How Gal Brenner got into Product Management

Gal Brenner

Technical Product Manager

First product job

🐣 Transitioned to PM in the same company in 2018

Before becoming a PM

💼 Full-Stack Developer

💻 4 years of exp. in tech companies

🎓 Computer Sciences / Software Engineering

The Story

How did you land your first job as a product manager?

I was previously working as a Software Developer in a fast paced startup, and often when I received a requirement I asked WHO and WHY wants/needs the new feature. Many times the requirements seemed inconsistent with the strategic directions and goals of the company, and inconsistent with usage of existing features.The common justification that “A client or user requests it” was not enough and I found myself challenging other departments to think more strategically about the requirements. I asked those questions because I really wanted to understand the problem and visualize all the use cases before defining the solution.The moment I landed into the Product Manager position was after working on a really complex feature for more than two months, doing long hours and without break because we were told that it was needed to close sales for multiple customers, and that all our customers requested this specific feature. However, you can imagine - once we release and for more than a month NO users used it, and even more, no one was willing to pay for it.

I deeply cared about the company and wanted to help ensure the development time was leading to success. After that busy sprint and failed feature release, I decided to talk with my manager. I explained my concerns that we were jumping too fast into solutions and not thinking about the real need and pain points of our users, and not visualizing what really our users were requesting. At that moment I knew I wanted to dedicate my work to talking with customers, listening to them, understanding their struggles and needs, and only then working together with the technical team to craft the best solution.

Did you ever build or lead any side-projects outside of work before becoming a PM?

Yes, and I highly recommend it! My first side project was building an app to teach Holocaust history in high school. I was part of an NGO that was dedicated to promoting the accurate, historical memory of the Holocaust in high schools all over Uruguay. After being a volunteer for many years I understood that many NGOs face the challenge of the inability to quickly scale , and as a result in our case, we were not able to educate everyone in Uruguay. After digging deeper into problem, asking teachers and students what was the best way for them to learn about new things, we decided to create a web application. I lead the partnership with the One Computer Per Child, a government program in Uruguay, to be able to use their infrastructure. We worked together with teachers, students and experts in the fields to create the application. This opportunity allowed me to learn how to talk with different stakeholders, how to work together with designers and engineers and more importantly how to launch an idea into a product.

The challenge

What was the biggest challenge in your first year as a PM?

I think that the biggest challenge I faced was that I was still thinking as a developer. After thinking about the problem I was jumping right into the solution and HOW the system should work. It took me a couple of months to understand that the work of the product manager is to always be thinking on the WHY and WHAT and let the technical team decide the best way forward on how to build it. Of course, every PM can be involved in how the system should work but I believe the PM should only be a consultant on questions about priorities and bringing the voice of the user.

How Gal Brenner Got Into Product Management

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