Diversity in Product: Arunima Sharma
I’m currently working as a senior associate product manager at Salesforce! I’m a first-generation immigrant from India, and I’m excited to help others succeed in product management.
Outside of work, I run the Ardent Product Managers Club (APMC). We have community programs to accelerate PM careers, and our 8,400+ followers are making PM friends & refining their skills with minimum time commitment.
I’m grateful and excited to have the opportunity to share my experiences with you!
We’d love to hear about your journey into product management. How did you become a PM, and what were some of the challenges you faced in securing your first few roles in product management?
I’m from a small city in India. Back when I was in high school, I didn’t know career options were out there except engineering & medicine. As a person who’s full of ideas, I felt I could offer a lot more to the world by focusing on engineering.
But, back in the 2010’s when I was going to school, there were a significant number of rape cases in Delhi. Most women at universities like mine were expected to be on the university campus after sunset, and we were locked behind bars with an 8 PM curfew. This significantly constrained our experiences and made it difficult for us to thrive.
My primary focus as a student was to learn as much as I could, but I was frustrated by how my skin color, gender, ethnicity, and nationality blocked me from events like hackathons and pitch competitions.
I knew that if I could make people outside of India hear my passionate ideas on uplifting the world using technology, then I might convince them that I was worth betting on.
“But, how can I find an opportunity to take my ideas outside India, especially while not studying in an IIT and other internationally renowned Indian Universities?” I thought.
Luckily in 2015, a mentor introduced me to a program at Stanford where I could study there for a quarter as a student while participating in an entrepreneurship competition.
I was passionate about my idea of helping schizophrenic patients using AI, even though my knowledge at the time about AI was all self-taught from the internet. With the other application materials, I made an extra effort to write a detailed hypothesis paper on the idea and submitted my application.
While applying, many of my well-meaning friends and family were worried about my safety as a single woman in a foreign country. I pushed forward through the resistance, prepared a detailed pros and cons presentation to convince my parents, and got the support from them that I needed.
To my pleasant surprise, I got in. Being a student at Stanford opened up a totally new world to me. I was excited, proud and relieved yet scared and filled with imposter syndrome. I promised myself that I would take a chance on myself for every opportunity there, regardless of that little “you’re an imposter” voice in my head.
That quarter at Stanford, I enrolled in classes focusing on machine learning and internet technologies. For the entrepreneurial program, I planned on launching a startup to pursue my vision of improving patient health using AI.
Dr. Fei-Fei Li was my role model, and I would sit outside of her office every day for the opportunity to chat with Dr. Li about my ideas. Even though I never got to meet her, the knowledge I gathered by reading about her accomplishments, especially with creating the world’s largest Computer Vision dataset via crowdsourced data, inspired me tremendously.
That quarter at Stanford transformed me. Growing up in my city and then a tier 2 university in India, I could never even dare to dream of being there, yet here I was. When you live in an environment that questions your competence all of the time, it makes you lose self-confidence. Stanford gave me that self-confidence back by giving me exposure to opportunities I had never even known about before.
It wasn’t all sunshine and roses, however. That quarter at Stanford, I was also homeless for a month, and had a minor mental breakdown during midterms. I didn’t have more than a certain amount of money to spend for my living expenses despite tremendous support from my parents, so I ended up couch-surfing & sleeping in the library that month. The experience of not having a stable home, while being an international student dealing with the huge educational gap between my original undergrad university and Stanford, was one of the toughest yet most educational experiences of my life.
In the end, while I didn’t wind up securing the funding to launch the startup that quarter, I learnt a lot about cutting-edge advanced Computer Science, gained more self-confidence than I ever had before and discovered my ability and passion for entrepreneurship.
I realized my strengths lie in my intense cognitive empathy for discovering the right pain points for users, then converting them to tangible Computer Science execution plans focused on getting the right outcomes. I also learned about this profession called “Product Management” that allows you to use all the entrepreneurial skills while also providing financial security like that of a tech employee (something I really needed at the time), and there started my passion journey into Product Management.
