In college, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I majored in computer science because I was passionate about new, cutting edge technology and imagined so many possibilities. For my career, I initially tried going in a few different directions but eventually discovered my passion for product management and a desire to launch a tech business. I hope my story encourages people to keep searching for the right fit if they’re not there yet.
A Startup: Wait, that’s an option?
In 2014, I interned on the Verizon Wireless’s UI/UX design team for the iPad app that retail employees used to assist customers. My boss, needed someone to redesign the device purchase flow and decided to give that project to me. Yes, me, the intern punk who suddenly started showing up the previous week. Thrilled, I created an interactive prototype using free trials of iRise and Photoshop. When I presented it to the department executives, they loved it. The new efficiency would save the company millions of dollars!
Overall, I am extremely grateful for my time at Verizon. I learned a lot about UI/UX design and felt valued by the entire team. Did I mention that I was just an intern? Sometimes I have to remind myself.
I would not trade my experience at Verizon for anything. However, I also learned that Verizon did not feel like a great fit for me at the time.
A few weeks later, I started my senior year at Cornell in the fall of 2014. During that semester, one of my friends organized a “3-Day Startup” hackathon and I helped build a restaurant discovery app. I fell in love with the concept of being part of a small, hungry team working toward a vision. From that point on, I knew that I wanted to work at a startup.
Congrats, You’re an Adult
Fast forward to the summer of 2015. I had a fancy Ivy League engineering degree and was working as a software engineer at a startup called Influenster. I had a great boss who knew a lot about data science and artificial intelligence from his PhD, and I took on a lot of projects in those areas. No complaints on that!
Soon, I was in charge of the user-facing data components of the platform. This included areas like search, product recommendations, spam detection, and more. I handled the product management responsibilities and had the privilege of introducing some essential parts of the platform like the latest search and recommendation experiences!
I also got comfortable digging through data to find out the larger story of what users were doing. The data insights team even enlisted me to help put together their presentations on industry trends! Living in the data allowed me to see my changes go live and watch the metrics change. Witnessing my work come full circle from finding a problem to deploying a solution that impacted the users was much more rewarding to me than solving purely technical problems.
Taking Risks
Fast forward to March 2018: I’m at my good friend Ami’s house in Albany, NY enjoying dinner and catching up. We hadn’t seen each other in months since Ami quit his job to focus on developing a business called Voiceter Pro. At this point, though, what started as a side project to build Alexa Skills now had more clients than Ami could handle on his own. He needed someone to help!
Seeing an opportunity to build a company with one of my best friends, I decided to take the plunge and join Voiceter. I label myself a Product Manager but there is so much more to it. In such a small startup environment, I developed a ton of skills that I never expected to. Designer, engineer, salesman, account manager – I took on whatever roles I needed in order to make Voiceter the best virtual assistant solution in the real estate space.
My product skills flourished over the next several months. While creating the Home Value Bixby Capsule, for example, I experimented with the product development life cycle. A traditional, established firm never would have given me that opportunity. As a result, I saw firsthand how powerful short, iterative feedback loops can be. Every few days, we went over the latest prototype and tweaked our strategy based on what we learned since the last meeting. This process helped us create the first real estate app in the Bixby marketplace. And in just 6 weeks! Not only that, but Samsung awarded us “Bixby Premier Developer” status after we demoed our first MVP. Needless to say, I developed an appreciation for delivering value quickly after that experience.
Looking Forward
I spent the past several years building a broad foundation of skills. Long term, I intend to launch my own tech company, so I think I’m on the right track. My next immediate goal is to start a few side projects and keep learning. I have a few ideas but really want to focus on mastering the product discovery process. Then, when I find a core concept that people truly value, I’ll be able to flesh out the idea in a way that achieves product-market fit.