Diversity in Product: Yishan Han
Yishan is a product manager at Uber, and previously worked at Postmates and ZapLabs.
As a Chinese New-Zealander living in the US, she uses her diverse background to connect with global teams and build connections. Yishan enjoys learning and is currently exploring how to contribute to sustainability as a product manager.
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?
I first heard about Product Management at my university’s career fair three months before graduating. Prior to that, I was exploring marketing and data science positions, but had little luck landing anything. I was excited to explore new areas and landed an internship program post-graduation.
During this process, I was met with two key challenges:
Securing my first PM role: As an international student, I had only 90 days to find employment to stay in the US, so it was critical to secure a full-time position. Landing an internship offered me temporary relief, but I wanted to convert as soon as possible to full-time. When I was first offered an internship position, I advocated to be hired full-time instead and completed additional interviews. However, I struggled during these interviews because of the lack of knowledge and experience in product management. I’ve noticed this being the biggest barrier in breaking into product management as most companies ask for prior work experience and domain knowledge in product management.
Starting my first PM role: Product management calls for a wide variety of skill sets, such as understanding data analysis, knowing the technical lingo and engaging multiple stakeholders. All of these were unfamiliar for a recent grad with no technical background nor work experience. It truly felt like learning from the ground up and asking questions every step of the way.
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?
Be guided by core values in candidates, instead of the years of experience or exact skill sets. Eliminate requirements that don't actually matter to the job performance. For example, lots of stellar product managers don't have bachelor degrees in computer science, so that requirement should be removed from the job description. It’s more important to identify people who are eager to learn and have the potential to grow. When we realize that great minds don’t think alike, it becomes only natural to optimize for a diverse team with people who don’t look or think like us.
Looking back on that first PM experience, what advice would you give yourself?
I would tell myself that it’s OK to not know. This is actually still something I remind myself often.
Starting a new job can feel overwhelming with the amount of new information to absorb. I’d say starting a new role in product management can be even more stressful, because the role itself is a decision-making role, so people naturally turn to you for decisions. This can be intimidating when you’ve only been with the company for weeks and are asked to make major decisions. In these situations, don’t be afraid to ask questions! In fact, that’s what others expect you to do.
Product management can sometimes be an isolating role. What are some approaches you’ve taken to get support?
1) Build connections for external support
Having a strong support network helps me feel connected with people around me. I’ve found it important to intentionally invest in personal relationships with coworkers, managers and classmates as they have been my greatest supporters. At work, I would schedule regular coffee chats and organize team events. During smaller work meetings, I would ask people how they are doing personally and celebrate any wins. Over time, this builds trust and fosters long-term friendship. Even though I might not work with them anymore, they’ve become lifelong mentors that I know I can count on for any support and advice.
2) Invest in fun hobbies
Pursuing interests outside of product management reminds me that there’s so much more to life than work challenges. In the past years, I’ve found re-connecting with nature, learning to sing and reading books have all enhanced my internal strength and capacity to better support myself.
What do you find frustrating about being underrepresented in product management?
It’s frustrating being underrepresented in product management and that frustration manifests in different ways, such as fatigue, anger and disengagement.
When I am in group meetings, I feel like I need to compensate for being underrepresented by taking a more active role in discussions. This can be exhausting and adds extra pressure, as I feel I’m representing minorities who are not present and need to set high expectations for those at the table.
Reflecting on how much time society has had to make progress in diversity, I sometimes feel angry that we haven’t made more progress. This leads to feelings of helplessness in pushing diversity forward and disengagement from time to time.
From your perspective, what’s one thing people should be more aware of?
Everyone comes from different cultures, upbringings and experiences, all of which influence the lenses through which people see the world and the reactions they have to situations. Keeping this in mind helps us realize the vast possibilities beyond our imagination that exist. We can be more open-minded to other approaches and this is a good starting point to having productive conversations.
What are other ways you promote diversity, inclusion, and belonging in your life?
As a Chinese New-Zealander working in the United States, I have lived in many diverse cultures. However, it wasn’t until a few years ago that I really started thinking about what diversity means and why it is important. As I am on my journey to understand and promote diversity, I have focused on two main actions.
Firstly, I actively seek to expand my knowledge about different cultures and experiences. Through intentionally reading books and watching films featuring people who look or think differently from me, I gain new perspectives and learn what I can be doing more. While I know these portrayals are only individual perspectives, I still find them helpful in igniting the curiosity to learn more. It’s fascinating how this understanding shifts the lens through which I view past and current world events.
Secondly, as someone who has benefited tremendously from having role models and mentors throughout my career, I also actively mentored others to uplift and encourage them. This is something I’m passionate about and hope to contribute in the little ways I can to bridge the diversity gap and help underrepresented minorities break into product management.
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?
The biggest barrier to getting into product management is the lack of experience and exposure, which is hard to achieve without being in a product management role. It’s a chicken and egg situation.
It’s easier for people with former work experience to position themselves and transition into product management, so my recommendation is for your organization to focus on helping those without the work experience. It’s extremely helpful to have immersive product management experiences for students; both to understand what the role actually entails and to figure out if that’s what they truly want to do.
It’d be impactful to set up partnership programs between universities and companies so students can work on short-term internships. I’ve seen this work well for University of Waterloo with their Co-Op program, where students complete multiple internships during the school year and deliver real impact, helping them break into product management.
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 via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/yishanhan/
I want to give a special shoutout to all my managers and mentors for believing in me and supporting me in my career. Thank you, Clement, for being a friend and mentor and giving me this opportunity to share my thoughts! I am very excited about your initiative to bring more diverse voices into Product.
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 clement@productteacher.com, we’d love to hear from you!