All three of them are associated with some of the biggest names in tech, as CEO of Google, CEO of Youtube and co-founder of Instagram. But do they also have something else in common?
Not their background surely. Sundar Pichai grew up in India and attended one of the competitive IITs, while Susan Wojcicki was raised in California and wrote for her school newspaper. As for Kevin Systrom, he is a Bostonian who was obsessed with being a DJ and worked in a vinyl record shop during high school.
Their education is also quite different too. Sundar studied Material Engineering, Susan majored in History and Literature, and Kevin took Engineering but also went to Florence to study photography.
No, what these three tech leaders have in common is that they were all Product Managers at some point in their career. Outside of Silicon Valley, the role of ‘Product Manager’ is not well known, and sometimes underrated, but in the tech world, this is one of the most important roles of fast growing organisations, with some even calling it the “mini-CEO”.
The skills of Product Managers
This is a role which is essential, but requires a huge breadth of skills and knowledge. For example, Marty Cagan in “Inspired” listed the requirements for being a PM as “having a deep knowledge of 1) the customer, 2) the data, 3) your business, 4) the industry and in addition being smart, creative and persistent”.
Or in the words of Deep Nishar, former VP of Product at Linkedin: “A great product manager has the brain of an engineer, the heart of a designer, and the speech of a diplomat.”
What other role in the organisation requires this breadth of hard skills, soft skills, knowledge and mindset ? Yes, that’s the role of CEO or founder of a startup. And this therefore not a coincidence that 12 of the 25 Chief Product Officers in the largest Fintech companies have actually been themselves founders or CEOs.
The skills of Fintech PMs are therefore extremely interesting and rewarding, and it’s a very sought after role, so how do you learn to become a Fintech PM?
Becoming a Fintech Product Manager
Very surprisingly, there are very few options for those who want to become a Fintech PM. For most today, they have learnt by themselves and grown into the role, or were PMs in other industries and moved into Fintech.
This is the reason why we decided to launch the world’s first programme for Fintech Product Manager, to accelerate the skills of those who want a well-rounded experience in product management.
Over 8 weeks, participants will learn the skills and theory of Fintech product management, and apply it immediately in a Fintech project. They will be guided by programme director Rahul Dua, a Senior PM at Amazon in digital and emerging payments, formerly at Paypal. Rahul will be joined by a team of experienced PMs in tech and Fintech during the whole programme.
For those who want to be Fintech Product Managers, but also generally those who want to acquire a huge breadth of skills to work in FIntech, modern banks or tech companies, acquiring these skills gives a headstart in a digital world
Discover the first programme in the world for Fintech Product Management and accelerate your career growth.
