Career Growth

Enabling Rural Coverage

This is a story of how the author, 11 years ago, was assigned a project to create a mobile application for a multinational company to push sales of consumer goods to rural retail. With no formal product training or experience, the author had to figure out the logistics and technical aspects of the project, as well as build mock designs and discuss ideas with other teams. Through trial and error, the author was able to successfully roll out the product and learned lessons about job description alignment, delegation, and communication etiquette.

Firing A Popular But Underperforming Manager

A manager had been working at an organization for four years and was well-liked, but had received feedback that he avoided delivering bad news and having tough conversations. When a more senior person applied for a job, it became clear that the manager was underperforming. The CTO had to make the difficult decision to let him go, and had to explain the decision to the rest of the organization. It turned out to be the right decision, and the CTO learned the importance of having trust and accountability among peers.

Take Calculated Risks, Not Chances

This article is about the importance of hard work, calculated risks, and believing in yourself when trying to build a strong career. The author shares their experience of taking a calculated risk by moving back to their home country and pursuing an MBA from a top college, as well as joining a startup to learn about product management. The key to success is to stay motivated and look for the bright side in every situation.

Securing Support For a Revamped App

This article discusses the revamping of a cloud desktop app that was helping users download updated software. The revamping project included user research, prototyping, and data collection to showcase what users wanted/needed. The biggest challenge was convincing internal stakeholders, which was done by aligning the initiative to the overall benefit and conducting user research, prototyping, and data collection. The revamping was a success and lessons learned included understanding the product life cycle and how to get key internal stakeholders on board.

Unhealthy competition between two engineers

When a manager took over a new team, two freelance engineers were working on the same part of a code and had conflicting approaches. After offering them both full-time jobs, the tension between them increased. The manager took action by meeting with them one-on-one and then together to discuss the problem. It was learned that the problem was partly caused by hiring them on the same day, not investing in onboarding them, and not setting clear expectations.

Shepherding a product from a Proof of Concept to Production

In May 2019, a team of four was tasked with creating a product with a tight deadline. After the product manager left, the team reached out to the core architecture team and began weekly cross-team meetings to iterate the design. The team realized they needed more resources and presented their findings to the leadership team. After gaining more resources, the team completed the code and component testing on schedule. The platform was well-received by customers, and the team learned the importance of involving all stakeholders, maximizing bandwidth, and creating a common communication channel.