Women Make Great Product Managers

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Krithika Manikavasagam
Sr.Manager II Product Management (MFC Product Leader)
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What Makes a Woman a Great Product Manager

In my role as a Senior Product Manager at Walmart Tech, I have combined my engineering background with my product management experience to direct a market fulfillment center product for the brand. In this journey, I have discovered the unique traits that women bring to the role of a Product Manager.

Product Management - A Birth and Growth Process

Creating and managing a product is akin to raising a child. Just as a mother doesn't simply birth a child and leave it to fend for itself, a product manager doesn't merely launch a product and wash their hands of it.

In the same breath, a good product manager nurtures a product, nursing it through various stages of discovery, development, introduction, growth, maturity, and eventually saturation. Similarly, a mother guides a child through stages of growth until they become a fully-grown individual.

This is my belief and practice. I treat every problem or product as my own offspring, building it, nurturing it to maturity while taking full responsibility for the failures along the way, and graciously distributing the success.

Product Managers Own the Success and the Failures

Whether it's celebrating your child's accomplishments - or the success of your product, the feeling of fulfillment is the same. But just as a mother won't blame her child if they fail or err, a product manager should own up to any product failures.

From my experience, owning a product's failures is thankfully a trait inherent in most product managers – male or female. But what sets us apart as women is our ability to follow through. Not just handing off the product after delivery (like handing off a child for someone else to raise).

  • Monitoring its progress
  • Tweaking its direction when necessary
  • Working hard to help it mature and reach its potential
  • Time to Let Go

    As every product lifecycle eventually comes to an end, there comes the time to let go. Despite our intricate involvement with the product's journey, we must have the ability to let it go in order for it to thrive by itself. This mirrors the mothering instinct of knowing when to cut the proverbial apron strings and let the child make their way in the world.

    Skills Translated Across Roles

    However, what's most remarkable about managing a product is how uncannily it mimics key skills we possess as women and mothers. Among these are:

    • Controlling emotions
    • Passion
    • Influencing intelligence
    • Multitasking
    • Problem-solving
    • Compassion
    • Collaboration
    • Leadership
    • Negotiation skills

    These are skills that, translated to the product lifecycle, make a considerable difference in defining the vision of the product.

    In Conclusion

    As a woman, a product manager, and a mother, it is enlightening and empowering to realize that the skills that we possess and use daily make us excellent at our job. Through our experiences, we learn to juggle multiple roles, manage emotions, and become effective problem solvers.

    The final note I want to leave you with is this: being a female product manager is a powerful asset. The skills, traits, and perspectives we bring into our professional environments make a significant difference in the success of the products we manage. We have the capability to nurture, guide, and direct products from conception to success, much in the same way we raise our children.


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