After working at a FinTech SaaS company, Niina Al-Hassan (Kellogg, ‘20) came to Kellogg’s MBA-MMM Program to transition into Product Management. Through the MMM program, Al-Hassan built skills and gained experiences that exposed her to the fundamentals of product management, and the guidance to successfully land a Product Management Internship. During this interview, Al-Hassan shared how she used the resources at Kellogg to identify MBA Product Management Internships, her Product Management MBA Internship, and advice for prospective MBA students on how to find build a post-MBA career in Product Management.
MBASchooled: What did you do before business school, and why did you choose to recruit for Product Management?
Prior to starting at Kellogg, I worked at a small FinTech SaaS company in New York called Novus. As a member of the analytics team, I partnered with Hedge funds and Institutional investors to develop investment recommendations and portfolio manager skill set analyses based on the data provided to us. Novus only had one dedicated PM while I worked there so we had the opportunity to work alongside him as members of the analytics desk. Getting involved in both the user interview and product launch processes piqued my initial interest in product management and I wanted to develop deep enough skills to lead the entire product life cycle. The MMM program for me was a perfect fit for the goals I had in mind and the areas I needed to develop.
MBASchooled:During your first year, what classes, or experiences were most relevant to you in helping you build skills needed for Product Management roles?
As part of the MMM program, the course Research, Design, Build, partnered us with corporations to solve a business/product problem while focusing on using a human centered perspective throughout the project. It was a great deep dive into what it takes to truly understand a user pain point or problem as well as the leap towards developing a solution that best resolves the most addressable pain point.
MBASchooled: Can you talk about your internship recruiting process? How did you narrow down what you wanted to apply for, and what did your process look like?
I knew when I started at Kellogg I would be recruiting for small to midsize startups. This meant that I likely wouldn’t accept a role until late into the Spring Quarter. I also knew that I wanted to work at a firm that leveraged data heavily within its product suite. Throughout the fall, I built a target list using resources such as Pitchbook, BuiltIn, Angel List and the Kellogg Alumni Network. With my focus being on New York, I visited during the Fall and Winter Quarter to chat with people in person and create touch points with companies that could have capacity to host an intern over the Summer. Throughout the Spring I reached back out to those contacts while also keeping an eye on the Kellogg job board and sites like LinkedIn and Indeed. I found a good mix of what I desired out of a role as a Technical PM at Integral Ad Science (IAS), an AdTech company based in New York that is about 550-600 people globally.
MBASchooled: How did you prepare for interviews? Where there any resources that were most helpful?
Interview prep for me mainly consisted of getting to know the companies inside and out as well as the competitive landscape. For smaller firms, Pitchbook was incredibly useful in that process. I also took advantage of the 2nd year students who led Interview Prep Groups. They provided easy to understand guidelines on how to approach casing and behavioral interviews while also supporting us during what is a pretty stressful experience.
MBASchooled: What did you end up doing for your summer internship? What were some of your learnings from that experience?
Over the summer, I was a Technical PM on IAS’s ad fraud team. I worked alongside the primary PM who was in charge of the ML models that powered our ad fraud detection service which is utilized by both agencies and publishers. It was a great experience to understand what it is like to manage a product that sits upstream (we had a separate PM that handled the user interface where data was provided on campaign performance) and the internal stakeholders it required working with. Having also worked at a smaller firm prior to this, it was nice to be at a firm where there was a delineation in some of the responsibilities a PM might have at a younger company (writing user guides, wireframing, entering tickets for sprints, etc.) such that the PM could focus entirely on the core product offering.
MBASchooled: During your second year, what other activities, classes, programs are you using to sharpen your PM skills?
At the start of 2nd year, I continued to work with IAS through their Chicago office, but this time focusing on product strategy. It was a great way to see the different types of product roles I could have at the same firm. I also had more coursework through the MMM program, such as Design Research and Mindful Product Management, which both provided me with new skill sets that will be valuable for my next role as a full time PM.
MBASchooled: What are some skills or experiences MBA students should focus on if they are interested in a career in product management?
Too often, people focus on the technical side of things (learning to code and intricately understanding system design). While those skills can be valuable for PMs, I believe the most important thing is really understanding the user, and having various skills to drill down into their pain points. This means crafting great user interview guides (or having a great design researcher on your team to help with this), understanding how to distill insights across these interviews and being open to the process of ambiguity. You’ll also spend a lot of time across meetings with various stakeholders. Understanding how those dynamics and the needs of your internal partners will need to be balanced, with tech debt or external forces, is an important skill to develop. Get as many reps in as you can through case competitions or product challenges offered through experiential coursework.
MBASchooled: Product Management and PM roles can vary company to company. What advice do you have to help others identify the right roles/companies for them?
Before applying, try your best to find someone at the firm (or even someone who previously worked there) to understand the dynamics of what your life as a PM will look like. Job descriptions only go so far into the details of your actual roles and responsibilities, so it’s important to gather as much information as possible before even applying. Regarding company size, you should also have a strong idea of what kind of impact you want to have. At a large tech company you could be working on smaller features that impact millions of users, while at a smaller firm you could be working on a large feature that impacts thousands of users. Know which is more in your lane and what kind of autonomy and mentorship you need to develop as a PM.