On the first day of my six-month internship in Product Management at FINN, I came in only to find that the team I would be joining didn’t have a full time Product Manager (PM) yet. So, would I be happy to fulfil the PM role myself for a few months? I hadn’t expected to get the chance of having so much responsibility in an internship… 🧐
From business administration to product
Hi, I’m Paula 👋 and I have a background in business. During my studies for a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, I hadn’t even considered Product as a career option. While the field is getting more popular now, it’s not an area that is commonly thought of as accessible to business graduates. Coming from business, you might consider consulting, marketing, sales, human resources (HR), finance—but the product area can easily seem so far away and out of reach, as it’s something we don’t learn about much in uni. Plus, as it is a more technical role it can seem as targeted towards engineers.
Through internships I gained experience in marketing, and later worked in sales, both of which enabled me to develop tons of valuable skills. Yet I also quickly realised that sales was not for me. However, because all the jobs I had were at tech companies, I decided I wanted to learn something new and build up my technical skills. Previously I had taken a short introduction to coding course where we learnt the basics of HTML, CS and some JS and had really enjoyed it, but didn’t have the time to dive deeper. This time I enrolled in an intensive web development bootcamp at Le Wagon, to gain a better understanding of the technical aspects of websites and apps.
The web development bootcamp turned out to be one of the most challenging and valuable learning experiences I’ve ever had. During the final project, I got the chance to act as a team lead and found that I enjoyed the planning, communication, and prioritisation aspects of the project. This insight led me to consider a career in product management. After completing the bootcamp and learning more about Product, I started looking for PM internships. This is how I ended up doing product management at FINN.
The daily grind as a product manager
“No two days are the same,” is what I often heard about the day-to-day tasks of a product manager before starting the job. This is indeed true. Days are non-typical and the role can vary greatly depending on the company, product, and industry. As a product manager, you have to handle a wide range of responsibilities and interact with many different stakeholders. At FINN I was part of the B2B Revenue Operations (RevOps) team and the Internal Tools Engineering team, which included engineers, a technical writer, a product manager, a VP of Engineering, and a VP of Revenue Operations. In such a role, you always act kind of as the bridge between the business and engineering teams, and therefore need to be able to communicate effectively with both.
A RevOps team meeting with my colleagues Murtaza Wani, Mithat Ozture, Christophe Tambourgi, Shpat Celiku, Shun Long Hong, Dominik Fübi, and Alfonso Comino.
While I started my internship acting as the sole product manager in the team, about three months into the job, my colleague Shun Long Hong joined our team as a full time PM. This was definitely a turning point in my time at FINN. Long was a great mentor and I learned tons from him! We spent half of our days on calls brainstorming together, so the three months we worked together were a huge learning experience for me.
During my time at FINN, my schedule was filled with meetings, as you need to align with many stakeholders. At times it can feel like there are too many meetings and not enough time to complete tasks, but in reality, a big portion of the PM work actually happens during these meetings. Sprint ceremonies, such as sprint refinement and sprint planning, are crucial. Sprint Refinement is where we refine the tickets that the engineers will tackle during the next sprint. Sprint Planning is an opportunity to review what was accomplished in the previous sprint, as well as the moment when the tickets for the upcoming two weeks are assigned to the engineers—therefore it’s when the team can estimate what we think will be achieved. As a PM, you have to prepare and run these meetings. Additionally, there are also the sprint retrospective meetings with the team. This is by far my favorite session, as it’s a safe space where past sprints are evaluated and team members provide feedback, ideas for improvement, and can raise any issues encountered. Moreover, in addition to preparing and running these core meetings, as a PM you need to be available for your engineers at all times in case there are any questions, issues or blockers you need to solve related to their work.
A significant part of the role also includes writing product requirements documentation, creating epics, writing tickets, and backlog grooming. Additionally, product roadmapping is also very important. Product roadmapping involves estimating the work and new initiatives in the upcoming weeks and months, therefore it is part of roadmapping to determine if there is capacity for new ideas and requests.
What skills do you need to be successful in product management?
