Get On My Product Level + Other Updates
Hi everyone. Long time no see! It’s been about six months since my last post. I have a few big announcements to share:
First of all, this blog’s name has been changed from “The Data Empress” to “Get On My Product Level” to focus more on the intersection of product management, tech news, and popular culture. Now, I will include data insights at some time since data is still king and is a key component to how product managers and product teams deploy and improve new products and services into the market. But having a firm grasp at evaluating and manipulating data is just one aspect of the discipline. I would like to showcase the many other attributes that make someone a great product leader.
Second, in late June, my contract with Microsoft ended. I‘m not going to lie. I was a bit emotional my last week team because I was leaving a solid team of individuals who is making sure that BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, neurodivigent, and other underrepresented communities are included in the content moderation process at Microsoft. I’ve learned so much about my communication and leadership potential and areas of improvements in those five months than the first decade or so of my career.
Someone took a chance on me as a new program manager without a traditional STEM background and I flourished. My future in tech is more promising than ever. It’s been several years since I decided that I was going to pursue a product management career and this opportunity pretty much solidified that commitment. I pushed myself forward into the unknown and came out delivering complex solutions with my team. Now I’m ready to forge a new journey — for now, I’m back in the job search ring.
Third, I recently applied to the University of Washington Foster School of Business Inclusive Product Management Accelerator Program (IPMA). The deadline for the Fall 2022 application is actually tomorrow (Thursday, August 11 by1:00am EST), so if you still have time to piece together a strong application, I would do so ASAP. You have nothing to lose at this point. It’s completely free and you’ll have multiple times to reapply and figure out if product management is the right career choice for you.
To give some context, IPMA is a highly-selective, three-month fellowship program geared to get underrepresented career changers, especially product adjacent folks like me, who already have a basic command of product management gain the networking and practical skills to become innovative product leaders in their future organizations and communities. This is actually my second time applying. I don’t think I was in the right spiritual state of mind last year. But I am fairly confident that I will become a proud memeber of the IPMA family this time around. If you know me, I am very persistent (almost like a bloodhound) in achieving my goals, even if detours, setbacks, Imposter Syndrome episodes, and the kitchen sink are thrown in my direction. Someone recently told me that I should find a mentor(s) to excel in this discipline and I think that IPMA is the right community and soul tribe that I have been looking for.
To be completely honest, there aren’t a lot of people of color in the tech industry, let alone non-white product managers. When you have many product managers, UX designers, and software engineers with the same educational, cultural, and racial backgrounds deploy the same products and product features over and over again, innovation is left surrounded by a pack of dangerous, hungry wolves fighting for its life, whereas product ecosystems become breeding grounds for unchecked racial, selection, and algothmtic biases and industry drama. Have we learned from the Great Resignation yet?
We can do sooooooooooo much better if we move away from pre-Covid company policies and job expectations and embrace more professionals with nontraditional and inclusive backgrounds. But we can’t erudicate decades-old/centuries-old institutions and POVs instantly with a magical wand. Wait, what was that Harry Potter spell again? Oh yeah, Expeliaracistus!
On a rather good note, it’s all what I have for now. Be on the lookout for more content in the coming weeks. To product management…. and to data! :)
