Hardware Product Manager | Jeriann

Jeriann interned as a product manager at Voltera, an additive electronics company in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, that invented a desktop PCB printer. Keep reading to learn more about how she got there, what her job is like, and how you can break into product management too!

How did you get to where you are today?

When I was in high school, I saw myself doing biomedical research at a university lab or helping a company develop a new medical device. But as I was searching for my first co-op and not having much success in that space, I came across a posting from an electronics and materials startup called Voltera. I thought their 3D printer for electronics was really cool and I was mesmerized by the videos of it printing, so I wrote a cover letter saying exactly that. Although I didn’t initially receive the job offer, I eventually matched with the job due to the WaterlooWorks system. That’s how I ended up working as a materials science research assistant characterizing conductive inks!

From that experience, I became more interested in materials and electronics. My second co-op as a process engineer at OTI Lumionics, an advanced materials company for OLED displays, fit that description perfectly.

Since my first two co-ops were process and test-heavy, I wanted to try a role that involved more hands-on designing and building. I decided to throw in my application for a hardware engineering position at a startup founded by nanotechnology engineers. I was quite confused why I ended up getting the job since I have no relevant experience, but I later found out that I got a referral from my previous manager. In this position, I was truly pushed outside of my comfort zone, designing microfluidic cartridges in CAD software and then prototyping them in the machine shop — not stuff I got taught in my nano courses!

While all of these experiences were great and I did well in my positions, I wasn’t fully satisfied with them. I realized it was because:

1. I wasn’t solving the kinds of problems I was passionate about. I didn’t ultimately care about how to build something, I wanted to know why we’re building it. I wasn’t interested in the latest scientific advances, I was interested in how they can be used to advance people’s lives.
2. I had zero interactions with customers. My work was never seen by the customer, because of its nature or because it was never released due to a shift in company priorities, and I didn’t know anything about the customers I was building for.

Throughout those three years, I had been interested in product management, and upon this reflection, it dawned on me that this role might actually be a good fit. Long story short, my past manager at Voltera moved into a product management role, and he reached out asking if I wanted to come back as a product manager co-op. And that’s how I got to where I am today! If you want the full story, as well as some advice I have for landing your first product manager role, keep reading!

What are the main responsibilities of your job? What project(s) have you taken on?

As a product manager, my job is to make sure our products provide value to our users, and in turn, our company. While the job description seems short and simple, there’s a ton of responsibilities I need to fulfill to do my job well:

• Meet with customers to uncover their problems and learn how they’re using (or not using) the product to inform what we should build and improve next
• Interface with all departments of the company, from software to hardware to testing to sales to marketing to support to production to executive leadership (in other words, literally everyone), to get buy-in on projects and develop them from start to finish
• Write documentation, prepare presentations, and organize our project management software to make sure everyone knows what is going on and why so we all head in the right direction

Some projects I have taken on are:

• Discovering a problem that our target user base for our newest product would have and finding a suitable solution for it that balanced many factors, such as cost and time
• Developing a training course for our sales team and channel partners
• Taking a lead on a new product initiative that enables sales, builds company credibility, and strategically positions the company for future development and expansion

Any tips for getting into product management?

Breaking into product management is notoriously difficult because you can’t really “prove” you’re a good product manager unless you actually manage a real product for a real company with real stakes and real money and real people. So what to do instead? Here’s some advice I have for landing your first product management role based on my experiences:

1. Prove you can be a good product manager in your current situation. I’ve only worked in startups, and one thing I’ve learned is that no one will say no to you taking on more tasks because there’s always something that needs to be done. Even if you’re not working at a startup, this still probably holds true. In my hardware engineering role, I made sure that I was exceeding all the expectations for my current engineering responsibilities before approaching my manager. I told him I was interested in the business and design side of the company and asked him if the CEO could use any help. I ended up doing a SWOT competitor analysis for investor documents and designing the company website and product landing page! I also participated in hackathons where I gained practical software skills, designathons where I learned Adobe XD and Figma, and product management competitions where I got to apply product management skills to a side project. All these experiences can be used on your resume to demonstrate product manager skills without being a product manager!
2. Be vocal about your interest in product management. I posted my learnings from product management workshops, hackathons, and conversations on LinkedIn. That way, if someone looked at my profile, they wouldn’t just see I’m simply “open to work” as a product manager, but that I’m actively pursuing ways to make me a better candidate for the position. This is how my past manager at Voltera learned that I was interested in product management!
3. Transfer within your company or return to a previous company as a product manager. From talking to other product managers and reading various content online, this is the easiest path for you to take to break into product management because it’s the most risk-free way for both you and the company: you’ve already been onboarded, you know the company product and culture, you’ve (hopefully) developed good relationships with other employees, and you have useful background knowledge and experience from working on the product in a different capacity no matter what it may be. So definitely voice your interest in trying out the product management role!