What accomplishment in your product management career has brought you the highest level of satisfaction and joy? Can you narrate why?

Seeing the customers / users using my product for different use cases had always brought the highest level of satisfaction to me.My first product was a rapid prototyping platform which users (Engineers, Students, Researchers) could use to build amazing new electronic devices. It essentially provided 80% HW + SW as a platform or Lego-like easy to use building blocks to which users could add their own sensors and custom software to build amazing gadgets.I could see the users experience the joy of engineering as they built an ECG machine or a Weather monitoring station or a personal gaming device using our platform. Seeing users succeed as builders enabled by my product gave me unparalleled joy !

What aspect of  product management did you struggle the most with? How did you overcome  it?

Cross functional collaboration esp. with sales team was one aspect I struggled with the most, during early days. Sales teams tend to define the product by looking at competition and get into feature comparison instead of selling on product USPs. While new products need to be introduced to the market on their merit and unique customer benefits and outcomes they bring in. I was able to overcome it by solving the problems sales managers face i.e. training their field agents on how to sell the new product. I worked very closely with them, handled the initial sales calls myself, built sales pitches and collateral. This built confidence in the sales team and they loved working closely with the product team. And I loved the energy of the sales floor.

What's one common  myth about product management that you find common among aspiring PMs.

One common myth I see PMs chasing is "Solve every problem of the customer". Customers / sales teams will always come up with a large number of P0 requests. It's the PM's job to really understand the customer pain points, critical CUJs and prioritise the 20% of features requests which solve 80% of customers' pain points. Because there will never be enough resources/time or even the need to solve each and every minute problem the customers raise

What are some common  pitfalls that product managers must be aware of?

Common pitfalls that PMs should avoid -
1)Thinking that you are the smartest person in the room
2) Talking more than listening
3) Getting too much influenced by competition
4) Ignoring diverse requirements of smaller segments within a big market 5) Second guessing the work of Cross - functional team members

If not product  management, what career would you have picked? Are there any complimentary skillsets that you see between being a PM and your alternate choice?

It's tough for me to imagine any other role. I started off as HW design engineer, but that did not satisfy my hunger as it was the SW that controls the HW so I started writing SW. But that was also not enough, so I did systems design to ensure end-to-end design meetings customers requirements. But finally I realised that ultimately it's the PM who translates customer points into product features and is the glue the holds the whole team together - Engineers, UX designers, UX researchers, Sales, Marketing.Being a PM is the most impactful in solving real customers' problems and gives me immense joy

What is something  about product management that you wish you knew when you started out?

The need to be flexible. I learnt this on the job. A PM needs to listen to all perspectives and take everyone along. I always say that the PM has to lead from behind.