though I am not doing the analysis, I’m still using data to drive the influence I need to create among stakeholders.
The other part was as a Data Scientist, I was really perceptive and observant of people’s body language and reactions when I showed them certain analyses and they reacted to it. So even today when I’m talking to developers and Inbound PMs on my team for example, I take note of their reactions and observe how they respond to some requirements and take that into account when I partner with them.
The last one is being customer centric. As a PM, you are always thinking about the customer but even as a Data Scientist you develop the customer centric approach because while building your analyses, digging through the data, you are predicting the customer behavior in a way and thinking of personas for your analyses.
What was the one most important resource you had to make the transition? Why?
My sponsors, mentors and peers.
I would not have made the switch if there was not that Director who was my sponsor, who planted the seed for me and essentially created the role for me.
My mentor was essentially my husband and I leveraged a lot of his knowledge and his resources.
Lastly, talking to my peers who had made similar switches from different roles into Product Management. I attended some talks as well where folks who had similar transitions talked about what it took them to make the switch and it helped.