How do product managers picture themselves in a new role when, even within the same industry, every product is so different? There’s a similar sense of uncertainty when it comes to imagining how a familiar product role might look in just six months’ time, because if products aren’t evolving, they’re probably not keeping up with the competition.
But that’s part of what makes the product cycle so interesting and engaging for Sarah Jardine. Due to the speed of the process, no one day is like another — especially when it comes to developing the Illinois Lottery’s game portfolio. “Product is very fast-paced and tends to see a lot of firsts,” the product manager of draw-based games at Camelot Illinois said. “While this can be extremely challenging, it certainly makes the day-to-day feel far from routine.”
For group product manager Lauren Meyer, the future at Kalderos holds opportunities to shake up the pharmacy drug distribution ecosystem through new features and technical challenges. She’s eager to bring on more product managers who excel at problem-solving and owning their work: “Ambitious product managers can look forward to autonomy in both setting and delivering on their product strategy, as well as creating processes and frameworks that work best for their teams.”
Built In Chicago sat down with Jardine, Meyer and leaders from Nordstrom, Sittercity and LocusView to learn more about their organizations and how they’ve grown within them. Whether you’re looking for your next product manager role or you’re curious about how fellow PMs approach their work across a variety of industries, these leaders have insight, inspiration and opportunities to share.
What are the biggest challenges your product management team will be working on in the next six months?
We want Nordstrom to be our customer’s destination for a fast and frictionless connection to inspiring products, content and experiences. To achieve this, we need to constantly learn new fashion trends and customer interests and quickly apply that knowledge across the Nordstrom websites, apps and stores. By leveraging artificial intelligence, we can instantaneously understand customer intent — as well as our products and content — in more flexible ways that evolve past traditional, rigid fashion taxonomies. We are focused on delivering a more intuitive and personalized customer experience that enables us to meet their needs while still being flexible and scalable for our business.
I’ve always felt excited about what’s next, encouraged to take chances, and empowered to lead my work and career.”
What opportunities exist for ambitious PMs at your organization?
Nordstrom is responding to rapidly evolving customer expectations and retail trends by developing technology that intelligently harnesses data in order to make better decisions that will empower our people to help our customers feel good and look their best. To bring this to life, we need product managers who are passionate about driving innovation and excited by the opportunity to make a big impact.
Here’s one example of how our team works toward these goals: At the start of the pandemic, we saw a surge of customers seeking work-from-home products and inspiration. In the past, we relied on manual efforts and human curation to build the right assortment of products and content to detect and support this need. Unless the customer knew exactly where to look or how to ask, they might have missed those relevant items. Now we are leveraging AI to not only inform the product and content decisions we make, but also to better personalize the digital customer experience by serving up relevant product, content, search and outfit recommendations.
How have you been able to grow your career within your company?
In my nine years at Nordstrom, I’ve continuously found ways to challenge myself and advance my career. I started in operations, then took on new opportunities in marketing and analytics until I finally connected with a career path that I love in product management. I’m now a people manager, which gives me rewarding opportunities to invest in other product managers and stretch my own skills. Nordstrom is a place where I’ve always felt excited about what’s next, encouraged to take chances, and empowered to lead my work and career.
What is the biggest project your product management team will be working on in the next six months?
Kalderos is developing the first drug discount management platform that works for all stakeholders across the pharmacy drug distribution ecosystem. Our product strategy seeks to cut out noncompliance and waste in an effort to ensure patients are able to continue to afford life-saving drugs. To date, we’ve delivered on this mission by building a best-in-class data platform that ingests and validates millions of claims every month, designing a workflow solution that significantly expedites payment decisions for manufacturers and creating capabilities that allow manufacturers and health providers to work together to identify noncompliance.
In the next six months, we are expanding our ecosystem beyond compliance management and into rebate processing. We’re taking our expertise as a data company and applying it to workflow management tools and the decision-making process around payments, which will open an entirely new line of product offerings and exciting technological challenges to tackle.
We look for PMs who can use rigor, data and customer insights to support their decision-making.”
What opportunities exist at your organization for ambitious PMs?
We consistently look for individuals who want to have ownership over their work and are interested in taking on complex problems. Our product team will be expanding rapidly this year to meet the demand for innovative solutions in the drug discount market. Ambitious product managers can look forward to autonomy in both setting and delivering on their product strategy, as well as creating processes and frameworks that work best for the team. We have opportunities to own and evolve our provider-facing solution, build out a best-in-class data acquisition and ingestion tool, and expand our platform into new lines of business. Within these roles, we look for PMs who can use rigor, data and customer insights to support their decision-making and defend their product strategy using key performance indicators.