Securing my first Product Management internship after the Stanford experience wasn't easy. I really, really wanted to work at a big tech firm, so I set up meetings with different employees from these companies to learn how to set myself up for success.
But, many of them misinterpreted these meetings. Instead of treating them as professional development meetings, most but not all, assumed them as romantic dates. On multiple occasions, I’d find myself uncomfortable with inappropriate touches & comments, I was sexually harrassed for being strong and extroverted in Delhi. This was really demeaning for me, and made me question my self-worth and self-confidence all over again.
But, I persevered through, like hundreds and thousands of under-represented and harrassed individuals and students in the world. I received the Google Women Techmakers scholarship for my academics as well as social leadership, which exposed me to genuinely helpful & wonderful colleagues & mentors.
And then finally, I did get my first PM intern role at a startup based in London where I built an MVP, conducted user research, evaluated designs, and managed a team of engineers. The handsome stipend that I partially donated to a cause for under-represented & differently abled, somehow proved to many people that I can actually be successful. I did get feedback that I was too deep into technology at times and needed more business-focused knowledge to be more successful as a Product Manager.
In the 2 years of undergrad after Stanford, I was working 16-18 hour days and completed 12 different jobs, published 2 research papers in ML and founded 2 national programs with co-founders.
I thought after all that hard work, it would finally be easy to get my first full-time Product Manager role.
But the world had more adventures for me, at the time there were extremely few PM roles in India, and most of them were filled by experienced professionals or IIT/NIT students.
I was proud to secure an engineering role in Europe at a FAANG company, but I was not ready to give up my Product Management dream yet. My recruiter then was encouraging enough to contact me while I was at my grad school, and I’m so grateful for recruiters like her.
I decided to pursue an MS degree at my beloved alma mater Columbia University for a program that was at the intersection of Columbia Business School & Engineering school. The specialization I chose was ‘Entrepreneurship’ (unexpected, right?).
Even with the Columbia brand to my name, as many other international grad students with less US-based or branded work experience to their name, securing my first Product Manager intern role included many unconventional and funny stories.
I secured my first role at Smart Buddies because I ran behind its Founder with my resume and my 30-second pitch as she was getting off the stage from a funding pitch competition for her startup. I found her startup pitch inspiring, and I knew I wanted to work there. I’m so grateful I took those approaches because the online applications can sometimes be unfair, with minimal information about the companies/startups and have much less turnover rate.
Fast forward to today, despite being from the unfortunate graduate Class of 2020 with it’s own additional struggles, after completing 4 PM internships during grad school at companies ranging from early stage Shark-tank startups to Microsoft Azure ML, I am a happy, grateful and passion-driven Product Manager at Salesforce. My story here might be too long for the readers to read, but this message is for ALL the students struggling today who might have those self-confidence & imposter syndrome struggles:
“I’m lucky and privileged to have had wonderfully supportive friends and mentors who helped me through those tough times, and I know that there might be so many of you wonderful students facing similar struggles without as much support. I want you to know that I see your struggles and I’m proud of you for pushing through, no matter what circumstance you’re in. Here’s what I am here for- If I don’t know you but can help you tangibly with 2 minutes of my time (except referring you for a job without knowing you), shoot me a LinkedIn message, let’s do it! If I know you already, I hope you’ve heard me say that I am always a ping away.”
What are some ways hiring managers can make that first PM role easier to obtain for people who don’t look or think like them?
First, hiring managers should have conversations with prospective candidates and current students, even if they’re not actively recruiting new candidates. By actively participating in communities, having mentees, and actively listening to stories, hiring managers can establish a stronger, more diverse talent pipeline rather than having to hire at the last second.
When you hire at the last second, you’re pressured to hire quickly, which means that you’re more likely to fall back on previous patterns. To break these patterns, hiring managers need to be proactive about exposing themselves to different sources of PM talent.
Second, where possible, hiring managers should invest effort into uplifting other people’s stories on LinkedIn. Whether people are sharing achievements or personal struggles, it’s critical for us all to celebrate these genuine and vulnerable stories.
