Guest Profile:

Hala Saleh, Director of Product, Expedia

Things to keep in mind for people who want to work in product management:

Product managers need to understand what people are using the product for and what customer need you are trying to fulfill

You can work on a product that is an all-new concept or idea, or you can work on one that is very clearly defined

Interact a lot with engineering, user experience designers, analytics and other product managers

You have the opportunity to bring people together and try to get them excited about an idea

You do not need to be an expert in all fields in order to be a product manager, but you need to understand each of them at a base level in order to be successful

Being curious and willing to dive deep into each of the disciplines is essential for a strong product manager

Rapid Fire-Round:

What Hala wanted to be when she was a kid: Astronaut

Best resource for career-related information: Blogs - producttalk.org

What helps Hala when she has a bad day at work: Her kids

Hala’s favorite product her company sells: Shopping Cart

Best part of Hala’s work day today: Not going in to work

Advice:

If you have an idea of what you are interested in, you have a head start

Find what areas you are drawn to, and pursue that

Don’t apologize so much

Why should someone want to be in product management

You get to build things that hundreds, thousands, or even millions or people use

You get to AB test things, which is so exciting because you can make a small change and measure the impact it has

Get in touch with Hala