MEM Student Discovers 'the McKinsey Way'

Sidhant Gulhar reflects on the opportunity to work across verticals and industries to help impact business and save clients millions of dollars.

Sidhant Gulhar spent his summer in New York ingrained in the world of McKinsey & Company as a product management intern in the Technology & Digital practice. His days were spent working cross-functionally with several engineering, business, technology, and design verticals to develop world-class products that helped clients save millions of dollars and create an impact on the business at a macro level.

The experience was a welcome addition to Gulhar's time in Northwestern's Master of Engineering Management (MEM) program. Frequently he found himself implementing lessons he learned in the MEM classroom to his work at McKinsey, and he was able to leverage his time at McKinsey to learn more about a host of professional opportunities moving forward.

Gulhar recently took the time to reflect on the internship, the role of a product manager and the benefits of the MEM program.

What were your roles and responsibilities at McKinsey?

I worked cross-functionally with several engineering, business, technology, and design verticals to develop world-class products that helped clients save millions of dollars and create an impact on the business at a macro level.

Apart from the above areas, I was equally involved in the global digital transformation of McKinsey & Company and helped stakeholders across the world go Agile. I developed an analytical platform/product for McKinsey to provide competitive analysis and insight visibility to senior partners and leadership.

What were you hoping to learn from your internship experience?

I wanted to work directly with clients and senior stakeholders to gain more experience with stakeholder management, user research, and customer interaction. It is fascinating to see how companies globally are going Agile and it is an exciting time to be a part of this transformation. Fortunately, I got the opportunity to be a part of this process and contribute significantly to this goal. Moreover, I wanted to work across all the verticals involved in devising a strategy and end-to-end execution of products.

What were the two or three most important lessons you learned from your internship?

I had the privilege of being part of the extensive problem-solving sessions with partners, product managers, and product designers who helped me immensely in shaping my thought process and structure. By being a part of projects that spanned across different industries, I gained a lot of knowledge regarding product strategies and design for different clients. Working with product marketing and adoption teams helped open different avenues in my thought process for customer segmentation and go-to-market strategies.  

What is it about product management that you enjoy?

Developing a product from scratch to solve a user's needs and make a real impact in the world is something that I absolutely love when it comes to product management. Areas such as product design and user interaction allow my creative side to come up with innovative ideas to build great products and create substantial value for the users and customers. The product management role is the only role that gives an opportunity to work across all verticals in a firm such as engineering, design, business, finance, marketing, sales, etc. and gain a holistic understanding of the firm and the industry.

How did this internship help you better understand product management or better prepare you for a career in product management?

This internship helped me significantly in learning more about the business problems of different clients and industries and the strategies that are employed to solve those problems. My work at McKinsey helped me develop a different perspective toward problem-solving and looking at things from a different lens.

What's one thing about product management that would surprise someone who has no knowledge about the industry?

People usually perceive the product management role to be a technical role and that it would require a technical background to be a successful product manager. However, that is not true at all. Another very important aspect of product management is that a fully optimized product manager can drive up the profits of a company by a huge percentage. So, it is very crucial to understand what impact a product manager can make in a firm.

How important do you think this type of internship is to your overall MEM experience?

The product management internship plays a key role in my overall MEM experience as I was able to implement the learnings from my previous classes in my role. My experience and work across the MEM classes such as Product Management, Strategy, Marketing, and Negotiations aided in developing innovative strategies to develop great products and make an impact during my time at McKinsey & Company.

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