Discovering Product Management one problem at a time.

Learning how reliable systems earn trust

I joined Procter & Gamble expecting to apply my Electrical Engineering background, but my first role looked very different from the career I had imagined.

I started as an IT Workplace Services Associate Manager. I managed two smaller office sites and supported the operations of one of P&G's largest offices, coordinating the workplace and IT services that people depended on each day.

My scope included vendors providing security, cleaning, cafeteria, and other workplace services, alongside budgets, cost control, service quality, internal customers, and business stakeholders. At first, the work felt distant from engineering. Over time, it developed the systems thinking, communication, relationship management, and operational judgment that would later support my Product Management work.

What changedI helped maintain reliable operations across multiple locations while learning that complex services depend on clear ownership, strong relationships, and consistent communication—not only technical expertise.

Asking why the process existed at all

Whenever I encountered a repetitive process or manual task, my instinct was not only to solve the immediate problem. I wanted to understand whether we could remove the problem altogether.

That instinct led me to identify opportunities outside my formal responsibilities: I explored a potential application for monitoring building occupancy, proposed a technology-based approach to budget tracking instead of maintaining spreadsheets, and kept asking where technology could make repetitive work easier for everyone.

These were not delivered workplace applications; they were ways of framing operational pain points as problems worth understanding. My managers noticed that curiosity and encouraged me to pursue work more closely aligned with technology and applications.

What changedMy managers recognized that I was naturally drawn to improving systems and encouraged me to pursue a role closer to applications and technology. That support changed the direction of my career.

Doing Product Management before I had the title

I moved into IT Operations to support applications used every day by retail representatives across multiple markets. Although my title remained operational, the work increasingly resembled Product Management.

Retail representatives used the applications while visiting supermarkets to collect product availability, shelf positioning, promotional displays, and other retail metrics. I had to learn a new consumer-goods business domain alongside the technical systems supporting those users: a portfolio of 3+ mobile business applications with a Salesforce backend.

I worked with Product Owners, development teams, and vendors to define new functionality, write and refine requirements, manage defects and enhancement requests, coordinate releases, test new functionality, and support application rollouts across multiple countries. I did not yet hold a Product Manager title, but I was gaining direct experience with product delivery.

To strengthen my knowledge of the systems and operational practices behind the work, I earned Salesforce Certified Administrator and ITIL Foundation certifications.

What changedI helped support and improve business-critical applications used across multiple countries. More importantly, I discovered that the work I enjoyed most was understanding users, defining improvements, collaborating with technical teams, and turning ideas into something people could use.