Part evangelist and part market strategist, product managers are on the front lines bringing customers the products they need.
In this edition of “Gigs,” Raj Radjassamy, GE Energy Management’s senior product manager in charge of GE’s 200- to 3,000-watt, 12-volt, AC-DC rectifier portfolio, gives us a glimpse into the world of product management and provides insight into what it takes to be a product manager.
“Product management is a key function that impacts the company’s top and bottom line,” Radjassamy, explains of his position. “Product managers usually manage a healthy portfolio of existing, current products and also plan for new stellar products that can continue to grow revenue.”
While Radjassamy said his days are not often similar, his focus is always on the customer. “Customers are our bread and butter, so we spend a lot of time with the customers talking to customers addressing customer issues … that is the majority of my day,” he said when asked to break down what a typical day looks like. “The other part of my day is management portfolio where I go plan for new products, manage the current portfolio and continue to grow my product base.”
Radjassamy credits his passion for engineering and his computer science background as two major factors that prepared him for his current position. He said he grew up in India with a passion for engineering before moving to the U.S. with a goal of getting a Ph.D. in computer engineering. He attended the University of Arizona where he got his master’s and Ph.D., and began his career with Hewlett-Packard before moving on to Texas Instruments.
“I have semiconductor and design management experience. Halfway through my career is when I started looking into product management,” he said. “With my engineering background I wanted to carry on to the management aspect. My engineering background really gave me a good solid base based on which I can build on to product management.”
So what does it take to be a product manager?
“Listening to your customers and keeping track of the market dynamics,” he said. “Those two things are really critical in not only managing your current portfolio but also in coming up with new innovative products. Those will tell you the problem to be solved and then come up with products to solve the problem.”
Finally, Radjassamy gave this advice to aspiring product managers: Know your product inside and out.
“Try to understand the area that you’re getting into … not only a good in-depth understanding of the product, but a top-level idea of the products you are going to manage,” he explained. “Get a feel for what the product looks like, what are its features, what the customer base is and try to imagine yourself as a customer and identify what the customers are looking for. Then automatically things will start popping out for you.”
If you are interested in a product management career, there are currently dozens of product management positions on TelecomCareers.net.
Desired skills for the positions include, “strong technical skills for customizing and adapting selected supporting technology, strong practical experience with SharePoint, wikis, and other team project management tools, including creating, maintaining and training others on team project management sites.”
