In this interview, Lynne Levy speaks with Naima, a former UX professional who transitioned into product management. Naima describes her frustration working in a large enterprise automotive company that lacked a product‑led mindset and her desire to move into an industry she was passionate about—edtech. She enrolled in Lynne’s Inspired Product Leader program, which gave her confidence, helped her craft a personal brand and story, and emphasized the importance of showcasing her whole self. Leveraging the program’s branding and community support, Naima secured a product manager role at Kajabi, a product‑led, remote‑friendly company where she is the first Canadian hire. She highlights the company’s respectful culture, psychological safety, and her efforts to foster inclusive ideation within her team. Naima strongly recommends the program, noting that the weekly community sessions and peer cheerleading were crucial for confidence and success, and advises other product managers to join for both the curriculum and the supportive network.
Chapters
Nima, it is so good to see you. How are you?
I am doing great. It's so good to see you, Lynne.
Oh, it's awesome. So thank you for doing this quick video for potential clients. So let's—
yeah, I really have to.
So let's have a conversation. So let's start with before you joined the program. What was going on? What were some of the challenges you were dealing with?
So before I joined your program, I was, um, had just transitioned into product management. I've been doing it for about a year, so I have like a long career in like UX, and even before that I did some development in QA. But when it came to UX, I felt like I'd grown as much as I had wanted to grow, and I wanted to move into a new area. And moving into product, I felt that would be, um, a way I could have greater impact for the customer, but where I was working was a big enterprise company and they just, I felt like they didn't really understand the customer or weren't like a product-led company. So it was kind of frustrating. I felt more like I was just taking direction from like top down. They were telling us what to build. We weren't actually going out to our customers enough and finding out what they really wanted. So I found that like very frustrating. So I wanted to like, move into a new area, like a new company which understood product. But then also, um, the industry I was in was like automotive, and that wasn't my passion. So I wanted to— if I was going to make the move, I was like, I want to move into an area like that I really am interested in. And so my interest area was actually edtech, so that's what I started looking for.
Awesome. I know you, you came in with such a great amount of experience, and you knew what you wanted to do. So what, what did you learn as part of the program from a branding perspective, a confidence? What are just some of the key things that you learned, your takeaways?
So going through your program, you gave me a lot of confidence because when I had transitioned over to product, it felt like maybe it was me that I didn't get product and I didn't like understand it, but I, it was more like the environment that I was around. So you gave me confidence and like, no, you can do product. And also, um, I was unsure about switching to a different, um, industry if I was even capable of doing that. But again, you like helped me craft my story to help me get there. And also it's not just like my work. I also have done like other things outside of work. So we're able to bring that in and like actually show myself as a full person. And I was able to like be myself and get something that— get a role that actually suits me like this. Like, I guess you can say like tailored for me. Woo-hoo! Awesome.
So that whole part of it's not just landing any job, it's landing the right job that's right for you based on who you are.
Yes. Getting the job, not a job.
There we go. The job.
Yeah.
So tell our listeners, where are you now? And I get so excited when I talk about you. So tell us where you are.
Yeah. So now I'm working at Kajabi, which if anyone's taking Lynne's course, you'll probably know where that is. I'm really excited to be here. It's a really great product company. They're very like product-led company. They actually give us product managers like autonomy to try to like build what we want to, very much focused around the customer and understanding the customer. And the culture of the company is just great. Everyone is so respectful and works together so well. And other benefit is like I'm remote. I'm actually— it's funny, I'm their first Canadian hire. So that was pretty cool. So thanks, Lynne, for like making me look so awesome that they're like, hey, we're going to hire a Canadian. Yeah.
So tell the audience about culture and what you learned in the program regarding culture and why it's important.
What we learned about culture in the program, it's just like being respectful and understanding that the whole thing— I like the whole— you did the scarf thing and talking about like psychological safety. I feel like that is just very key for people to feel safe and then they can speak up and because good ideas can come from anywhere, right? So, but people have to feel safe that they can, are part of like the company, that they can say what they want without like fear of like, not, I guess rejection or affecting their careers. Like they don't have to worry as much. So yeah, and make it, so I really try really hard with my team to make everyone feel like safe and I like, Good ideas come everywhere. Like I've even done like ideation sessions with my immediate team to help them feel more included in like the whole process of building for our customer.
Excellent. So do you love what you do?
Oh, I love what I do.
The most important piece.
Yes.
So if you were to bump into somebody in Canada or in the US and they, and they said, what the heck is this Inspired Product Leader program? Should I join? What advice would you give to another product manager?
Oh, I would definitely say join. Um, one of the reasons besides like, so I've done like a lot of online courses, but I feel like, so you have the online course portion, but I feel like what really makes a difference is like the community and you're so involved. We had like sessions every week and we like got to go through that with other people, hearing their stories and made me feel like, okay, I'm not the only one going through this. So it gave me more confidence that I could actually do this and kind of having like a bunch of cheerleaders with you because they're like helping you through your, your process, like, and everyone's there for each other. We're all like very supportive of each other. So I feel like that is an extra piece that you get from like when you're trying to do it alone, you miss that part. So definitely when you're like, you have you, you're like awesome. And but then you also have the whole like community that you're doing the course with, which really makes a big difference.
Absolutely. Naima, thank you. You are such a rock star. I am so excited to watch you on your journey as you move to senior and principal and director and even higher. And remember, love what you do, the most important part.
