At Digit, it’s common for a product manager to frequently use PSHE!
No, not the noise that someone makes whenever they disagree with something. The acronym. It stands for problem, solution, how and execution. And according to Samar Shah, the head of product at Digit, it’s a great way to grow your career.
“The PSHE framework allows our PMs to answer and tackle different questions,” Shah said. “In doing so, our product team has the opportunity to wear more than one hat at a time and try out new skills to fill out their PM toolkit.”
It’s a similar story over at Upgrade. Product managers are encouraged to own revenue-driving projects end-to-end, and coordinate with stakeholders that include legal and compliance, tech, marketing, and operations.
“This level of ownership and the vast scope of our roles provide valuable experience by getting daily exposure to all areas of the business,” Megan Lookabaugh, Upgrade’s senior product manager, said.
Product managers are at a huge advantage when they’re able to build their careers on the job. Looking for a company where you can do that? Built In SF sat down with three product managers at Upwork, Digit and Upgrade to find out how their companies allow for professional growth.
What are the biggest projects or challenges your product management team is working on in the next six months?
Upwork’s role is to cultivate the relationships between talent and clients on our platform in order to help them get work done. Naturally, search is an integral piece of this puzzle. This year, our team’s highest priority is to create a seamless discovery experience for our clients.
As we continue to innovate more ways to get work done on our platform, we want to make sure clients can easily discover and compare their options by creating a unified search experience. This will be a place where clients can see all of the different ways they can work with a freelancer, and be confident that they’re choosing the right path without hitting any dead ends.
What opportunities exist at your organization for ambitious PMs?
There are plenty of opportunities for PMs to grow at Upwork. We have pillars of work that require first-principles thinking, and PMs are encouraged to take big bets. Innovation teams are working on new endeavors and core product teams are reimagining our marketplace.
It’s been motivating to see how much I’ve grown in just my first five months here.”
How have you been able to grow your career within Upwork?
I’m lucky to be on a team that is at the heart of the marketplace where we focus on match-making. It has given me the opportunity to focus on layered problems that challenge my way of thinking and accelerate my learning. Overall, I’ve enjoyed zooming in and out of interesting problems with smart people, and have also found great mentorship. It’s been motivating to see how much I’ve grown in just my first five months here.
Upwork’s work marketplace connects businesses with independent talent.
What are the biggest projects or challenges your product management team is working on in the next six months?
One of our main areas of focus right now is how to increase the adoption of additional Upgrade products among our customer base to help them optimize their finances. We’re streamlining our product funnels and processes to make it easier for our existing customers to discover new products. It’s a big challenge with endless possibilities for testing. We’re improving the placements and targeting of our cross-sell opportunities, enhancing the UI of our existing customer funnels, and even getting smarter with verifications and approval processes on the back end.
What opportunities exist at your organization for ambitious PMs?
Product managers at Upgrade have a unique opportunity to own new features and end-to-end product development. We are responsible for owning big revenue-driving projects from start to finish, incorporating both front end and back end. We also coordinate across various stakeholders, which includes legal and compliance, tech, marketing and operations. This level of ownership and the vast scope of our roles provide valuable experience by getting daily exposure to all areas of the business. We’re also focused on developing new products and features that help consumers easily make smart financial decisions. That’s a huge motivator for my teammates and I. Not only is the work interesting, but it also impacts our customers’ financial well-being.
Not only is the work interesting, but it also impacts our customers’ financial well-being.”
How have you been able to grow your career within Upgrade?
My personal background is in growth marketing. As I grew in my career, I became more interested in product-led growth. I wanted to build financial products that make it seamless and easy for people to do the right thing for their finances. Upgrade has been the perfect place to transition from a marketing leader to a product leader. I’ve been able to channel my extensive experience in marketing fintech products, and bring my understanding of our customers’ goals and challenges to the product development process. In the meantime, I’ve learned a ton about other areas of the business that I didn’t get as much exposure to in my previous marketing roles. This is the norm at Upgrade. We capitalize on our product managers’ unique backgrounds and skill sets and give them plenty of opportunity for scope and experience expansion that aligns with their interests.
Upgrade’s online and mobile banking experience helps its customers make good financial decisions so they can build the future they want.
What are the biggest projects or challenges your product management team is working on in the next six months?
Our PM team is focused on scoping and shipping new features that further our mission to make financial health effortless for everyone. We will expand our robo-investing experience to help our customers better financially plan and set aside money for the future. We will also build new borrowing products that break down the silos between borrowing, saving and budgeting, and help our customers access sustainable credit when they need it most.
What opportunities exist at your organization for ambitious PMs?
Our PMs are key drivers of product and business impact. They set the vision for one or more swimlanes that are organized around the different product impact we want to deliver for our customers (such as spending, saving, investing, growth, etc.). They also partner with embedded team members across different functions, including engineering, design, data, legal and operations.
PMs looking to grow their careers at Digit can take on broader scope over time. We like to think about this using the problem, solution, how, execution (PSHE) framework. PMs switch between answering questions at different altitudes, like, “How do I best execute a product feature,” “How do I prioritize the best solution,” and “How do I define which problem we should be solving?” Our product team also has the opportunity to wear more than one hat at a time and try out new skills to fill out their PM toolkit. For example, they can go deeper on more technical aspects, drive financial and business decision-making and work in complex regulatory environments.
PMs looking to grow their careers at Digit can take on broader scope over time.”
How have you been able to grow your career within Digit?
In six years at Digit, I’ve taken on new opportunities that expanded my personal learning and my impact on our members and company. I was the first hire working on business and operations, and grew the team with several critical hires. I spent a lot of time focused on product problem solving and ultimately became our sole full-time PM. In my four years as a PM, I’ve worked with every part of our company to ship features across our product experience. Building upon my PM and management experience, I am now in a position as head of product. It’s been quite the ride.
Digit is a fintech company on a mission to make financial health effortless for everyone.