By doing so, we create exposure for hardworking people, which then surfaces their work to organizations who might be looking for talent like theirs!
Third, PM hiring managers should shift towards celebrating the struggles of their PMs, rather than apologizing for their struggles.
What I mean is that instead of saying “I’m sorry you went through that difficult life experience,” it’s more valuable to say “here are the strengths that I believe you’ve gained from that difficult life experience, and here’s why I appreciate you bringing these strengths to the job.”
When underrepresented product managers share their struggles with you, they’re not looking for sympathy. They’re looking for empowerment. Saying “I’m sorry that you went through that” doesn’t make a meaningful difference in their career trajectories.
But, by arming them with insight on how they can convert those experiences into tangible strengths on the job, you accelerate their career growth and empower them to view their struggles through a positive, constructive mindset.
Finally, hiring managers should celebrate vulnerability and genuine stories on the job. Disadvantaged product managers will run into more than their fair share of challenges. Rather than apologizing, lift them up and celebrate the gains that they’ve made by powering through these structural difficulties.
As an example, if you notice that they’re not being taken seriously by cross-functional counterparts, don’t just say “I’m sorry.” Sorry isn’t enough.
Instead, arm your PMs with actionable tactics and exert pressure on those counterparts to step up their game.
Then, when your PMs get the buy-in that their ideas deserve, celebrate their ability to convince skeptical stakeholders. Remind them that securing buy-in from skeptics and earning respect from others will serve them well for the rest of their careers, no matter where they go.
Looking back on that first PM experience, what advice would you give yourself?
I’d give myself the following four pieces of advice.
First, don’t be afraid. There’s so much opportunity ahead of you, and these struggles that you’re facing right now will enable you to grow in ways that you’d never imagine.
Second, don’t feel like you have to fight alone all of the time. It’s okay to reach out and ask for help, and it’s also okay to take a break and recover from the stress.
Early in my career, I was really struggling on the inside, and I didn’t feel that I had the support I needed to thrive. If I could do it over again, I would’ve asked for more help and given myself more room to breathe.
Third, it’s okay to believe in yourself even if others don’t. Why? It’s because out of everyone who knows you, you’re the one person who knows yourself the best. You know that you have traits that others don’t see in you yet.
Believe in yourself, invest in yourself, and bet on yourself. It will pay off!
And fourth, do your own independent research. You don’t have to rely on other people’s perspective on a topic to learn about something.
It’s important to take the time and effort to learn by yourself and to build your own perspective, rather than simply accepting the conventional wisdom as the gospel truth.
It’s okay to let other people challenge you on your learnings and your perspective, because it’s a great way to learn from others. When you get that feedback and perspective from others, it’s an opportunity to grow and to learn much faster than if you never held a stance in the first place.
In other words, remember to have “strong opinions that are weakly held.” Take an opinionated stance based on your own research and learning, but be open to changing your mind by inviting other people to share their stances and their rationale.
Product management can sometimes be an isolating role. What are some approaches you’ve taken to get support?
My approach is to be shameless, courageous and persistent about getting my voice heard, breaking stereotypes, asking for help and most importantly, finding the right mentors. Let me elaborate on each point.
I’m shameless and courageous when it comes to believing in myself and expressing my concerns, qualities & stories. I’m not the best at typical “marketing” because I have some days filled with imposter syndrome but, I own the facts, the factual stories of what I have strongly overcome & achieved. If I don’t put myself out there, I won’t be able to get access to opportunities and nobody would pay attention, so it’s important to be proactive and expressive
I’m extremely persistent & resilient. My TEDx talk shares more about my perspective on modern Persistence.
I encourage people to break stereotypes. You shouldn’t feel like you have to fit the mold. You have the agency to make decisions for yourself, and you don’t have to meet other people’s expectations of you. When you need support, reach out to others for help, rather than struggling through the situation yourself.
When you ask for help, you may run into obstacles. I’ve been harassed before, all because I asked for help. It’s easy to lose faith in the world. My advice is that you shouldn’t give up.
