 Hey everyone, my name is Colleen. I'm a product manager and I'm here today to talk about my journey to product management. A little bit about me. I'm a product manager at Instagram. I navigated from an entry level contractor role to product management role. So today I'll share that journey with you. That story is about all the roles I took on along the way from entry level contractor to product manager. It's about what I learned from each of those roles and how each of those roles and lessons got me a step closer to my goal of becoming a product manager. So without further ado, let's jump in. Lesson number one, execute flawlessly. This role was an entry level contractor role. I was about five years out of college when I took on this entry level role. So in a lot of ways it felt like a step back. However, I knew I wanted to get into big tech and I knew I wanted to get into product management. So I saw this step back as a way to get my foot in the door and also prove myself. The role itself was tedious. I'd liken it to data entry. Even though the task felt menial, I took it seriously and I executed quickly. When I was done, I would ask for more challenging work. The first showed that I was willing to work at 100% on something, even if it felt a little bit beneath me. The second showed I was hungry to learn and hungry to grow. In asking for more challenging work, I ended up learning more about team processes and the challenges our team was facing. I also got to work more closely with my manager and learn about problems she was facing too. Both of these ended up being key inputs into my next role. This brings us to lesson number two, become invaluable. The role here was an entry level product specialist. So at this time when I was an entry level contractor, our team was growing a ton. So much so that my manager ended up adding a few full-time employee positions to the team. I ended up applying and interviewing and landing the role. Again, I was already doing a lot of this work since I was asking for more challenging work, so it made me a shoe in for the job. My playbook for this role was similar. When I executed quickly, I asked for more challenging work, but a new thing at this stage was keeping my eyes open for really challenging work that no one else wanted to take on or go anywhere near. When I saw those projects come up, I would raise my hand and ask if I could take them on. In this instance, our team was managing a really complex project, and we had to figure out and project milestone dates into the future. No one can figure out a capacity plan or a project plan to manage all the interdependencies to do this, and nobody wanted to be in charge of doing that. I asked if I could take a whack at figuring it out. I ended up making out project plans, making out a capacity plan, and making out sound project milestone dates. Our engineering manager at the time needed these milestone dates to communicate how the project was going upwards. I became invaluable to him and the rest of our team in being able to take on this work and come up with milestone dates for our team. My next lesson was learning to be resilient. I had been a product specialist for about two years now. I was hungry to grow and take on my next challenge. And I also wanted to get closer to product manager. I was looking around for entry-level product manager jobs, and surprise, there weren't that many for people that didn't have product management experience. I found a rotational product manager program that was geared toward entry-level product managers, and this was perfect for me. It would give first-time PMs the skills they needed to be PMs and also the mentorship they needed to grow and learn. So I applied for the program and I secured an interview. I was so excited. I felt like my goal of becoming a PM was finally so close within reach. All I had to do was ace this interview. So I went back. I studied. I made tons of frameworks for how to answer my questions. I did mock interviews, practice in my spare time. I really wanted to ace this interview. So on the day of the interview, I went in and I totally froze. I just couldn't connect what I practiced to what the interviewer was asking me. I walked out feeling like I did a really bad job. The recruiter called me the next day and confirmed that I did a really bad job. I did not land the job. I was discouraged. Bigger than discouraged, I was embarrassed. I felt like I spent a lot of time preparing. I told a lot of people that I was preparing for this and I also leaned on a lot of people to help me prepare. It was really embarrassing having to go to them and tell them I didn't make it. I had to bury my head in the sand, but instead I resolved to be flexible and think of new ways I could get PM experience. In talking to the recruiter, they said I really needed more experience in product sense or product strategy and execution. So I resolved to figure out ways to get that experience. This brings me to my next role, technical program manager. As I was looking around for more ways to get execution and strategy focus, I found a role called TPM or technical program manager. This role had a heavy execution focus and also had to set strategy for programs. Luckily, my team had an open TPM role. I talked to my engineering manager. He supported me in looping. I ended up applying and landing the role. I was so excited. And at first everything was great. I was beefing up my execution skills, working more closely with engineering. I was also staffed on a zero to one project. So I got that experience setting strategy and the mission and the goals for a program. It was everything that I really wanted to get experience in. Then I hit a new roadblock. If my first roadblock was an external one and getting a no to the RPM program, my second one was an internal roadblock. I started to doubt myself. I was surrounded by all these other TPMs that worked at big tech companies that had tons of years of experience had even started their own companies. I felt like I failed in comparison. I felt like everyone soon realized what I already knew, which is that I didn't belong here and I did not level up. I was lucky to have a strong manager at the time and she coached me through these insecurities in three ways. One was just sharing those thoughts which helped normalize them. I went into one of her one-on-ones prepared to tell her that there had been a mistake and I was not a good TPM and should not be there. When I told her this, instead of her saying, yes, we know, like there's the door, she paused and said, Colleen, I have those same thoughts about myself. I think that I'm not good enough to be here. I was floored. She had years of experience who is so much more senior than I was. I couldn't believe she had the same doubts about her abilities. Just sharing these thoughts and realizing that other people have them started to shift how I thought about them. Maybe there were thoughts that other people had and it wasn't just me and maybe there were thoughts that I would have throughout my career. The second thing that she taught me was to just go through the actions of a TPM, even if I didn't feel like a good one. A lot of times I'd be in meetings. I'd want to share my opinion or share an idea, but then those doubts would come in of, are you sure you're good enough? Are you sure anyone wants to hear that? So I take a step back and not say anything. In not saying anything, I wasn't getting the positive reinforcement that I needed that I was on the right track, which would give me more confidence, which would allow me to grow. So instead I would just sit there. Lauren encouraged me even if it didn't feel right to just say what I was thinking. I would either get positive reinforcement, get told I wasn't on the