Vasudha Mithal

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 questions to understand the need). User-first approach: While solving the problem they identified, are they putting the user at the forefront? Are they clear about who the users are for the problem? Clear communication For ...Read More

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 the role, paid attention to what I explain about the role. Communicate clearly about their skills and have an elevator pitch for past experiences to create a cohesive story. Reflects a true passion for joining the ...Read More

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 think of my long-term contributions to society vs. a narrow focus entirely hinged around work. Time is a privilege - I've learned more ruthless prioritization and now focus on how to maximize my impact. Develop mo ...Read More

It is important to understand the product culture of a company. PM work is very often confused with project management (as you are experiencing). Your manager is the biggest lever in this scenario - define your goals clearly with your manager (typically companies follow an OKR based process for this). Goals should be business objectives and then actual tasks to accomplish the goals should be defined by you vs. someone assigning tasks to you. There will always be some part of project management i ...Read More

Generally, a good way to transition 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 existing company. Build relationships, try to stick around product work (e.g. exploratory analysis to help product teams prioritize, understand usage, measure impact, etc.), and ask mentors to let you drive some work (usually, there ...Read More

Generally, there is a lot of awareness and excitement about the potential of AI. The specifics depends on the type of customer you are looking at. Enterprise - One of our customer segments is healthcare practitioners and admin staff. We learnt that they are very much open to including more AI in their workflows whether that is to facilitate appointment bookings, facilitating pre-intake tasks or post-visit workflows. Consumers - This is more nuanced. While there is an interest (and loads of oppor ...Read More

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 timelines for complex launches that touch various parts of a product ecosystem (vs. focusing on one siloed area). SPMs establish a relationship with various stakeholders (including non-R&D folks). SPMs can outline ...Read More

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 and external opportunities won't give a decent raise, stay. If you are enjoying a work-life balance and don't want to go through the ramp-up of a new company, stay. What else? Most likely you'd want at least some if no ...Read More

Innovation is best achieved by diversity of ideas. Diversity can be achieved by many ways - one of which is including views from multiple industries and domains. While hiring for a generalist role, it is important to leverage interview questions that are going after the skill vs. domain knowledge - I try to use questions that are not from my current industry. There are always a few specialist roles that require a deep understanding of the domain - but we're clear on those job requirements from t ...Read More