Realize that there are always people out there who are willing and eager to help you. But, to get to these awesome people, you have to put yourself out there repeatedly so that they can find you and help you.
“But, how to find the right mentors?” you ask, here’s my perspective:
One of my biggest pieces of advice for people seeking mentorship is to be specific about what you want to learn. Rather than asking someone to be your mentor in general, ask them for specific advice about a particular situation that you’re tackling.
Along those lines, it’s important to have side hustles that you’re working on, because that gives you an excuse to speak with potential mentors. Whether you’re shipping a new product or growing a community, there are lots of highly-qualified people out there who are all too happy to give you their perspective and advice.
Be sure to network impactfully and purposefully. Instead of reaching out to others with vague statements like “I want to learn product management,” be specific.
Give others a sense of pride and impact by letting them know how their help will enable you to make a positive change in the world.
What problems are you focused on solving as a product manager? As a founder or a leader, what’s something in the world that you wish were better? Share concrete examples of how their mentorship has a scalable impact, not just on you, but on your entire user base or community.
To bring this advice to life - I asked Clement for specific advice on how to grow our impact at APMC. Clement was running the Product Manager HQ Slack community at the time, and we wanted to draw on his knowledge to decide which initiatives to focus on at APMC.
Instead of asking Clement for generic advice, I asked him to review the user research that we had collected, to help us determine whether our initiatives had product/market fit or not, and to help us sequence which initiative to launch next based on our limited resources.
To help Clement understand his potential impact, I shared with him the number of events that we had already done, the kinds of speakers that we had already featured, and the number of members and followers that we were impacting every week.
If I hadn’t provided specifics to Clement, he wouldn’t have been able to prioritize his time accordingly. Because he saw that he could provide us with actionable value and insights, and that it could help change the trajectory of APMC for the better, he leaned in to help even though we had never met before.
What do you find frustrating about being underrepresented in product management?
I want to share three things that I find frustrating about being underrepresented in product management.
First, I find it frustrating when others don’t realize why I’m sensitive about particular comments or jokes. I came from a background of repeated disempowerment, and my life experiences are real and valid. When I want to do something, others should not assume that I am incompetent.
For example, I recently had a question about real estate. Many product managers are looking to buy their first houses, and I’m no exception. But, when I presented my question to others, I got this insensitive response: “You don’t have to worry about this, because your male partner will buy the house for you.”
That’s disrespectful. My questions are valid, and I want to learn for myself. My relationship status shouldn’t have anything to do with it, and I’m more than capable of investing my own money, managing my own finances, and making my own decisions.
When I shared that I found the comment hurtful, they defended themselves with statements like “I was just joking” and “you’re too sensitive.” To me, this is even worse, because they’re blaming me for how they made me feel smaller through their comment. They demonstrated that they’re not interested in learning how to become more inclusive as human beings. The funny thing is, I did my own research, have solid perspectives on the topic and am a homeowner & real estate investor in 2 states today.
When someone from an underrepresented community engages with you, please be open to learning from them. Consider that they may come from a different background from you, and remind yourself that their questions don’t come from a place of incompetence. Rather than disempowering them with hurtful stereotypes, share your knowledge with them, and don’t push away your responsibility to act with decency and respect.
Second, when equality on the job feels like a policy or an obligation, it’s hurtful for everyone. Equality shouldn’t just be a “requirement” that we’re mandated to fulfill.
Equality is important and valuable. We should celebrate the pursuit of equality and make it an uplifting experience, rather than something that drags us down. If we’re building products to serve people all over the world, then we need to have global representation of perspectives within our product teams.
For example, when we’re sourcing candidates from new pipelines, we shouldn’t approach it as a tiresome chore. Instead, we should approach it with excitement.
By leveraging a wider variety of talent pipelines, we’ll find people with novel perspectives and unique skill sets! When we bring these people into our teams, they will make our products more valuable. So, we should celebrate bringing them onto our teams, rather than dismissing them as simply “token hires” for quota purposes.
Third, I find it frustrating when others don’t acknowledge that my perspectives bring value to the table. By virtue of my unique background, I think differently from the cultural norm. But, many times, my perspectives are given less weight because they’re unfamiliar to the group.