right track. Both would help me grow. So I started to do that. I started to get the positive reinforcement and I started to feel more confident. The third thing Lauren taught me was to challenge those thoughts. I remember talking to a PM peer at the time and asking her if she had ruminations. She said, yeah, sometimes I walk around and just feel like I'm not good enough. She said, there's something I have to tell you though. I have a younger PM mentor and I was asking him if he had these ruminations or imposter syndromes. He asked me what they were. So I told him, you know those thoughts you have about self doubt. He took a second and said, well, I have thoughts in my head, but it's more like, wow, I can't believe how great I am for making it here. Or wow, how is everyone so lucky that they get to work with me. I was floored. I couldn't believe that there were people with similar levels of experience of me that instead of doubting themselves were thinking how cool is it that I made it this far. I wondered what would change for me if I started to think like that. It turns out I would get more confident. When I got past this initial block of imposter syndrome, I was able to open up my eyes and kind of learn from all the great people around me. During the stage, I learned that you can learn informally from the PMs around you. While mentors are great and really important, you can also learn a ton informally from informal mentors. We had a strong PM lead at the time and he taught me three important things during this time. I didn't say what everyone in the room was thinking, but too afraid to speak up about. We'd be in meetings, and I remember going through the metrics our team was going on at the time. There'd be a big line graph on the screen and a little dip. The person presenting would just kind of blow through the little dip in the metric. And I remember sitting there thinking, I wonder what caused that. The PM lead at the time would then raise his hand and say, hey, what caused that dip? I would look around and everyone in the room would nod as if they were thinking the same thing but didn't want to speak up. He taught me of the importance of really speaking your mind and saying what everyone else is afraid to talk about. The second thing he taught me was getting everyone excited and energized about the work. Despite always being around, whether it was in person, you'd run into him in the kitchen and he'd ask, how is your project going? Have you thought about this that or the other thing? I'm so excited. I can't wait. He would also respond to emails and project briefs, give his ideas, tell you about his excitement. He really amped up the mood for the group. I remember him telling me that PMs beat the drum for the beat the team is moving at. If you're energized and excited, people will act in the same manager. The third thing he taught me was encouraging me to share out my work. Again, during this time, I was still learning, so I wanted everything to feel perfect before I let anyone else's eyes on it. I remember him saying Colleen, it's never going to feel perfect, but you just have to put it out there. Again, if you're on the right track, you'll get that positive feedback. If you're on the wrong track, you'll get that feedback, which is important too, and you can realize where you have to change course. This really taught me the importance of learning informally from those around you or going with really informal or direct ass of people like, hey, can you take a look at this project brief? And again, just emulating behaviors of strong pms around you. This brings me to lesson five sees your opportunity. I was still a TPM. I'd been a TPM for about two years. I was really feeling strong about my execution skills is feeling good about the strategy experience I was taking on. And I was itching to get closer to PM yet again. I was a TPM for the team when their PM at the time left for another team leaving a PM gap on the team. I had also gotten promoted a few times as a TPM so is no longer an entry level I see. I felt like this is really my opportunity to interview for a PM role at the company. So I decided to raise my hand for this opportunity. I went to my manager and my PM lead and ask them if I could look for this PM role. They both agreed and supported me. I ended up applying getting an interview and this time I passed I was so excited. This journey of about four or five years had finally gotten me to where I'd always wanted to go which was a PM role. This time as a new PM it was really important to continue to learn. I was lucky to have a great support system at the time. I felt really lucky that I landed in a team that I already knew the problem space pretty well I already had strong relationships with people on the team. So I could just focus on those PM skills and getting a few strong haves under my belt. I continue to lean on the skills I've talked about during this talk to beef up my first few halves as a PM. This included executing flawlessly when new projects came my way I manage my own dates I escalated when needed and unblock roadblocks when they came up. To I also continue to be invaluable but this looked a little bit different as a new PM. Meeting new engineers for the first time or new cross functional members I would often often asked our first one on ones like hey what are things that aren't going well and how can I help. I would often raise little things on the team like hey we have way too many meetings or I don't know what's going on with this project and I wish I did. When they bought up those problems I said let me see how I can help taking on these small tasks were great ways to build relationships and trust early on as a PM. The first three was becoming resilient. As an early PM, I still heard no, whether it's for a project I wanted to take on or new roles I wanted to take. But again when these knows came up, I resolved to be resilient and figure out other ways to get what I wanted or where we wanted to go for was continuing to learn from those around me. I was lucky to be surrounded by so many great pms, and it was key to take on informal mentors asked for feedback after presentations asked for feedback on strategy briefs, and kind of emulate behaviors of strong pms around me. That is my story about my journey to product management I hope you walked away with some lessons, but here are some closing remarks before I go. So please don't give up if you feel like you're hitting roadblocks I've heard no so many times along my journey, which brings me to lesson number two really be flexible and think of other ways you can get where you want to go. Again when I heard those knows say my first no for the RPM interview I could have been like, oh I guess I'm not supposed to be a PM, but instead I said, okay I'm just going to have to find another way to get there to be flexible and know there are many ways to get where you want to go. So I have people on your journey to share your struggles with. It makes you feel less alone and they can also give you advice on how to overcome those obstacles. Also share with people when things go well when you pass those interviews and thank them for what you they've taught you along the way for always optimize for learning and areas where you find yourself naturally curious. An aspiring PM and also an early in the game PM you'll get tons of opportunities to take on new roles new responsibilities and always go towards those that leave you energized and leave you naturally curious. Five and finally is a give back to the community share your time and share your story with others. Thank you for your time today. I'm also leaving my contact information if you have any more questions about my story, or about your own path to PM. Thanks for having me.