How I got there

After nearly 3 years at Shareworks, the integration with Morgan Stanley was nearly complete. For many, the transition from startup acquired by a small public Canadian company (Solium) and then to a huge heavily regulated public company was too much. In the space of 2-3 weeks, most of my team moved on to a different company. So, I started interviewing.

I decided to really lean into my FinTech roots and only interviewed at FinTech companies. Within that group, I really wanted to work at a company attempting to transition from scrappy startup to IPO ready enterprise. Lendio was the perfect fit for this.

What I learned

• There is always more to learn. Lendio really stretches my abilities in product management and people management
• Transitioning to an IPO ready enterprise is a series of experiments and changes in strategy to find the company fit to scale
• One of my professional super powers is my adaptability–Lendio has had me run 6 different areas in 2 years with each framed as “We know you can handle this,” and I have
• While I can be good enough as any type product manager, I really excel in the iterate and optimize space, i.e. I can get from zero to one, but I’m way better at 1000 to 10000

How I got there

I couldn’t save my product at Kuali. I should have seen it coming when 3 of 6 partners dropped out of the project on my first day on the job and another dropped out two months later.

Ultimately, the product ran out of funding and there was no more room for me at Kuali. Back to what I know in FinTech.

What I learned

• My own self confidence has huge impact on my performance
• I am good at what I do and I don’t need to prove that to anyone that doesn’t have faith in me
• I don’t have to be the domain expert to be a great product manager if I do have access to domain experts and support for good product process
• I want broader visibility into and responsibility for all aspects of my products
• Even with my experience, I have so much yet to learn

How I got there

After some setbacks at FINRA, I was evaluating my career and came to a frightening conclusion. I either needed to be okay with how FINRA does product and be a “lifer” there, or leave as soon as possible and fill the gaps in my product experience.

I saw I had excellent project management, analysis, requirements, people management skills, but was missing UX design and research as well as experience being responsible for the P&L for a product.

What I learned

• I did not know how to read a situation in a startup
• I really like the startup vibe
• While I can save a lot of products that are in trouble, I can’t save every product
• Delivering something small is better than the promise of delivering something big
• Not everyone wants their product manager to participate in technical architecture…and that’s okay
• Partnering with a UX designer makes product management so much easier

How I got there

I spent 4 years at Thomson and in the last year it became clear that I had a role at the company that would not change. However, I wanted more. The successes I had showed me that I could learn new techniques and technologies. I wasn’t going to let a bureaucracy limit my future.

I spent a few months as a consultant to bridge into a new role and found myself at FINRA running as an analyst running user acceptance testing on the PROCTOR project which was in its nth attempt at a rewrite.

What I learned

• Mentors and allies are everything in advancing in a large organization
• I can build trusting relationships with anyone
• Teams will work their hearts out for you if you believe in each other and you set high expectations
• Don’t embarrass senior executives even if it’s for a good reason
• Delivery dates are the enemy of thoroughly thought out code, but are a necessary evil to manage expectations
• I really like getting into the data of an application
• Golden handcuffs are tough to break free from
• Not everyone values UX, but they should
• I am a product manager

How I got there

I really didn’t fit with Engenia and Engenia didn’t fit with my lifestyle. So, I started searching. Within a short period, Thomson Financial offered me a role as a technical writer.

What I learned

• I really do like FinTech
• Technical writers limited to help systems end up helping in testing
• Manual functional testing is pretty boring to me
• Test automation is fun and I was good at it with the tools at Thomson (Winrunner and SilkPerformer)

How I got there

Primark planned my last day 3 months after announcing the layoff. While they did make an offer to continue with them, I had already been offered a position at Engenia.

At this point, I thought a career as a technical writer would be my future and Engenia offered the opportunity to write a lot of documentation.

What I learned

• Startups have a lot of freedom and not much structure
• I didn’t have the experience to be truly successful in my role
• Traditional help systems are a lot of writing that few people will read in a well design application
• Don’t upset the developers

How I got there

When I graduated from BYU, I only knew 2 things about my career:

1. I wanted to live in the Maryland suburbs of Washington DC
2. I wanted to work in technology

I worked for a temp agency until I landed as a tester at Primark in September. I showed enough promise that they hired me full time in January.

What I learned

• A crash course in legacy software development
• Writing requirements that developers want
• Building pixel perfect mockups
• A taste for FinTech
• How corporations can treat people when facing a major acquisition

Three months into the full time role, I was included in a major layoff. Later it became apparent the layoff was in preparation for the acquisition by Thomson Financial.