Micro-Interview: Lyuba Pranchova, Product Manager
A PM at Ocado Technology, she shares tips & tricks in 419 words.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
Lyuba Pranchova is a Product Manager at Ocado Technology, a company building the future of online retail through world-class systems at the intersection of robotics and IoT, cloud platforms, big data, machine learning, software development, and beyond.
In under 500 words, she shares:
How she got into product management…
How she starts her mornings for maximum productivity…
Some of her sources of learning…
And more…
Enjoy!
“How did you get into product management?”
In 2011 I had the chance to start my career in a small company as a business analyst without any practical experience. I also acted as project manager and QA for many various projects. This was a very precious experience for me which taught me a lot about product management without me even realizing this at that point. Then I changed companies specializing in business analysis and product ownership and working on large-scale projects that involved building new products from scratch. This naturally had me thinking about product management. Thank God I had friends who were more decisive than me and they literally submitted my CV for a PM job without even asking. I am very thankful for that!
“How do you start your mornings at work?”
I usually catch up with Slack and email to start the day. I use Slack reminders to postpone lower-priority responses. I am a very keen task list keeper; this helps me not to forget. I go through my tasks and calendar, and I plan my day based on my meetings and how much meetings-free time will be left.
“What do you know about product management now that you wish you’d known when you first started?”
It took me a while to embrace all aspects of the existence of the product. PMs’ responsibilities can stretch to where you as a PM bring them. I wish I had known that initially, but I guess this is part of gaining experience. Also, I wish I started blocking time in my calendar to focus on important stuff earlier, it took me more than a year to start doing it and it saved my life! 😀
“What did your biggest product failure teach you?”
My failures taught me to listen and not to hurry in making decisions without research. But this doesn’t mean getting stuck in analysis paralysis. Talking to users, or at least understanding what their problems are, can naturally lead the PM to a good solution. However, we should always think about the balance between keeping the user happy and the company’s success and prosperity.
“What’s the #1 thing that has helped you shorten your product management learning curve?”
Do not be afraid to put best practices and techniques into practice even if you haven’t tried them before. Trying out new things, experimenting, and learning from practice is the best book you can “read”. So, I am constantly repeating to myself - “don’t be afraid to fail with something new, this can teach you a lot!”
“How do you stay updated on the best practices in product management?”
Conversations with fellow PMs discussing how they deal with different situations, or going to conferences to listen to product managers speak about what excites them, inspires me, and gives me a sense of where I am and what to improve.