Namrata (Nam) Sarmah is CPO at INTO University Partnerships and the founder of Women in Product UK, a community through which she hopes to build a pipeline of female product management talent and finally put to bed the excuses that hiring managers currently fall back on when challenged on their female talent acquisition. She's also passionate about making sure we get more product people into the C-suite, and will soon be launching the CPO Track community to support this. We chatted about all this, and much more.
Episode highlights:1. You don't need an MBA to get into product, but it's not unhelpful
There's a lot of controversy about the merits (or lack of) of MBAs in product management. MBAs are not essential, but they can be helpful when trying to crack the C-suite as you've already spent a lot of time working on your business sense. There are other ways to get this though; the most important thing is to develop that business sense one way or another.
2. Just because you're great a product management, doesn't mean you'll be a great CPOIt's hard to land a Chief Product Officer job, and even harder to stay in there. You require a mix of skills, and just being the best at product management doesn't help. It requires a mix of business acumen, executive presence (sad, but true) and the ability to tell a story in terms that resonate with your leadership peers.
3. Building a community is hard, but you can treat it like a productCommunity-building is not an easy skill to teach someone; it requires a certain mindset and certain instincts. There are different types of people in the world, and some of them are natural "connectors" who just know how to join the dots and get people together.
4. Women in Product UK is its own thing, and its superpower is diversityThere are various communities around the world that support product managers, or female product managers specifically, but a lot of them have quite a narrow focus on certain job levels or roles. Having top female CPOs available for free in a community is a superpower.
5. The name of the game is pipeline building, and allies are welcomeSome sad sacks will sit and grumble about having a "women in product" group rather than just a generic "people in product" group. but the numbers don't lie. Women are still underrepresented in senior positions, and it's easy for companies to blame "pipeline problems". So let's all build the pipeline, so they don't have an excuse anymore.
Contact NamYou can connect with Nam on LinkedIn or check out Women in Product UK, where you can interact with the community and get onto the WhatsApp group.
Avoiding the agency trap & ADHD in Product (with Janna Bastow, CEO ProdPad, co-founder Mind the Product)
Lifelong learning & the perils of time-based roadmaps (with Andrea Saez, Product Growth & Education @ ProdPad)
Managing Tension in Product Management (with Marc Abraham, author & Head of Product @ ASOS.com)
Product Processes & the Importance of Work / Life Balance (with Busayomi Omotosho, PM @ Softcom)
Growing a PM career & the importance of side hustles (with Victoria Tkatch, Senior PM @ Sonos)
Technical Product Management & the importance of mentorship (with Mark Yamashita, Technical PM @ Sensibill)
API Product Management & mountain climbing as a metaphor (with Elina Sokolovska, PM @ Flux)
AI Product Management & The Importance of Communication (with Mark Graham, Lead PM @ Sharktower)
Entrepreneurship & being a founder (with Matt Wilkinson, Founder @ Zenquiries)
The role of education in leadership (with Mac Maistrelli, Engineering Leader @ Blocket)
Building inclusive products for all (with Nidhi Wadmark, PM @ PayPal)
Making yourself heard in the workplace (with Priyanka Naik, Growth PM @ Advarisk)
Networking to start your Product career (with Anna Lieberman, aspiring PM)
Using your experience to teach the next generation (with Maanas Bukkuri, PM and educator)
Putting users back at the heart of UX (with Dr Nick Fine PhD, UX consultant)
Being an AI Product Manager (with Pouya Jamshidiat, author & Senior PO at Eagle Genomics)
Getting started in Product (with Becca Vibert, Product School speaker & PM @ Fiit)
Product leadership & how heroism doesn't scale (with Saeed Khan, product consultant @ Transformation Labs)
How to do UX in sextech (with Ansh Bagri, UX @ Vibio)
Networking, communication & growth mindset (with Kristy Olinger, podcast host & credit card PM at Citizens Bank)
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