I am not one to shy away from starting afresh, reinventing myself, or diving into entirely new spaces. Over the past few years, I have worked in sales, program management, product marketing, product management, and strategy and operations. When I started my product management rotation two years ago, I didn’t understand most of the technical jargon in the first two months. That didn’t faze me at all. Or maybe it did a little. I studied hard and took time to learn about the product and the users. I quickly became a subject matter expert and ended up landing fixes and features that drove tremendous impact for our users and the business.
Now, I’m doing this—becoming a newbie—again. I have decided to join a new organization at work that will create something entirely new out of our existing family of products. It’s the same role but with a different team. I’m joining a small but mighty team of Strategy and Operations professionals to help set the tone for how we will figure out the right path to pursue. It’s so scintillating to even think about.
Reflecting on my past experiences, I often say that I am more of a 1-100 person than a 0-1 person. This is partly because I have spent my entire professional life at Google, and when people say 0-1, they often mean helping a pre-PMF startup find PMF. However, upon deeper reflection, I realize I don’t fit into either of the conventional 0-1 or 1-100 boxes. I have always thrived in a small and nimble team within a big and often slow organization. I take all the ambiguity and help make sense of it so that the team can thrive and grow.
All this is to say that I am excited to be a newbie again—exploring uncharted waters. Cheers to moving the proverbial needle 🥂