Diversity in Product: Rubi Sanchez
Rubi Sanchez is a San Francisco native, UC Berkeley graduate, and currently a Product Manager at Google. She is passionate about AI powered technologies and digital experiences that create a lasting meaningful impact. Before Google, she worked at startups and co-founded a computer vision company that was recognized by President Obama at the first ever White House Demo Day.
We’re excited to showcase her on our Diversity in Product interview series!
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 PM role?
My career actually started in the healthcare industry as a Health Information Technology intern, where I became passionate about leveraging technology to improve how we provided care to low income families. Patient health records and visits were starting to become digitized into Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and the industry was moving to a pay-for-performance model, which meant that healthcare providers were financially incentivized to improve health care outcomes for their patients- creating an ideal atmosphere for technology powered innovation.
I took that opportunity and at times created business cases to get the blessing to implement new practices that leveraged EHRs improve how care was provided at many healthcare institutions across San Francisco. I didn’t know it at the time, but successfully implementing these changes in a traditionally slow changing industry enabled me to build muscle memory with leveraging data analysis, user interviews (patient, doctor, and admin), and a business case to get stakeholder buy-in. I also couldn’t have done it without amazing managers that gave me the freedom to ideate and execute on what might have seemed like crazy ideas!
While I was working in healthcare, I met what soon became my co-founders at a Startup Weekend, which is an event at which various cross-functional folks meet to ideate, validate, prototype, and pitch innovative startup ideas. I found the idea of leveraging image recognition to build a smart baby monitor and potentially solve use cases in the healthcare industry very innovative. The use cases coupled with the relative breakneck speed at which we were able to go from ideation to a prototype was fascinating and alluring enough for me to quit my job.
I was the only non-engineer in our small team of 3 so throughout my time I had the opportunity of formally building a real company, filing for a patent, pulling together wireframes, prioritized roadmaps, and pricing based on user interviews, putting together a website, getting early customers, learning how to network, getting funding from investors, and learning as much as I could about how our technology worked (enough to win a CTO pitch competition :P). We were able to go from a prototype to a paid product on the market in about 6 months when it usually takes 3-5 years!
When the startup didn’t pan out I knew that there was no going back and that I really enjoyed the interdisciplinary requirements of being a Product Manager so I started my job hunt. I was lucky in that someone I knew from my startup network needed PM support and she hired me on as a product consultant and then permanently into the product management role. That was my first legit Product Management position.
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?
Recruiters traditionally prioritize referrals and go to top notch schools to find candidates. However, if the existing makeup of the company is not diverse then from my experience it’s very likely that their employee network is also not diverse, so it’s not surprising that some hiring managers might think they have a pipeline problem. Additionally, there are a lot of diverse candidates like myself that don’t manage to realize that they want to pursue a career in technology until they try to join the workforce or afterwards. I grew up in San Francisco, but by virtue of how I grew up in a low income family I was ironically so far removed from the core tech industry circles I just didn’t have the exposure until much later in life- after I networked like crazy. So my recommendations would be these:
Recommend your recruiter partners to recruit diverse communities in tech like Techqueria, which are built to nurture their members and help companies access diverse talent
Recommend your recruiter partners to recruit from bootcamps designed to help educate those that might want to become product managers later in life
Recruit outside the traditional elite schools
Build a rotational APM program that gives recent bootcamp and college graduates an opportunity to dip their toes into product management
Give your candidates a clear understanding of what it takes to succeed in the interview
Look in-house: Identify and mentor diverse candidates in cross-functional roles that might be a good fit for product management (e.g. consistently working with a PM and engineering to help solve problems for users, etc.)
Looking back on that first PM experience, what advice would you give yourself?
The advice I’d give myself is to network early and often inside and outside of the company.
Keeping a great working relationship with folks inside the company helps create a sense of camaraderie, can be an opportunity to make long life friends, and can also come in handy if you need help- give more than you receive.
By joining organizations outside of the company, you can help give back to the community, find others that might be a good fit for your organization, and make new friends that share similar interests. Growing your network will also create a safety net of people that you can reach out to for advice and a referral once you’re ready to move on.
Product management can sometimes be an isolating role. What are some approaches you’ve taken to get support?
I make an effort to get to know my cross functional team mates on a personal basis so as to create a sense of community within the team. I also lean on their expertise (e.g. marketing, engineering, analytics, UXR) when I need support. When I need leadership input, I summarize all of the key points in a document along with my recommendation, get my XFN partners to sign off on it, and then share it with leadership for feedback. My manager is also a great sounding board when I need feedback on how I am approaching a problem.
What do you find frustrating about being underrepresented in product management?
It’s difficult to get an interview unless you have an internal referral, which is very difficult if you’re a first gen college student without a proper “white collar” network.
You don’t know what you don’t know- If you get the interview, it is difficult to make it through the process unless you have been groomed through how to properly answer the different types of questions.
Once you get the job, you’ll experience a lot of well and ill intended microaggressions throughout your career, which can take a large emotional toll if you don’t deal with it in a healthy manner. You might have to work harder to earn the trust of your team and stakeholders.
It can be lonely to be the only one from an underrepresented community.
From your perspective, what’s one thing people should be more aware of?
You need to become comfortable with getting out of your comfort zone in order to build your network, get that interview, ace that interview, become a part of your job culture, and enjoy your role. Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable will also make you a better PM.
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?
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!