On My Journey to Becoming a Product Manager
An Informational Interview
A Bit of a Background
I am an aspiring Product Manager and have recently embarked upon this exciting journey to become one — by taking a certificate program offered by the University of Calgary.
This experiential-based learning program is designed specifically for mid-career energy professionals — impacted by the structural change in the oil and gas sector — by incorporating extensive feedback from potential employers and companies on what they would like to see in new Product Managers.
The selection process for this program is very competitive, and I am fortunate and grateful to have been accepted into this life-changing program.
The Assignment
As part of a course on Product Management and Product Leadership, one of the assignments — and a great learning opportunity — was to conduct an informational interview with a professional working as a Product Manager.
One of the purposes of this interview was to learn more about Product Manager’s role and responsibilities, the company itself, and Product Management in general.
Picking the Company
So, here is the thing.
Considering the importance of this assignment not only for the class grade itself but, more importantly, the value of further deepening my understanding of Product Management, I couldn’t just pick any company.
I had to go for one of the best in the industry.
I picked, without any hesitation, Rockwell Automation, Inc., the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and digital transformation and a company known to be a leader and industry standard in this space all around the world.
I have known — and deeply admired — Rockwell Automation for almost 15 years now and also worked with one of its software products in the past. I reached out to Mr. Stefan Mizera, Global Product Manager with Rockwell Automation.
I explained my course assignment and provided him with its background, and he was very gracious in accepting and accommodating my request for an informational interview.
And to say the least, I was excited. No, I was super excited!
An Electrical Engineer by training and with an MBA in progress, Mr. Mizera holds vast knowledge and brings extensive experience in Product Management, support, sales, training, and working on many different teams and products, and has been with the company for many years. He was generous with his time and answered my questions in much detail and to my satisfaction.
The Interview
Here is the summary of what we discussed in our hour-long (virtual) meeting and conversation — and I genuinely wish I had at least one more hour.
Mr. Mizera works in the Process Safety space and is in an enviable position where he gets to work with software, firmware, and hardware. Product Managers usually work with one of them, and working with all three is not that common.
Process Safety is essential in oil and gas, petrochemicals and many other industries where a certain integrity level is needed — for emergencies, including shutdowns.
Some Current Work and a Typical Day
Mr. Mizera’s team is also working on software used in the general automation market, and a considerable focus and effort go towards ensuring continuous client support. There is also a lot of emphasis on cyber security — the #1 priority nowadays — and product feature enhancements using customer requests.
Most regular activities include internal discussions and deliberations with software and hardware architects and engineering teams to work through team priorities for the next quarter.
One of the most recurring themes that Mr. Mizera repeatedly emphasized is customer support and care issues and the importance of addressing them promptly.
Weekly anomaly scoring meetings for activities and task prioritization, working with the supply chain department to ensure component acquisition, and working on alternatives if there are issues, are also regular activities.
Email correspondence with customers, product certifications, product enhancement requests, joint presentations with customers for end-users as products are getting more complex and tracking the status of an order for software are other activities that Product Management teams perform regularly.
A Product Manager wears many hats, including working with current and new customers, engineering, supply chain, quality, legal, marketing, and commercial, and is a perfect job for individuals who enjoy working in such a diverse and cross-functional team environment.
Besides having a passion for engineering, it is also Mr. Mizera’s best part of his job working with technical, business, marketing, commerce, sales and distribution teams.
I wasn’t really surprised to hear about the best part of his job because Product Manager is such a customer-centric role with a need for cross-functional teams working together closely, but it was also great to hear knowing that I already have these skills and experience from the past.
I’ve got this!
And, it only makes sense because great-quality service delivery and customer satisfaction need all the above departments and components working in sync with each other.
Why am I getting the solar system image in my head with the Sun representing the customer?
Another point that Mr. Mizera emphasized was the importance of research for Product Managers. It includes research on the market and how it is evolving, competitor research and analysis, and doing this weekly to stay ahead of the curve and provide added value to the customers.
Mark your calendars, you aspiring Product Managers!
Product Managers should also be mindful of market priorities that are constantly changing and focus on things, given the available resources, that would provide the customers with the most benefit for most users in the short-term as it translates into more immediate revenues.
