How To Shoot Your Shot For A PM Role

With Princess Akari, Product Manager at Brass and Founder of PIP.

Introduction:

Job hunting is tough, job hunting for a tech role is even more challenging, and job hunting for a product management role at any level is a herculean task.

I have been curious about whether there are folks out there who shot a random shot at a founder to get a role as a product manager. I am talking about cold DMs & cold emails.

My curiosity got me searching and led me to Princess Akari.

Princess and I had a long conversation about how she got into Brass by cold-messaging Sola, the CEO of Brass. I got some very valuable insights from Princess about what it’s like being a product manager at Brass, time management and a bunch of other things. I can’t wait to jump on another call with her.

About Princess Akari

Princess is a product manager at Brass. She transitioned into product management in 2020 after working as a corporate strategist and project manager in the oil & gas industry. Princess is also the founder and community lead for the People In Product Community; one of Africa’s most prominent product communities.

She had an intriguing path to the tech industry, having previously worked in an oil and gas adjacent position. Despite her background in civil engineering, she became involved in UX research through a friend, and that friend led her to product management. She has since pursued this field and excels in it.

Getting A Role With A Cold DM

Princess’ journey at Brass started with a tweet that was published by Sola Akindolu in 2020. He was looking to add more women to the Brass team and Princess took her shot as soon as she saw it.

Princess sent Sola a message on Twitter in December 2020 and she added a link to her portfolio in the message. Princess sent a follow-up message some days later after her first message didn’t get a response, they jumped on a couple of calls and since then she has been working as a product manager at Brass.

Useful Lessons From Princess’ Story

I asked Princess if she would shoot her shot differently if she had to go back in time with what she knows now and her reply was amazing:

“I wouldn’t change anything, I believe I shot my shot well”. - Princess Akari

She made some vital points when I twisted the question and I have brought those points to you as lessons that will possibly help you get your own role.

1. Be Prepared:

Princess got all artefacts ready for the hunt. She did not prepare them because she saw a tweet, she was prepared to see that tweet and that made all the difference for her.

“I already had a portfolio before I shot my shot”. - Princess Akari

2. Get An Advocate:

Princess had friends in tech, she had a mentor and she even started one of the biggest support systems in the ecosystem, the People In Product Community.

This clearly shows that networking professionally should not just be targeted at founders but you should also reach out to your peers and mentors so they can help you navigate your career.

“Tell someone that knows a founder to introduce you. It’s part of shooting your shot and they can also get you inside information to help you get ahead”. - Princess Akari

3. Engage Publicly Before Shooting Your DM:

Something Princess pointed out that struck me was that many people are not as approachable as they used to be online. To get people’s attention, you should engage their content on social media.

“Start liking and commenting on their Tweets and posts, when they see your name on their notification bar, they feel a connection with you and are more likely to reply your DM”. - Princess Akari

4. Play The Numbers Game:

Brass was not the only company that Princess hunted for, she had others on her list and even had other offers but chose to stick with Brass.

When people share their job-hunting stories in tech, you hear things like they got 20 rejections in a day and were ghosted by 40. The truth is you cannot bank on a potential employer to employ you. You need to shoot at multiple people.

“I had five companies I wanted to reach out to and I reached out to each of them”. - Princess Akari

5. Post Content

One thing that sets Princess apart today is that she posts product-related content online; she shares product management learning resources and useful product templates on social media. On Medium, she writes about business strategy/management and helpful product content.

You cannot deny her expertise after reading her work.

One way to set yourself apart is to leverage social media and other tools to discuss your work. That way, employers might just end up reaching out to you.

“I wrote an article about financial ratio analysis and somebody reached out to me thinking I was an accountant.” - Princess Akari

There’s More To Come

To get in touch with Princess, you can reach her on Linkedin, Twitter, and the People In Product Community; she is on a check-in call every Saturday with other members of the community.

Also, you can get familiar with Princess’ work by signing up on Brass.

I asked Princess who else she would like to read about in the newsletter and she chose Nifemi Oluboyode.

“I really want to know why Nifemi is our “Go-To” guy for everything Fintech in the Nigerian product ecosystem. I want to know more about his background and his work.” - Princess Akari

Stuff I’m Eating:

• How to Effectively Manage your Time as a Product Manager By Princess Akari.

• An Excerpt Of Continuous Discovery Habits By Teresa Torres.

• The Essence Of Product By Christian Idiodi.

• The Quest For Venture Returns By Peter Oriaifo.

• The Nature Of Product By Marty Cagan On Lenny’s Podcast.

• The Future Of Work Starts With Farming By The Flip Africa Podcast.