CS177 has been an incredibly fun ride. After a full summer of working as a user researcher and working adjacent to questionable product managers, I grew very curious about what, exactly, product management entails, and what it takes to be a good one. One of my favorite and possibly most defining moments of CS177 was our very first lecture, where Christina made it very clear that product management can be very different from how it seems from afar. I was like many others; I assumed that product management mostly meant chasing certain metrics and working towards OKRs. And while product management does involve reaching various success metrics, the truth—from Christina herself, from the PM guest speakers we had, from the readings and case studies we studied, and from the work we did throughout this quarter—is that PMing is essentially anything and everything that needs to be done.
One of the most invaluable lessons I received in 177 is how genuinely crucial interpersonal skills are. To be clear, my 177 team itself was wonderful—everyone I worked with is an absolute gem, unfathomably competent and brilliant, and people I always look forward to seeing both in and out of class. In contrast to my experience in 177, however, I began to grow acutely aware of how team dynamics played out in other classes and ways they could be solved with better interpersonal skills and specific behavior that “caters” to certain people that are more difficult to work with. I’m very grateful for how conscious I’ve become about this aspect—it’s a skill I’m continuing to work on and will carry with me in every avenue of my life.
My favorite part of 177 is possibly the entrepreneurship of it all. Although I was initially surprised from the start, I loved all of the deliverables that we had to build out every single week — the VPC, BMC, feature values chart, market analysis, competitive 2×2 example, assumptions mapping, a complete user story map, experience prototype testing, etc. I ended up using all of our project assignments/deliverables as a guide throughout this quarter for building my own personal project outside of class, which is now seeing product market fit (2000+ users in just < 2 weeks without any formal social media push, and with a very large obtainable market!) because of how comprehensive the deliverables required me to be with my values, research, and everything necessary for a minimum viable product. If we had more time, I’d love to gain more experience with pitching to VCs, learning how to best receive funding, and communicating with “executives” in general.
I am infinitely grateful for CS177 — all of the resources we’ve received, our incredibly kind and supportive teaching team (Shana has been a very amazing head TA!), and the process we’ve had to follow to build our product from idea to implementation to final pitch. In a way, it doesn’t feel like 177 is ending for me just yet. I know that I’m going to actively continue using everything we’ve done and learned. I’m looking forward to more classes with Christina and in this realm!
