Becoming a Product Manager: Carnegie Mellon Alumnae Share Tips, Tricks & Success Stories
July 11, 2024
12:00:00
Virtual Event
Ever wondered what it truly takes to break into the world of product management and thrive?
Join us for an insightful online event where accomplished MSPM Carnegie Mellon alumnae will reveal their journeys, experiences, and success stories in becoming product managers. This event is designed to provide aspiring product managers with valuable tips, practical advice, and insider knowledge from those who have successfully navigated this career path.
What You’ll Learn:
- Proven strategies and essential skills required to become a successful product manager.
- Personal success stories and challenges faced by Carnegie Mellon alumnae in their product management careers.
- Tips on navigating the job market, acing interviews, and excelling in your role.
- Networking opportunities with experienced product managers and fellow attendees.
Who Should Attend:
- Aspiring product managers looking for guidance and inspiration.
- Current product managers seeking to learn from industry veterans.
- Anyone interested in the field of product management.
Speakers
MK Bajwa
Product Manager II at Microsoft
MK is a Product Manager at Microsoft, focusing on Copilot(AI) extensibility. With a customer-centric approach, she is passionate about leveraging technology to solve real-world challenges. Her expertise includes strategic planning, cross-functional team leadership, and data-driven decision-making.
Pranita Ramakrishnan
Product Manager at PlayStation
Pranita is a product manager focused on scaling AI/ML at PlayStation. She kicked off her career in tech consulting, exploring early-phase product development across different industries. Since completing the MSPM program in 2019, she has had the chance to build and iterate a product roadmap focused on personalization and recommendations, e-commerce pricing experiences, and customer loyalty within the larger home services/maintenance industry at Home Depot and Angi. Her current product focus is to influence product thinking and strategy for AI/ML applications in the players, partners, and enablers ecosystems. Her heart is truly in the work, as she also completed her undergrad degree in IS and HCI from CMU. Outside of the corporate world, she always makes time for long walks by the SF Bay, a fresh sourdough loaf, the latest mystery novel, and playing video games with her husband.
Sindhu Santhanakrishnan
Senior Product Manager at AWS
Sindhu is a product manager at AWS. After completing her master's in product management at CMU, during which she interned at AWS, she joined full-time last year. It has been an exciting year working on and launching a new product in the genAI space, and now leading a new initiative for a core product that supports multiple AWS services. Her career started as a business analyst in data analytics, followed by a stint in digital advertising, and then into product management focusing on customer data management. Seeking more creativity and customer empathy, she pursued her interests at CMU, diving into design thinking and product innovation.
Brad Eiben
Executive Director Master of Science in Product Management Program
MODERATOR: Brad’s mission is to guide people and align teams toward solving the right problem.Currently, Brad is the Executive Director of the MS in Product Management (MSPM) program. He’s been with Carnegie Mellon University and the MSPM program since 2019, initially as a teacher of HCI for Product Managers. With a passion for coaching and building a problem-solving culture, Brad made the leap to join CMU full-time in late 2020. In his current role, Brad directs all aspects of the program’s growth, features, quality, and continuous improvement. Brad has more than two decades of experience in product development and management roles, having held a variety of roles in a diverse array of corporate cultures. As a young engineer, he earned new product launch experience during his time with Toyota Motor Manufacturing. With the data-driven problem-solving foundation developed at Toyota, he moved into leadership roles in the semiconductor, electrical, and manufacturing industries. In each of these roles, he established and aligned team-oriented cultures, implemented lean processes, and initiated new product development and launch strategies.
