What was your turning point when you went from being just an input provider to a strategic partner to the product team?

My turning points have always come when I was asked to step up into roles where I initially felt unqualified but had to trust my excitement over my self-doubt. Every major development in my career has been when I felt personally that I was wildly unqualified for something, but leadership asked me to step up anyway. I've learned to listen to what I call my "first voice" - the voice of excitement and ideas - rather than my "second voice" that tells me I'm in over my head or that I'll fail. We've a ...Read More

The turning point came when I was brought into the roadmap planning process and asked for ongoing feedback as a market expert. The shift happens when your relationship with product moves from "you're just going to help me launch or amplify this after I've built it" to "what do you think about us exploring this?" or "can you help us get feedback?" When product teams invite you to participate in strategic planning, UX research, or talking to users to validate concepts in the ideation stage, that's ...Read More

My turning point came when I found spaces where I organically empathized with the audience rather than forcing myself to learn about them. The biggest unlock was finding work where I naturally and genuinely connected with the audience. We talked about Substacks, events, and other ways to understand customers - for me, the difference came when I was genuinely interested in these things, not just because my job required it. When I found myself geeking out about the same topics as my audience in my ...Read More

My turning point came when the head of product management started asking me questions about what we should be building rather than just telling me what they had decided. The moment I realized I was more of a strategic partner than an input person was when the head of PM began asking for my insights on what we should be doing, what competitors were doing, or if our pricing was competitive. Initially, I experienced imposter syndrome, wondering why they were asking me these questions. But then I re ...Read More