Product managers help develop the products and solutions that change the way we live. And they are currently doing it in a crowded and ever-changing tech landscape. So how do they get from concept to a successful launch? According to three local product managers, with investment from leadership to learn new skills and prioritize career growth.
At Klaviyo, Senior Product Manager Madeleine Guttuso finds that investment comes from feeling valued by leadership. “We want folks to feel empowered to take on new responsibilities or change roles entirely,” Guttuso said.
At Quickbase, employees can be reimbursed for industry-specific training, like becoming Scrum certified. They also have access to online learning platforms like Masterclass for courses relevant to their field.
Product managers can learn from other departments, too. Kellen Urbon, a product manager at Insurify, said the close-knit team there leads to well-rounded product decisions. “Sharing things about different areas of the business with each other gives us a more holistic view of the product,” Urbon said.
Beyond broadened skill sets and exciting innovations, investment in professional growth pays off for retention. In fact, Clearcompany reported that 94 percent of employees said they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their careers.
That’s more time to develop solutions that improve and modernize user experiences, help clients automate processes, and make complex decisions easier for customers — just some of the projects Built In Boston heard about from Klaviyo, Quickbase and Insurify.
Klaviyo helps customers maximize their revenue with customer data and marketing automation.
Tell us about a project you’ve worked on at Klaviyo that has helped you develop or hone your product management skills.
Every year, Klaviyo prepares for the biggest retail events of the year — Black Friday and Cyber Monday, or BFCM. Hundreds of hours are poured into preparing the Klaviyo app in support of our customers. Our primary objective is to help our customers maximize their revenue.
For my team and me, that meant we removed barriers for email and SMS sending. We had to figure out what system to build and how to create one that could be flexible for all customers to use and reliable for the burst in communications expected during BFCM. I interviewed more than 50 customers and poured over numerous product feedback requests. After synthesizing the feedback, we proposed a viable solution to our executive team for sign off. In just four weeks, the engineering team built and released a functional product to our customers. Today, more than 75 percent of our customers use the feature, and adoption continues to climb.
I use this feature as a model and standard for turning problems into solutions, both for myself and newly hired product managers.
In just four weeks, the engineering team built and released a functional product to our customers.’’
What growth opportunities exist for product managers at Klaviyo?
Klaviyo offers numerous opportunities to move within your department and the organization. We truly invest in your career growth and development, which is exemplified by the ability to move within the company. Klaviyo also offers a generous learning stipend to learn and grow skills, as well as various Klaviyo resource groups to promote inclusion. This is a company where you can grow and not have to move to another organization for professional development.
What’s a surprising or unexpected way these experiences have affected the overall trajectory of your career?
I was given the opportunity to choose between two different product areas and sets of problems to tackle as we planned to split my role and responsibilities in half. Through this opportunity, I influenced the future direction of an entire pillar within the product and carved a path for my career based on the company’s needs. This was a testament to how invested Klaviyo is in my overall success as an individual as well as the trust they had in me as a product manager. This catapulted my career and led to my promotion the following year. With the new promotion, I am able to explore new challenges and product areas that will further my individual development.
Quickbase helps businesses improve their operations with real-time insights and automation.
Tell us about a project you’ve worked on at Quickbase that has helped you develop or hone your product management skills. How did this project help you grow?
While I didn’t have any product management experience before joining the product management team, I did have lots of experience using our product, which positioned me well to take on one of our highest-priority initiatives right out of the gate. We were just beginning the process of modernizing our user interface and rebuilding some of our key components from the ground up, so I became responsible for the modernized version of a huge piece of our platform.
I grew so much through this experience and interestingly, so did Quickbase as an organization. Learning how to most effectively partner with product development, how to communicate about potentially disruptive changes, how to make tough prioritization calls, how to measure success and how to pivot when an initial launch might not go as well as expected are just a few of the skills I developed.
On the other side of this project, I’m a completely different product manager. Quickbase’s high-trust culture enabled me to have real responsibility right away, which helped me hone my skills while making a positive impact on our customers.
Everyone on the product management team is willing to collaborate to solve a problem, give guidance or coach more junior members of the team.”
What other growth opportunities exist for product managers at Quickbase?
A fantastic training called PM Accelerate is offered to product managers at Quickbase through our parent organization, Vista Equity Partners. It offers a multi-session training over the course of several months on best practices learned from other companies in their portfolio. It also provides an opportunity to network with other product managers at companies in the Vista Equity Partners portfolio.
The culture at Quickbase is also one of our strongest assets. Everyone on the product management team is willing to collaborate to solve a problem, give guidance or coach more junior members of the team with no politics or ego involved. This creates a great environment for trying new things, sometimes making mistakes and growing from them.
What’s an upcoming project you’re excited to work on? How will you apply some of these newly acquired skills?
We are still in flight on the UI modernization effort but have moved on to different areas of the product. The skills I learned during my first project help me avoid making the same mistakes. My success metrics are tighter, my communication strategies are better and developer stories are clearer.
Insurify provides real-time quotes and personalized recommendations to help customers make insurance decisions.
Tell us about a project you’ve worked on at Insurify that has helped you develop or hone your product management skills. How did this project help you grow?
There is never a shortage of projects that help you develop your skills at a startup. We recently took our insurance comparison product and extended how customers could experience it by working with some of our partners to have a branded or embedded insurance comparison experience of their own.
While we know our customers very well, and we work daily to increase the value that we offer to them, this new project added an extra layer to consider when we make decisions. It changed the context around how customers interact with our experience, and that made us challenge our own previous thinking. It allowed us to look at our product and how we are delivering value through a completely new lens, and I developed the ability to see a holistic view of the customer journey and mindset. Putting myself in these customers’ shoes was critical to making sure that we continue to deliver value.
What other growth opportunities exist for product managers at Insurify?
“Insurify is the best teacher,” is a phrase that gets mentioned often, and it really is something that our team takes to heart. There is a strong sense of ownership among each of the projects that we are working on, and everyone on the team is very supportive of each other. With the return of in-person conferences, we have been attending events that highlight the intersection of insurance and technology. It’s a great opportunity to learn about how the insurance industry is changing and where it is heading in the future.
There is a strong sense of ownership, and everyone on the team is very supportive of each other.”
What’s an upcoming project you’re excited to work on? How will you apply some of these newly acquired skills?
Increasing the level of experience customization for different customers. The insurance space has been rapidly changing and so have the types of customers that are looking to buy insurance. We want to make sure that we have an experience that is tailored to each customer and their needs and meet them when it makes the most sense. Putting myself in customers’ shoes at different parts of the insurance buying journey is going to be extremely valuable to accomplish this.
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