When I first entered this class, I didn’t really have any idea what product management was. I knew I was kind of interested in the field and I have been pushed in this direction by peers and mentors. I think I have always been a little intimidated by the idea of being a manager. Although I try my best to be a person who has their life together, college has taught me that I am a ball of anxiety half the time.
I joined this class with no expectations, a blank slate if you will. I simply wanted to learn more about the field. When I started the project I knew that I have always been interested in doing a project about food. However, that wasn’t my primary objective. I was simply focused on figuring out what it means to be a product manager and if I truly can view myself in that position.
From this class, I feel like I have become lost in a forest with no map and a broken compass. Product management is nothing like I expected and seems so ambiguous. I learned that this position is constantly a balance between conflicting personality traits. Not only must they have flexibility, they must also be willing to advocate and hold their ground during negotiations in order to achieve their goals. While a good product manager is able to take on many different roles depending on the needs of the project, they also must be expert delegators, careful not to overstep their domains. However, as I assumed a product manager role in this product, I didn’t feel like these conflicting traits were tearing me apart. Rather they were existing within an intricate harmony. While my flexibility increased, my steadiness and persistence didn’t need to waver. I felt like I could accomplish multiple goals and mitigate conflict because of this balance. It was completely refreshing.
If I had more time, I think I would spend more time on the business aspects and the experience prototyping of this app. I think there are still a lot of assumptions that my team is making about our users that our solution depends on. Since this is an app that involves social interactions, we need to investigate both sides of the interaction, chefs and students, and their willingness to contribute. One other thing I would like to do is take on more of a designer role and explore what it is like to be managed by different PMs. I think I didn’t get a strong opportunity to learn different PM styles from my peers and I think we could learn about conflict management from each others strengths and areas for improvements.
