The last year has been eye opening for many employees and employers. While attracting and retaining talent has always been a part of operating a business, a sea change in the way we approach work has found professionals scrambling to make their workplaces optimally and mutually fruitful. For some, that has meant leaving for greener pastures. For others, it’s meant making their pastures greener.
“People are calling it the ‘Great Resignation’ or ‘The Great Reshuffle,’ and as the Gallup data show, it’s less an industry, role or pay issue than it is a workplace issue,” said Vipula Gandhi, managing partner, and Jennifer Robison, senior editor, for Gallup.
In an analysis of workplace data last March, the authors noted that employee engagement and effective management both play an outsized role in employee retention. And a focus on developing team members and managers –– as well as providing them with opportunities to learn and grow –– is instrumental in both of those factors.
So how do effective workplaces help their team members and themselves by encouraging career development? Built In Chicago reached out to two product managers to learn about opportunities and rewarding work at exceptional workplaces.
The Medtelligent team designs, builds, delivers and supports Assisted Living Intelligent Solutions (ALIS) –– software built for clinical management, billing and operational reporting in assisted living and memory care communities.
Tell us about a project you’ve worked on at Medtelligent that has helped you develop or hone your product management skills.
When I started at Medtelligent, I focused on issues that were more immediately solvable. I would understand the pain point, scope the solution and deliver it in one release.
My first large project was a big turning point for me because it was the first time I was forced to scope out a project into multiple phases. The minimum viable product came out in the first release, and then I had a couple of future versions planned at a very high level that I had to manage. I now have a tuned awareness that all projects of any size can have a roadmap. This awareness improved my ability to ask the right questions when gathering initial requirements and strengthened the scope of my projects, so I can more assuredly identify what is or is not going to be prioritized.
What kinds of growth opportunities exist for product managers at Medtelligent?
Our company is built for people who love to consistently learn and break through their ceilings to reach new phases of growth and knowledge. Our product managers have access to projects of various sizes and subjects. They can learn technical knowledge from collaborating with the engineering team.
We also provide direct access to app users to gather requirements or collect feedback. Product managers learn how to ask the right questions and how to communicate and present solutions for productive collaboration. On-the-job training can also be supplemented with external training.
Our company is built for people who love to consistently learn and break through their ceilings to reach new phases of growth and knowledge.”
What’s a surprising or unexpected way your experiences have affected the overall trajectory of your career?
My product management career did not start in software, nor did I get a formal education in software engineering. I was always comfortable on the business side, collaborating with sales and marketing teams and supporting customers. At Medtelligent, my direct access to the engineering team – which happens to be made up of kind, intelligent, innovative and extremely collaborative individuals – has exposed me to learning about database tables, APIs, UX and more. This has made me a more dynamic product manager and has opened up more opportunities in my career.
VelocityEHS is a software company that designs products to help customers reach environmental, social and governance goals faster. More than 19,000 customers and millions of users use its platform.
Tell us about a project you’ve worked on at VelocityEHS that has helped you develop or hone your product management skills.
In my first month on the job as a product analyst, my boss came to me and told me we needed to create a new product. There was overwhelming customer feedback asking for it; we just needed to build it. Together, we interviewed customers to find out specifically what they needed and how they would use our system, and I then worked through the requirements and the design with our development team.
This project taught me valuable interviewing skills, both for general purposes and for product management purposes. I learned that customers wanted to help, especially if we explained ourselves well. We’re trying to build a better product for them; we’re trying to better solve their needs. I also learned not to make promises about features or delivery timelines.
What kinds of growth opportunities exist for product managers at VelocityEHS?
I’ve had the opportunity to shadow other employees. I’ve shadowed sales representatives talking to prospects about what they’re looking for, consultants working through a project to narrow the scope of work and discuss solution details, and customer success managers conducting quarterly business reviews with customers. I’ve earned a certificate in design through company-reimbursed courses. And the company has paid for my training and certification with renowned trainers like Pragmatic Institute and Scrum Alliance.
I regularly get to work with subject matter experts in our industry – certified ergonomists, industrial hygienists and safety professionals – who can explain industry vagaries and the specifics of what customers are looking for and dealing with.
I lead projects with junior product managers, much like my boss did for me, helping them identify market needs and good interview prospects, creating and conducting surveys and interviews, analyzing data, drafting and scoping requirements and user stories, and working with the scrum teams.
Now I’m being given the chance to apply all of those skills to make a massive improvement in our customers’ processes.”
What’s an upcoming project you’re excited to work on, and how will you apply some of your newly acquired skills?
I spent five years improving existing products and building new products, and the company went through a series of mergers and acquisitions during that period. Our next step – my next project – is to build a platform that brings all of those products together. I’ve gone from making improvements and new features for small slices of the market and our customers to working on something that will affect every single one of our customers and play a major role in the way we’ll sell our solutions.
Applying my knowledge of what our customers need and what our products do to create something that will work for – and delight – everyone will be a challenge. So will evangelizing the new platform, and its benefits, to the rest of my company and helping them manage the change as we revisit all of our processes and material – from marketing collateral and sales pitches to onboarding steps, support contacts and timelines.
The company has been helping me to prepare me for years. Now I’m being given the chance to apply all of those skills to make a massive improvement in our customers’ processes through our software and our internal processes and tooling.
