ALEX LEVICH: Welcome to Women Techmakers, Product Management
with Alex Levich.
I created the show to show all of you
how a product manager plays a key role in building
and launching products.
As you will see, it's very exciting,
and I'm thrilled to introduce Gayathri Rajan, Product Manager
and Director at Google.
GAYATHRI RAJAN: Thank you, Alex, for inviting me.
ALEX LEVICH: It's our pleasure, Gayathri.
Tell us about you and your career.
GAYATHRI RAJAN: So I've been a product manager at Google
now for more than nine years.
And over the course of these nine years,
I've worked in a spectrum of products ranging from payments
through to local commerce, and now I work on Android with you,
building the next generation of computers
and other interesting new devices.
So it's been an awesome experience.
I just feel like I've learned so much about very, very
different product areas.
ALEX LEVICH: It is definitely a range of products.
Tell us about how you began your career.
I know that you actually did start out as a product manager.
GAYATHRI RAJAN: You know at 18, it's really hard
to know exactly what you want.
So I picked chemical engineering,
because with chemical engineering,
I got to stay an extra year at Cambridge.
And I thought that was a pretty cool thing to do at that time.
So I enjoyed-- I enjoyed studying.
And then I went out and worked as an chemical engineer
for a few years, but realized that it was-- while I really
loved the engineering aspects, I started
to feel that I was-- that was not exactly
the right career for me.
And at the same time, I was the mother of two young children,
and various things came together,
and I decided I was going to go back to school
and do a master's in computer science, because I really
loved-- even as a chemical engineer,
I really loved to build computer simulations,
to design destination columns, and compressors, and all
those heavy equipment that you see in chemical engineering
companies, they're actually designed with computers
and using programming languages.
So I decided that was the thing that I was going to do next,
and that's how I got into computer science.
I was an engineer first, learned really
how to build products as an engineer, got very comfortable
with the programming languages and all
the different technologies, client server,
web mobile, et cetera.
And over the course of that time realized
I really enjoyed defining the products,
figuring out what the right priorities were,
evangelizing the product across large engineering teams,
more so than actually building the product
to developing the code itself.
So that's how I moved again from being a computer
scientist to a product manager.
So it's been--
ALEX LEVICH:It's been quite a path.
GAYATHRI RAJAN:It's been quite a path,
but I've learned something along the way.
And when I became a product manager,
I realized at that point I was done, no more wondering.
This was the place I wanted to be and really grow my career.
ALEX LEVICH: Tell me about other product managers
that you've seen successful.
What other paths that people that up to get us get here?
GAYATHRI RAJAN: At Google, many people
take a fairly technical path to get here.
So they've either done computer science
or electrical engineering or some kind of engineering
or science degree.
But, I've also seen very successful product managers
who are now senior leaders in the company, who
had a liberal arts background and were still able to do
a very nice job building credibility, and working
with engineers, and really establishing themselves
as key product managers.
So really it just depends.
I think your background to some extent helps lay out,
helps lay out your future.
It helps sort of at least provide the right signals,
and it may give you some of the skills
you need to get into product management more easily,
but ultimately, the key skill for successful product
managers, in my opinion is as you said,
the love of building products, building products that
can have impact, two people, two people such as ourselves
and doing it with a lot of people
and being really excited and energized
about that whole process.
So really regardless of your background,
if you have that core passion of building product,
you can get there.
ALEX LEVICH: Yeah, it makes complete sense.
That's probably what makes us wake up every morning
and be excited about work.
It's that [INAUDIBLE] for people.
GAYATHRI RAJAN: It's a great career, product management,
because it doesn't limit you in any way.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
GAYATHRI RAJAN: Yes.
You learn you can move from one product area to another.
You always take some skills with you, the basic skills
of how do you build products, how
do you set roadmaps, how do you prioritize, how do you
define features?
These are very basic fundamental skills
and talent that you can transfer from one area to another.
But everything else is completely
new within that space, and that's where the excitement is.
That's where the excitement is, because that's
when you learn about that space, and what is needed,
and how you can then take your basic fundamental skills,
but actually translate that into a very different area.
So you can never stop learning in product management.
It's almost inevitable that you will never
be completely sure of your domain
area, which also makes it very, very much a growth experience.
So you can wake up in the morning and you can--
I never feel like I kind of know how to do this.
I can now do this in my sleep.
No, I have to wake up and get in to work
and get fired up, because it is-- everyday is a challenge,
but in a good way, because everyday's a growth experience.
ALEX LEVICH: That's probably one of the best things
one could wish about of their job is wake up in the morning,
be excited, and be challenged.
GAYATHRI RAJAN: Look at you, Alex.
Six months ago you were working on a social platform
for Google, and now you are building the next generation
of computers.
ALEX LEVICH: Yes, indeed.
Two very different things.
GAYATHRI RAJAN: Very different.
ALEX LEVICH: But the excitement is the same, actually.
It is just like you say.
It's figuring out the solutions every day
like it was the first day.
Gayathri, thank you so much for joining us and sharing
your path.
Thanks, everyone, for tuning in.
This was Woman Techmakers Product Management
with Alex Levich.
Stay tuned for upcoming episodes to Woman Techmakers YouTube
channel.