Product Managers use forward-thinking and a well-planned approach for long-term customers and deliverables.
Besides prioritization, constant communication is paramount.
Constant communication ensures that not only are all the stakeholders on the same page about team priorities and recent market trends, but it also keeps the customers informed about what the team is currently working on. And, if there are any delays or unexpected issues, you want the customers to know sooner than later — as there is no room for surprises.
Customers trust us knowing that we have their best interests at heart and we are being transparent and open with them. Product Managers should also share with their customers the product roadmaps and compromises between deliverables and timelines.
Work Culture
Rockwell has been recognized, in 2022, as One of the World’s Most Ethical Companies for the 14th time. It is a testament to Rockwell’s exceptional leadership and a commitment to business integrity through best-in-class ethics, compliance, and governance practices.
Rockwell ensures that you have all the tools to be as successful as you can be and has a strong culture of support, assistance, and guidance at all levels. There is yearly training on ethics, and employees are encouraged to report any suspected unethical behaviour.
Rockwell strongly believes and invests in its employees’ training needs and offers all support for their career growth opportunities.
Success Criteria for Product Managers
Coming to the point of measuring success for Product Managers and its criteria, Mr. Mizera explained that it is not always easy — unlike sales and software development, where it is relatively straightforward depending on sales numbers and the quality and quantity of code developed.
Success for Product Managers is looked at holistically as a combination of many different factors, including a general feeling of customers and their level of satisfaction, quality of communication and engagement with customers, and internal communication with teams.
Some questions that can also help.
- Is it clear to the engineering team what the requirements are?
- Or does it need to come back multiple times to gain clarity?
- Is the Product Manager good at defining the ask?
- Is the Product Manager good at prioritization so that nothing gets neglected?
Performance reviews evaluating research skills, attendance and representation of products in trade shows, professional growth-related courses, resourcefulness, proactive and on-time product delivery are all part of success evaluation.
Typical Challenges of a Product Manager
One of the main challenges of a Product Manager’s role is not being able to get to everything soon enough as there is so much going on day to day, considering the available resources and the inability to make everyone happy all the time.
As mentioned earlier, task and deliverable prioritization such that the roadmap makes the most sense and constant communication — as priorities can change over time — is crucial for a successful Product Manager.
A Product Manager needs to understand customer psychology and be empathetic. Educating and helping the customer look at things differently and guiding them to focus on solutions that would provide them with the most value is also very important.
Future of Product Management
Mr. Mizera made an interesting point about the future of Product Management. As the products are becoming more complex, there will always be a need for Product Managers. However, instead of having smaller teams of Product Managers working on smaller products, they will become larger teams of Products Managers working on larger products due to solution complexity.
This will also change the scope and levels of a Product Manager’s role as some Product Managers would be purely focused, for example, on cyber security for software, hardware and firmware.
There are also many acquisitions happening in the software space that provide an excellent opportunity for existing Product Managers to work with Product Managers in new areas acquired and, collaborate, and share knowledge and expertise with each other.
Learning and Training Recommendations
Getting training on the Agile Framework and how teams work together for a better understanding of day-to-day activities is very useful. Industry-specific certifications, and effective communication and presentation-related training are also very beneficial.
Rockwell does a good job of organizing regular Product Management internal summits where Product Managers from different business segments get together and present and share knowledge and exchange ideas with each other.
Final Thoughts and Conclusions
Product Managers are quite often focused only on their products, customers, market, and ecosystem around what they are developing. However, there are many benefits to learning from what other teams are working on — even if it isn’t directly related to what you are doing — in order to see trends in other areas.
Initiate these professional connections earlier in your Product Management career as they provide a great opportunity of connecting more regularly with other teams and learning from their experiences. It also helps in identifying opportunities, difficulties, successes and failures that others have seen that new Product Managers can learn from.
This informational interview has provided me with a deeper understanding and appreciation for this role and has further increased my interest in it.
It is also exciting to see how closely the theory in Product Management textbooks meets its practice when you get an opportunity to talk to an experienced Product Manager.
My wholehearted appreciation and thanks to Mr. Mizera and Rockwell Automation for providing me with this great learning opportunity.
