Naren, an engineer turned product manager, felt stuck until he joined Lynne Levy's coaching program. In six to seven months, he got promoted into a customer-focused role. He credits real exercises, one-on-one support, and practical feedback for the shift.
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How are you, Naren?
Good, Lynne, how are you?
I'm great. So thanks for, thanks for doing this.
Absolutely.
So let's start with, so tell the audience where you were before you started the Inspired Product Leader program.
Sure. So I remember, um, just like 2 years or 3 years being in the product management role, and I moved from a engineering career to product management, and I was having a tough time understanding some of the ins and outs, right, of the creative art of product management. I was being a product manager, but I expected that I would move up the ladder much quicker like I did in my engineering career, and I was feeling very stale and depressed at times that I was— my career wasn't scaling at the same pace, and that's That's when I started looking for someone who can mentor, coach, help me advance in my career.
And what made you decide to join the program? What were some of the key factors?
So I was definitely looking for that coach, amicable person that I can relate with, that understood where I was coming from and can, can really help me understand some of the integrated details between what it means being a product manager, right? What are some of those key communication skills to have? Where do you draw a line between being strategic or tactical? How do you grow your career? So that's when I started fishing for one, um, and I landed in your program. Awesome.
So I know you were a huge participant. You were so good. You came to all the meetings, you did all the coaching. What are some of, what were some of the, just the key takeaways? That you use even today in your job?
I think communication skills is definitely something. And you can't excel at it, right? It just doesn't change overnight, right?
So, right, it's practice.
Still improving myself, right? But that was definitely something that a key takeaway for me. Being customer-centric, customer-focused was very important for me. And I think I learned some of those in and outs on how to pivot myself and positioning myself on being that customer-centric person, what I wanted to, to be too. So that helped. And I think having a different dimension of thinking that's outside your work domain, right, really helped me because I think anyone like me or people that are currently into the program or even like people that would be in the future. I think we all are good at our trade, right? We are product managers because we are there. We are good at what we do, but I think the key factor is how do you differentiate yourself from the crowd, right? How do you grow yourself and show yourself as more of a leader than being that just product manager, right? And I think that, that really helped me understand some of those intricate details.
Absolutely. I mean, you stepped big time into leadership. So tell the folks listening, where are you now? I know you've had quite a journey.
The journey has been great, and I think I— within like 6 to 7 months, I got a— I got promoted. Um, then I am right now in a new job, and I think my new job is very key focused on being customer-centric and being all about delighting the customers and things that I really wanted to do. Um, very different, very different domain. And I think, Lynne, you were a big factor of why I have this new job too, right? And I think your coaching has really improved me as a person and my thought processes too.
Thank you, that's awesome to hear. You're a rock star. So if you were to bump into, into somebody, let's say in the middle of New York City, and they were to say, tell me about this program, should I invest in it? What would you tell them?
I was like, absolutely. And I think all of us in our careers work towards finding that mentor and a career coach, right? And I think we always have these ex-bosses and people that we look up to and stuff, but it's hard to find the time on the calendar, right? And you do not get that one-on-one interaction all the time, right? And having this coaching program and having you in place that someone you can always rely on, talk to, ping her, Slack her when needed, and you being always very receptive on making sure that the person is heard or helping them out in that situation has been very great. I mean, I really love the exercises that you do in the program where you throw a person in a real-life example and ask them to emulate how that goes. I think that goes a long way in understanding how those situations are where you have different personalities, different priorities, and how do you juggle those things. And I think I would encourage everyone to have, have, have a shot at this program and see how they feel.
Awesome, Naren, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I look forward to just watching your awesome career journey as you move into top leadership.