How have you been able to grow your career within your company?
I started at Kalderos in 2020 as a product manager, and I’ve quickly assumed more responsibility by taking on increasingly complex workstreams and contributing to standing up our product organization. I am now the group product manager, overseeing our commercial products team. In this role, I manage the strategy and development of the solutions our customers interact with every day and work cross-functionally to execute on our platform vision. Kalderos is constantly looking to bring in and retain talent, and I’ve found it very exciting to grow along with my high-performing peers.
What are the biggest projects your product management team will be working on in the next six months?
This past year has seen a lot of initiatives in the draw-based games category, and much of our focus is on adding more exciting games to the Fast Play family as that expands online. Making these, as well as all of our other games, successful is a cross-functional feat that begins several months prior to launch. While product leads the charge, utilizing the surrounding team is integral to the success of our games. I am very lucky to be able to lean on a talented group of individuals across the commercial side of the business. Knowing that I have their capable support gives me peace of mind and makes my job as a product manager easier. The next six to 12 months will bring some very exciting additions to the Illinois Lottery game portfolio, allowing us to show off our hard work and bring more fun to our offerings.
How have you seen PMs thrive in your organization?
The more facets and knowledge of our products that get absorbed, the more opportunities exist for an individual to grow within the business. Around here, time moves at warp speed, and there is always more to learn. You have to be willing to check your ego, ready to jump into the deep end and unafraid to ask questions. It’s okay to not know the answer. We would also be lost without our senses of humor. When things get messy —and they do — laughter certainly helps us slog through it and get the job done.
You have to be willing to check your ego, ready to jump into the deep end and unafraid to ask questions.”
How have you been able to grow your career within your company?
Coming from being a PM in the durable goods category, the lottery business was completely new to me, but I was lucky to have the expert tutelage of a lottery PM veteran who showed me the ropes and mentored my transition. This experience allowed me to not only grow in my initial position but also to transition into a totally different side of the business. I am very fortunate to have such a supportive and collaborative group of teammates and colleagues.
What are the biggest challenges your product management team will be working on in the next six months?
We’re busy gearing up for our peak back-to-school season and working to reduce the cognitive load for parents seeking enriching childcare, while also elevating the sitter profession. Our consumer squads are focused on maintaining a healthy marketplace while also figuring out how to disrupt it with new ways of connecting parents and sitters. As we grow our B2B team, we’ll also be working on leveraging our connection to our parent company, Bright Horizons, to help solve these challenges.
What opportunities exist at your organization for ambitious PMs?
Ambitious PMs thrive at Sittercity. As the product leader of a squad, PMs are able to set the squad’s strategy and work with design and engineering counterparts to determine the best path forward for execution. We’re constantly working to improve and refine our processes, and PMs are encouraged to take a proactive approach in helping Sittercity grow and improve, both within the product organization and cross-functionally.
PMs are encouraged to take a proactive approach in helping Sittercity grow and improve, both within the product organization and cross-functionally.”
How have you been able to grow your career within your company?
During my time at Sittercity, I’ve grown from product manager to senior product manager to my current role as a director of product. When I started, I was able to get my feet wet by taking on problems and creating solutions that were more defined in scope. Now, I’m confidently tackling very ambiguous problems that require significant cross-functional collaboration and discovery. While I’ve enjoyed flexing my tactical execution skills throughout my career, Sittercity has also empowered me to step into a more strategic role and grow my people management skills.
What is the biggest challenge your product management team will be working on in the next six months?
Because we offer a digital construction management platform, our organization touches many growth sectors, such as software, construction and infrastructure. We are in an exciting growth phase and are starting to develop larger teams to serve our industry. We are looking to grow our product team with exceptional talent who will help us serve our current and future customers.
PMs here have the chance to create processes and place their name on something big.”
What opportunities exist at your organization for ambitious PMs?
There are career growth opportunities not only within product manager roles, but also in other departments. If you are looking for experience in leading projects and teams, look no further than Locusview. PMs here have the chance to create processes and place their name on something big.
How are leaders able to grow their careers within your company?
In addition to the networking opportunities we have here, many of our employees have become team leads or managers who have led large enterprise projects and created meaningful solutions.