The point of making decisions in groups is to solicit a wide variety of perspectives to avoid groupthink. So, I find it problematic when we use simple majorities to vote on a course of action, because my perspectives are naturally different and therefore rarely backed in votes.
Furthermore, when I ask for feedback on the perspectives that I present to the group, I want to receive thoughtful, intelligent feedback. Too often, I hear the answer “everyone else thinks this way”, and that frustrates me because it’s clear that no one had seriously considered my perspective in the first place.
To be clear, I’m not asking for special treatment, and I don’t want special treatment. Special treatment makes the situation inherently unequal. Don’t give me extra voting privileges or extra powers because I’m a minority - because, by doing so, you further designate me as a minority.
Instead, when we’re making decisions, give me my allotted time to defend my stance and to share my reasoning with the group. As a group, give me thoughtful feedback and reasoning on my stance, whether we decide to do what I suggested or not.
By seriously engaging with every perspective that’s voiced, rather than dismissing them as outliers, it will help us all learn together. All of us will have the opportunity to consider new perspectives that we may not have been exposed to before.
From your perspective, what’s one thing people should be more aware of?
I want to provide some additional context for hiring managers so that they understand why resume screens are inherently unfair.
In many parts of the world, there are smart, talented, thoughtful women and under-represented groups who are constantly being put down by others due to societal norms and expectations. They’re not allowed to leave their homes or their schools, they’re discouraged from pursuing particular fields of study, and they’re not allowed to attend networking events or competitions.
They carry a heavy burden that their male or well-represented counterparts don’t have. They have to expend mental effort every day to encourage themselves in the face of overwhelming opposition.
When we evaluate people based on their resumes, we assume that people have equal access to opportunity. But that’s simply not true for many women and under-represented groups around the world.
Resume screens may seem like meritocratic evaluations, but they’re actually heavily biased against women because these women are fighting invisible battles that few people know about.
That’s why I’m so frustrated when people hire “for diversity’s sake.” Hiring underrepresented talent shouldn’t feel like a burden or an obligation, because underrepresented people bring so much more to the table than what their resumes can convey.
We should seek the perspectives of underrepresented people, not to “balance the scales” or to hit some particular ratio, but rather to expand our horizons about what’s possible in the world. People from different backgrounds have different perspectives, and it’s these unique perspectives that create unique value in the world.
On a related note, I want to encourage others to shift their mindsets when it comes to engaging with diversity, equity, and inclusion. Too often, I see people approach situations like these with a lot of defensiveness, and I’ve found that this attitude causes more problems than it solves.
As recruiters, hiring managers, and colleagues, we need to welcome feedback from others, especially the kind of feedback that tells us that we’ve made a mistake and that we’ve unintentionally hurt someone. Feedback enables us to learn and improve, and to make the world a better place for everyone.
I’m not asking for perfection. I’m not perfect either, and I make mistakes all of the time too. What matters way more is committing to self-improvement and committing to create safe spaces for other voices to speak up.
When someone gives us feedback on something that they found painful, that doesn’t make us bad people. It’s just a new perspective for us to learn from and to keep in mind in the future!
What are the qualities that you gained through the challenges you’ve faced on your journey and struggles, Arunima?
What I’ve learned is that by viewing my personal journey from a positive lens, I’ve pushed myself to grow in ways that others didn’t think was possible.
Here are some of the qualities that I’ve gained on my journey into product management.
When it comes to unconscious biases, I’ve learned that there are so many different aspects of humanity to empathize with. Whenever I build my products, I invest a ton of time into the user experience because products provide end users with real, tangible economic opportunities.
I’m now a lot more attuned to accessibility issues and edge cases, because I want all of my users to succeed. That said, I’m nowhere near perfect, and I push myself to uncover and challenge my unconscious biases so that we build fair and equitable products.
I’ve learned that people face many struggles, visible and invisible. Even if I haven’t personally experienced their struggles, their struggles are real and it’s my responsibility to solve their pain. This lesson wouldn’t have resonated with me as deeply if I hadn’t faced the challenges that I had.
