WOMEN IN TECH BREAKFAST: PRODUCT SHEROES SHARED THEIR (EXTRA)ORDINARY STORIES

5 MIN READ, JUNE 8, 2020

The product is the core of any company, which aims to go global. Thus, the aim of EMERGE 2020 was to highlight the importance of building tech products and scale them globally. Also, we decided to dedicate the women in tech breakfast to product managers topic and learn more from our speakers about their adventures and how did they get to the career of product manager, what makes it specific to build the product for the global audience and what it means to be a woman and a product manager in one person.

Sharon Anne Kean is based in London and her international product team at Transferwise is placed around the world. The product of Transferwise is global and it works in most countries. The multidisciplinary teams have everything they need in order to launch Tranferwise and grow it in those different markets, and Sharon’s role is to understand how do they grow, where do they grow, what are the different markers they want to prioritize, and what things should be done within those markets once they come there.

Before that, Sharon was doing other product jobs. She is a very much a product manager type of person. She has been involved in a mix of big and small organizations. She started out at Cancer Research in the UK, which is a big charity, and then moved into startups, a fintech called Zopa and an e-commerce startup called Bloom & Wild. Most recently before Transferwise, Sharon lived in Hong Kong where she was working for Seek - a big Australian company that helps customers with a job search. That was all before Transferwise which tempted her to come back to London, where she has been seetling into the international expansion role at Transferwise ever since.

According to Sharon, building a strong team is a really important part of growing and scalling a product, and that’s indeed not easy. Especially when your team is split across multiple geographies, the team members came from different cultures and they have all got different experiences. Getting that all working effectively is very significant. If you get it right, the prize is huge and you get this amazing scale and the ability to bring your product to auidences around the world.

Liubou Minniyeva was born in Czechoslovakia, raised in Belarus, studied in 3 countries — Russia, Lithuania and Netherlands. She moved to the Netherlands around 12 years ago and she feels herself quite a local there. Liubou worked in multiple different companies, even in such big global brands as Booking.com and currently in Tesla. Also, she is quite experienced working with startups and also founded her own startup festival in the Netherlands called "Pitch on beach". Recently, she became a mother, and now she is learning how to combine a personal life with quite an active professional journey.

Liubou is a true believer in get things done by working smart and hard as well as making sure that you learn new skills every year. For her it is crucial to be hard-working and consistent in your performance and have a curious mind. She always
tries to follow her gut and say 'yes' to new adventures and try something new. Liubou is a big fan of surfing, loves travel and keen on interior design. She is super proud to be a working mum raising a new generation that will go to Mars.

1. There is no need to be an orthodox product manager;
2. You define who you are, title doesn’t matter anything;
3. It doesn’t matter how you want to get product management, it’s all about leadership and people who inspire you to be whoever you want to be;
4. Product manager should have unspoken authority and calmness in most situations;
5. Listen to seniors, what they are saying will be really valuable to you;
6. Working with designers and engineers can transform your attitude to how product managers work with team members from diverse backgrounds;
7. If you don’t have people with that strong confident voice in what they’re doing, that’s never get the airtime and your product is never going to be as balanced as it should be;
8. Be an advocate to have a strong designer in the room;
9. Acknowledge to have a strong voice in the team;
10. When you’re the only women in the team it can be quite hard to balance. You always need to put yourself forward and build your brand. Talk to other females about how to be confident and keep up the good work with the room full of guys you’re working with;
11. You need to accept that the other people that have strong voices as well and that doesn’t necessarily mean that you get drowned out;
12. You need to recognize the authority of other people if you’re going to build really good things because you can’t do it based on one person’s opinion;
13. Work-life balance is really important and you’re not going to be very sustainable without it;
14. Make sure to give yourself time outside of work. If you tend to think about work all days, you will end making worse decisions, and obviously become more tired and more irritable.;
15. After the lockdown, the routine has become more important and you become very responsible for yourself since you’re not in an office and you have to form your own routine;
16. Do something that’s outside and away from the desk to keep your work-life balance;
17. If you’re immersed into your work and you truly love it, it becomes a part of your DNA;
18. The more you’re occupied, the better result you might get, but remember about balance.
19. Take breaks to observe new things and try not be overwhelmed with information. Do not non-stop sitting in front of your laptop all day long;
20. Diversity your portfolio and try to work for different companies;
21. Do a research about the company you apply for. Study their values and mission to understand if they all align with your personality;
22. If you are in doubt which company to choose, do a comparison and try to get to know as much as information as possible about the company, its values and mission on the global market.
23. When applying for a new job, create an Excel file with job description of companies you would like to work for, that will help you understand how your current CV could match the listed responsibilities.
24. You need to love the product of the company you’re working for. If you don’t love it, you’ll be a bad product manager. Whenever you choose where you want to work at, you need to love the brand, you need to love the company and, ultimately, you need to love the product;
25. Learn from every product roles you done so far, even the worst experiences will help you understand what shouldn’t be done in your next job role.
26. Product role is so different in different places. Be sure that the current role is the right for you.
27. It’s indeed rewarding to see when your product brings something of importance to your users. That’s the moment when you sit down and take a deep breath.
28. When you’re building a product that is very close to you, it’s very tricky not over optimize it for yourself. It’s reminder for product managers to listen to the users and always see that they need and demand.
29. Females and males have different approaches to lead teams, because they think differently and see the things differently.
30. Being a leader, female or male, is a huge responsibility. Always remember what’s your stand, identity, what’s unique comes from you and what you’re bringing to the table.