How I Became a Product Manager: Bobby Persons

How I Became a Product Manager is a series where I highlight the many possible paths to a role in product management.  Those looking to land your first product job can learn from the experience of others who successfully made the switch.  For hiring managers I encourage you to look for product talent elsewhere in your company by recognizing the behaviors that signal potential.  The best possible PM for your team might be down the hall working for another group.

How Did You Get Started?

Bobby Persons entered Villanova as a business administration major assuming he’d more or less follow the footsteps of his parents who worked in finance and accounting.  While he enjoyed his time in school the business major didn’t directly align with the things that really interested him.  He found himself gravitating towards more technical side projects, including data analysis and creating basic Excel applications for sports tournaments with his friends. Unsure what to study next, he pursued a childhood dream to become fluent in Spanish, which led him to a year abroad in Chile during his junior year.

“I think there are two types of travelers: globe trotters and immersion travelers.”

Said another way, some people are going to the big cities to check a box and get the passport stamp.  Other people are content to go to a lesser known place, slow down, fit into life, understand the differences, and learn the culture.

“Learning the nuances of other cultures, I was especially fascinated by the small things.  Things as menial as the way people do laundry in different cultures can unlock so many ways to understand and get to know people authentically.” 

Effective product managers have a strong sense of empathy, the ability to see things from the perspective of others, whether that be the customer or someone from another function in the company.  Even from his early travels, Bobby had a natural interest in others and a curiosity to understand the world as other people see it.

While in Chile, Bobby worked for El Mercurio, Chile’s largest newspaper as a data analyst supporting the sales team.  It was not a product management role, but he started to get exposure to elements that peaked his interest. As he questioned larger changes to their advertising contract strategy, he was encouraged to work cross-team to see what was possible. He devised a strategic framework and worked with operations  and design teams to propose a new contract that prepared the newspaper better for digital advertising.

Product managers often have to walk a fine line between confidence and humility.  They need to remain effective and decisive when faced with uncertainty, but also be aware of the boundaries of their knowledge and abilities.  Working for a company in a foreign company speaking your non-native language is a very extreme example of the balance of these traits.  Bobby had to know when to push and move things forward, and when to ask questions and admit he didn’t know or didn’t understand something.

Bobby came back to Villanova for his senior year, and based on his experience in Chile and his side projects, he figured  more technical training would help him eventually get the autonomy he enjoyed in his internship. He started an MIS minor and took computer science courses to better prepare for a role working with technology.  Upon graduation he took a role with GroupeConnect, a digital agency in Boston.

“I was a data analyst in title, but soon I was half business analyst, half what some companies now call a product analyst.  I started working directly with the database and data science teams because I was interested and they needed someone to help tie together the gaps between what customers would value and what they had been delivering.  I was really a data analyst that wasn’t doing their job!”

When was the first time you heard the term “Product Manager?”

“After a few months working with the database team, I knew what I was doing was sorely needed but without organizational buy-in or responsibility, I was just the ‘data guy’. I mentioned this frustration to one of the database engineers who said ‘you know in a normal tech company you’d be called a product manager.’’’

Aware that this was a possible career path, Bobby started to learn as much as he could about product management from the usual sources.  He read some of the key books, watched youtube videos, and followed groups on Twitter and LinkedIn to try to get as much exposure as he could.  He also continued learning computer science concepts and trying small projects to better collaborate with engineers 

Eventually Bobby took a role within the parent company of his employer in an official product management role.  Publicis Groupe is a little unique in that in many cases their primary product is data which they are refactoring to sell to clients. While they were investing in building a scalable SaaS B2B suite, the roadmap and team talent often catered to the data business.

“It’s tough because a lot of companies have a role called ‘product manager’ but it’s often not defined.  I found myself trying to learn as much as I could then actively trying to manage up and collaborate with engineering to suggest how I thought we could be doing it.”

As Bobby grew into the role he found himself not only defining his product role, but also trying to help the organization by identifying problems and putting processes in place to make everyone more effective.

“Sometimes I think it’s better to have a not particularly well defined product role when you start out.  You learn to sense the biggest problems within the organization that are blocking what you want to do with the customer and just do what’s necessary.  In larger, more defined product teams, as a junior person you get a ton of training, but you may not develop the instinct to lead outside of product.”

Effective product managers have a broad sense of ownership and often try to effect change in a wide area outside of their defined responsibilities. Bobby certainly demonstrates this trait in the way he tried to influence his product’s leadership in addition to his normal product duties.

Bobby is presently six months into a new product management role at Oracle after having moved to the Denver area from Boston early in 2021.  This role allowed him to continue to learn as a product manager while switching from a data-centered business to a “traditional” software product management role.

What Advice Do You Have for Aspiring Product Managers?

“Try to find an adjacent role that requires some of the same skillset.  An example could be something like a technical account manager.  You have client interactions, you need to come up with solutions and get to learn how product features meet (hopefully) what customers actually need.  Consulting roles with some IT implementation angles are also good, or something heavy in data analysis.”

“I think there are a few types of product managers - B2C, Growth, B2B/enteprise, internal, etc.  There are some key differences, but most work with a similar set of teams - figure out the 5-6 teams that work closely with a product manager on a daily basis and try to work yourself into a role on one of those teams that lines up with your skills and what you like.  Get as close to a product manager as you can, then it makes the transition a little easier to sell. As someone who is now comfortable in the role, I can safely say we’ll never turn down someone who is willing to pitch in.”