My First Time on Stage as a Product Manager

A few weeks ago, I was invited to be part of a panel at GLG’s Between Us series in our New York office. It was the first time I’d been on stage talking about my work as a product manager, which felt like a bigger deal to me than I expected.

On stage at GLG NYC.

I’ve spent most of my career as an engineer, so I’m very used to being the person behind the scenes. I’m comfortable getting into the details, solving problems, and building things. Product management has put me in a different position. I’m much more often the person explaining why we’re doing something, helping make the decision, and getting other people aligned around it.

Being on a panel made that shift feel particularly obvious. I wasn’t talking about code or implementation. I was talking about how we think about the product and the decisions behind it.

And I actually found that my engineering background helped more than I expected. I’m used to people asking questions I haven’t anticipated, and I like knowing enough about the details to follow a conversation wherever it goes. That turned out to be pretty useful on stage.

The other thing I noticed is that talking about your work is a really good way to figure out what you actually think. There are ideas that feel clear in your head until someone asks you to explain them out loud. Having to put your reasoning into words exposes the parts that are still fuzzy.

I walked away from the experience feeling relieved, but also a little surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

Maybe that’s one more thing I’m bringing with me from engineering into product: I still want to build things, but I’m increasingly interested in talking about why we’re building them, too.