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

Creating an impact for the organisation through product initiatives is the single most driver for me in my career. I am primarily engaged in gaming products in my career so far and improving these games for the users and thereby generating more revenue from these products is something I enjoy. When it comes to games, business, product and content are very intertwined as manager of these products, one gets to do multiple roles. The level of ownership in games and the outcome one can create by managing game products is unparalleled and my satisfaction stems from this ownership

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

In my view 3 aspects are very important for any product manager - Ownership, clarity and prioritisation. Bringing clarity in gaming context is very important and that was the aspect that I struggled with initially, because when I joined there was lot of noise (information), there are ideas from players, team members and other teams. Since many requirements are creative in nature in games, it is slightly difficult to bring in clarity. I learned two aspects that would really help when it comes to clarity - Understanding users (players) to their bones in terms of their motivations, behaviours, value systems etc and constant check on data and competition or substitution products to get a view/perspective on your product.

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

It is not fancy !!! If you take the job seriously, it can eat you alive. I am not trying to scare here, but introspect and figure out whether you really want this role.

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

Trying to do too many things at a time - you are just wasting everyone's time. Don't try to show that the product is doing well, spend the time on making the product better.

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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?

In this universe and dimension, I would have become Industrial engineer. Yes, there are lot of transferable skillsets between an industrial engineer and PM like prototyping, budgeting, searching for reusability, optimisation etc. For instance, car manufacturers have an analogical concepts similar to SOA. Cars are based on certain platforms and though they are not service per se, they are designed for reusability and interchangeability. In an alternate dimension, I would have become a movie director.

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

I very well knew what I was getting into because I was interested in product management from 2008 and that time the role was not very defined but I had a decent understanding of the role. I have no regrets and thoroughly enjoy the role.

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