I’ve also become much more skilled at building relationships with many different kinds of people. I believe in the fundamental goodness of people - after all, so many individual people selflessly gave me the opportunities that enabled me to become a product manager.
Of course, every human being is flawed. But, every human being also has their own unique strengths. I love building relationships with others, because it’s these relationships that enable us to grow together and to maximize our impact together.
I’ve also built significant resilience in the face of hardship.
I could have given up on my dreams and given in to other people’s expectations for me. But, I didn’t. And that’s led me to where I am today.
This resilience has served me well in the product management role. I know that I can work through any situation, whatever the stakes may be, because I’ve proven to myself over and over again that nothing can keep me down.
Many underrepresented product managers have clarity of mind and composure when working through stressful situations. They’ve dealt with worse situations in their personal lives. For employers who are looking for resilient product managers, I can tell you that underrepresented product managers are consistent go-getters who make things happen no matter what.
I’ve also learned to be comfortable with discomfort even in unfamiliar territory. My first product management role out of school was in information security at Salesforce. While I had no background in information security, I was confident in my ability to learn quickly. I attribute my current success in the role to having self-confidence in my ability to learn amidst uncomfortable situations!
When you’re scrappy in life, you tend to succeed at work. My managers trust me to tackle ambiguous, thorny problems because I thrive in situations like these.
To me, when I have the chance to wrangle with a difficult problem, I see it as a celebration of how much I’ve learned in life. I love that I now have the confidence to break down a problem into its components, to quickly obtain the knowledge that I need, and to find creative ways to get the problem solved.
In my journey, I’ve also found a passion to serve and uplift others. For every successfully hired product manager, there are hundreds of talented people who never even got the chance to apply. Due to their life circumstances, they may not have known that product management was a possible career choice, or they may have been discouraged from taking that path.
When I got my first associate product manager offer, I cried because my dream had finally come true after years of sustained effort. I don’t want others to face the same pain that I did. I want to uplift others and to champion their dreams, and that’s why I created the Ardent Product Managers Club.
I’m humbled that APMC has the opportunity to empower its community to overcome the obstacles they faced on their product management journeys, and I’m eager to deploy my product management experiences to help even more people. I’ve learned firsthand that being passionate about helping others gives you the fire that you need to push through the hard times and launch valuable initiatives.
Finally, I’ve learned to ask for help. Just about every product manager will deal with imposter syndrome, and I didn’t have the necessary resources like therapy and self-care in place when I needed it the most.
Asking for help has enabled me to sustain myself and to keep going. I’ve learned that you don’t need to be perfect as a product manager. You just need to know who to work with to achieve the outcome you envision.
There’s a gap in access to effective resources for breaking into product management, especially for underrepresented communities. Which organizations would you recommend we work with to increase access to product management?
For partnerships and initiatives, I highly recommend these four groups:
While partnerships are powerful, what aspirants really need are resources to help them fully realize how their unique experiences will supercharge their product management careers. The objective is to help aspirants highlight the superpowers and traits that they’ve gained through their struggles from an underrepresented background.
A book or a self-paced course on this high-impact topic would make a real difference. After all, product management is a “people management” profession, and it can be difficult for aspirants to gain the confidence and knowledge they need to position themselves for success.
By providing resources like these, we can actively help diverse product management aspirants combat imposter syndrome, and provide a space and a community to celebrate and validate their struggles, their journey, and their perspectives.
APMC is deeply focused on empowering product managers to self-discover their core qualities as a product manager, and we aim to uplift underrepresented communities. We’re eager to work with Product Teacher to create these self-discovery resources for product managers from all walks of life, all over the world!
What’s the best way for readers to reach out to you and stay on top of what you’re doing?
Please connect with me on LinkedIn, and be sure to check out the Ardent Product Managers Club!
We’re always looking for new perspectives to highlight, to bring more diversity into product management! If you have someone you’d like to nominate, please send us an email at admin@productteacher.com, we’d love to hear from you!