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AMA: Headspace Health Senior Director of Product Management, Vasudha Mithal on Developing Your Product Management Career
August 23 @ 10:00AM PST
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Headspace Health Senior Director of Product Management, Vasudha Mithal on Developing Your Product Management Career
Top Questions
What's something that you didn't know it took to become a Director back when you were a senior product manager?
Something that you didn't know you would need to do that you only realized later.
Vasudha Mithal
Care Solace Chief Product Officer • August 23
This is a mix of both seniority as well as working at a high-growth private company but clarifying R&Rs to ensure teams are built to maximize impact while minimizing management overhead is something I have a much deeper appreciation for now vs. earlier in my career when I focused more on getting ......Read More
300 Views
2 requests
Vasudha Mithal
Care Solace Chief Product Officer • August 24
A few things: * A very deep understanding of the problems they are looking to solve. This gets reflected in how they speak about past experiences (why did you choose to work on a specific problem, what exactly was the need?) as well as any case study (are they asking intelligent questi......Read More
1270 Views
2 requests
Vasudha Mithal
Care Solace Chief Product Officer • August 24
The most important thing to prioritizing a product roadmap is to deeply understand your company's strategy. How does your leadership think about 1) Goals for the year (revenue, profitability, user retention/satisfaction, ...) and 2) Balancing goals that might contradict each other (revenue growth......Read More
382 Views
3 requests
Vasudha Mithal
Care Solace Chief Product Officer • August 23
Love the proactive thinking and the desire to excel :) Not sure if the learning curve is any steeper but there are a few things that can support career growth: * Master the craft for what is required of you in the current seniority. * Get exposure to delegating more work, creating leverage ......Read More
280 Views
2 requests
Vasudha Mithal
Care Solace Chief Product Officer • August 23
1. Exemplary people leadership (ability to bring people along) 2. Strong relationships across various functions (including non-R&D teams) - get done what's needed to solve a problem, and get products launched. 3. Maturity to know when to switch course for a product line, drive tough de......Read More
308 Views
2 requests
What should you do if your Manager is not helping you grow and you see little growth opportunities? Should you stay at the job and try to learn as much as possible or should you definitely leave the company and look for a new opportunity?
How much time should you give a job and a manager to see if they are a fit in your growth and career?
Vasudha Mithal
Care Solace Chief Product Officer • August 23
What do you value in your life right now? * If it is career growth and you are not getting that, needless to say, it is time for a change. * If you want to maximize your impact and you have the tools to deliver your best work/create the most impact, stay. * If you are optimizing for pay......Read More
291 Views
2 requests
How do you manage the 1000 questions and tasks that are shot at you when you are a PM in an early stage startup?
I'm the first PM in a startup that used to be sales led. I'm trying to set up the proper discovery processes, prioritization tactics and strategy, but I find that extremely hard to do as I'm getting carried away in the day-to-day tasks around requests, issues reported and project management.
Vasudha Mithal
Care Solace Chief Product Officer • August 23
In a startup, the R&R is faintly defined at its best. You naturally get pulled into 1000 different things - that is both fun and a challenge :) A few things that you might find helpful: * In the beginning, it is good to get exposed to a variety of different topics. It can be overwhelming for......Read More
282 Views
2 requests
How to make a career change to PM?
Any tips, strategy, success stories?
Vasudha Mithal
Care Solace Chief Product Officer • August 24
Generally, where I’ve seen people best succeed in transitioning is when you change one dimension at a time. So, either change your company, role or industry. Trying to move across several things is hard (not impossible). In that context, the best shot is at trying for a product role within your e......Read More
305 Views
2 requests
Vasudha Mithal
Care Solace Chief Product Officer • August 24
For very role-specific hiring: "Knowing about the role, how does your experience and skillset fit the needs?" The best answer: * Reflects the candidate really understands our company, has done research to know what might be top of mind and has taken the time with the recruiter to clarify ......Read More
644 Views
2 requests
Vasudha Mithal
Care Solace Chief Product Officer • August 24
The first question I'd ask is - what element of being a CPO/GM are you looking to NOT do? Second question - What do you like about being a PM that you want to bring along as an executive for the company? Then find a role that can reduce #1 and get you to do #2! A few options that are interesti......Read More
334 Views
2 requests
Vasudha Mithal
Care Solace Chief Product Officer • August 24
You need to assess this based on the things that you care about. I have my few Ps: * People: Do I love this team? Do I want to be at the table (in a zoom room?) with this group to solve problems? * Purpose: What is the problem I'll be thinking about every day? Is that exciting/interestin......Read More
278 Views
2 requests
Vasudha Mithal
Care Solace Chief Product Officer • August 23
My top-3 favorites purely from a product perspective: * Google Photos, for very delightful and practical uses of AI * Huckleberry, for attempting to solve the problems of new parents in a tech-first way * Tesla, for the beautiful combo of hardware and software to create an overall rich ......Read More
3017 Views
3 requests
Vasudha Mithal
Care Solace Chief Product Officer • August 23
This varies so much from company to company but my general lens while moving from PM to SPM: * SPMs have had at least one meaningful product launch in their career. * SPMs are able to cut across product lines, reach out to multiple PMs to identify dependencies, get buy-ins, and manage timel......Read More
365 Views
2 requests
Vasudha Mithal
Care Solace Chief Product Officer • August 23
No matter how many parents I saw before at work, I was nowhere close to realizing the true joys and challenges of working parents. A few things: * As you are solving world problems and developing your team at work, you are also growing and nurturing the leaders of tomorrow at home. I now thi......Read More
730 Views
2 requests
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