4 Lessons in Product Management
Parth Choksi (MEM '20) and Raghu Veer (MEM '22) shared what it means to be an effective product manager.
Parth Choksi (MEM '20) is a product manager at Tesla, where he focuses on innovation for Tesla's website and mobile app. Raghu Veer (MEM '22) is lead product manager at Walmart Connect, an advertising organization for Walmart.
The two recently participated in a Northwestern Engineering Career Conversation about product management that was sponsored by the school's Office of Professional Education, Engineering Career Development, and Northwestern Career Advancement.
During the conversation, Choksi and Veer explained what it means to be a product manager, how they were introduced to the role, and what advice she'd give to aspiring product managers. In the process, they also shared four lessons that any product manager should understand.
Get out of your comfort zone
Veer wanted to be a product manager — although initially he didn't know that was actually a role that existed. Veer started his career by launching an e-commerce store that offered products for babies and mothers in India.
He later became a senior product manager, first at Webex and then at Cisco. It was around that time that he noticed something: he felt really comfortable in his work. In his eyes, that was a problem.
"I realized I (had) to get out of my comfort zone to be able to grow as a person and grow my career," Veer said.
Soon after that realization, he applied to MEM and moved to the US.
Want to solve problems
Choksi also didn't know what product management was until he realized he was a product manager, just without the title. In 2015, Choksi created his own virtual reality business and handled marketing for the company. Then he started speaking with customers and began trying to imagine solutions to solve their pain points. Before he knew it, he was collaborating with colleagues to build out those solutions.
He went on to be an assistant manager for product at The Walt Disney Company in India, where he helped build products that used computer vision and virtual studios.
Now at Tesla, his responsibilities remain varied. He's managed the company's mobile app, overseen websites, and has been responsible for managing multiple internal tools.
Throughout his career, there's been one constant.
"I love solving problems," Choksi said. "I don't care what those problems are, whether it's building a backend system, a customer-facing website, or something on the mobile app."
Stay focused on the problem
Beyond wanting to solve problems, Choksi said it's up to product managers to make sure products being created are actually going to solve the problem.
Without that focus, it's easy to get off track and start building something that does not actually address the intended pain point.
"Customers don't always know what they want," he said. "You have to empathize with the customer and really understand where that pain is coming from and solve for that problem."
Collaborate
Veer leads the product experience for ads at Walmart Connect. That means he routinely works with eight or nine different teams spread all over the world.
"In order to ensure my product is successful, we've got to drive alignment between those teams," he said.
Alignment is easier said than done, particularly when he is based in the Pacific Northwest, the engineering team is in India, and the user experience team is on the East Coast. But that is why constant communication is critical, Veer said. Whenever new initiatives are determined, Veer makes sure to connect with internal stakeholders who will help ultimately drive the initiative to market.
He knows that each team has its own set of responsibilities and initiatives to focus on, so it's imperative to Veer that everyone involved on his projects are aligned when it comes to timeline, understanding, and overall expectations.
"There's so much cross functional collaboration that's required in order for a product manager to be successful," Veer said. "It's in the nature of the role itself."