I would say there’s a variety of skills needed to become a successful product manager:
- Strategic thinking: The ability to think strategically and understand the big picture is essential for product managers. You need to be able to identify customer needs, research market opportunities, and create a product roadmap that aligns with the company’s goals.
- Communication and collaboration: As a product manager, you will need to be able to communicate effectively with a wide range of stakeholders, including customers, business leaders, cross-functional teams, and external partners. You also need to be able to collaborate effectively with these groups to drive the product development process.
- Project management: Product managers need to be able to manage the product development process from concept to launch, including gathering and prioritising product requirements, working with cross-functional teams, and analysing and reporting on product performance.
- Technical skills: Even if you don’t have a background in engineering, as a product manager you will need to have a basic understanding of the technical aspects of the product. Understanding the technology enables PMs to better communicate with their engineers and make more informed decisions about product development.
- Analytical skills: Product managers need to be able to analyse data and use it to make informed decisions about the product. You should be able to use data to measure product performance, identify trends and customer needs, make decisions about product features and prioritise.
How product management differs from being a tech lead
The role of a product manager is different from that of, for example, a tech lead. PMs focus on overall product strategy and vision. As a PM, you are responsible for the entire product lifecycle, make decisions related to product strategy and prioritisation, and interact with a wide range of stakeholders. Tech leads, on the other hand, focus on leading and managing the technical aspects of a project. As a tech lead, you primarily interact with the engineering team, and will make decisions related to the technical direction of the product, including the technologies to use, managing the development timeline, and ensuring that the product is delivered on time.
In my experience, product managers and tech leads should collaborate closely. Tech leads play a crucial role in the technical refinement of tickets and addressing any issues raised by engineers during standups. They also bring attention to technical debt, which may not be immediately apparent from a business perspective, and they can help ensure that adequate time and resources are allocated to addressing tech debt. Additionally, tech leads provide valuable insight on the technical feasibility of initiatives proposed by the business side.
Highlights and challenges
One of the biggest highlights of my product management internship was seeing the tangible impact of the work we did—this was definitely what I enjoyed the most from the PM work. For example, we developed and implemented a tool for the B2B Customer Success team that streamlined their subscription management, saving them a significant amount of time and reducing their need to search for information across multiple sources. Through user interviews, we gained an understanding of their daily workflow, needs, and actions performed, and used this information to put together the product requirements. Being able to witness the entire product development process from start to finish, and also giving a training session to the team to demonstrate the value of the tool was a great way to deliver results during my time at FINN.
In the beginning, running the refinement and planning meetings with the engineering team seemed like a big challenge to me. This was the time when impostor syndrome hit hard, as I felt everything was way too technical for me. But Christian Pötter, our VP of Engineering, as well as all the other engineers in the team, were always there to support and clear out any questions or doubts. Besides, as a PM you’re not expected to know all the technical details, that falls within the domain of the engineers, which I came to see more clearly during my first months. Everybody I worked with was incredibly approachable, supportive and always willing to help.
One of our team events last summer
Another highlight of my experience at FINN was the opportunity to work with incredibly talented individuals. Despite the majority of the team working remotely, we still managed to maintain a strong team dynamic and were always there to support each other, also celebrating each other’s successes! This was in large part due to the efforts of our managers to foster a positive and collaborative environment, which I don’t think is that easy in a remote setup. I was able to visit the FINN Munich office several times and it was really amazing to work together with my colleagues and also to enjoy great team events together.
Tips for getting started in product management
Don’t be scared! And don’t let job requirements intimidate you. Even if you don’t have all the qualifications or technical knowledge listed, trust in your ability to learn on the job. Impostor syndrome will be there, but remember: you won’t be alone in this process, there’s a team to help you figure things out.
Being thrown in at the deep end from day one was daunting at first, but now I can only be super grateful for this experience: the fact that I was given so much trust and responsibility as an intern, enabled me to learn and grow immensely.
So: be patient, learn when to say no, and be flexible. Priorities in a company can change quickly, so be prepared to adjust your plans accordingly!
This article was written by Paula Garcia.