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

Helping Babajob achieve pmf. This was my first real job as a PM for a purely internet business and I was the first PM on the team. The learning was immense both in terms of what should and shouldn't be done.

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

Consensus building. As a typical introvert engineer I had trouble convincing folks on ideas when the argument wasn't completely analytical (Black/white) as is the case with most PM discussions.

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

The amount of autonomy/independence you as a PM have in making product decisions. PMs who primarily come in with the mindset of I know what is best and build what I ask seldom do well in their PM role.

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

The power of incentives. While working in a cross functional team if everybody's incentives are not aligned it doesn't matter what you want to build. The probability of shipping something with high quality will be very low.

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?

Never really though about it. May be would have been in academics/teaching. Something that would have let me think about problems deeply and switch between very different problem areas.

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

The definition of being a PM is very different across companies, businesses, industries, type of products. In India this difference is especially stark. It took me quite some to figure this out, in turn impacting how I managed my career path/goals overall.