Dr. Nancy Li | Founder @ PM Accelerator

Dr. Nancy Li is a Director of Product, a Mentor, a YouTuber, and featured in Forbes. She moved to the US with $800 in her pocket, soon became the youngest engineering Ph.D. then transitioned to product. Within 4 years, she was promoted to the Director of Product. She had held leadership roles at Verizon, COX Communications, and Shell Oil. She is also an alumnus of BU and MIT. Her goal is to help people transition from worker bee to product managers and business leaders and help them to get the compensation they want.

You can check out Dr. Li’s weekly video on her YouTube Channel: Dr. Nancy Li. https://www.youtube.com/c/drnancyli and her website www.drnancyli.com.

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/drnancyli/

Topics: 

•  Job hunting strategy
• Executive coaching

Sherry Wang | Product Manager at Microsoft

Sherry Wang is a Senior Technical Product Manager with 11+ years of industry experience developing and launching mobile consumer devices and extended reality products including Facebook, Qualcomm, LeEco (mobile phone company), KDX (mixed reality startup), and USC.  Currently, she is a Senior Product/Program Manager at Microsoft.  Sherry had worked for FAANG companies, middle-sized company and start-ups before, shifted her career paths 4 times and landed each successfully.  During her spare time, Sherry operates the Gunpla Sherry Youtube channel for her hobby.  In her prior position,  she launched the first robotics test automation lab for Facebook flagship VR headsets that improved 20% product quality for over 2M users. Before joining Facebook, She helped a startup get into a mixed reality business by turning their glasses-free 3D display into an MR device with computer vision and machine learning solution. She also oversaw the global camera product lines and launched 2 mobile phones to market with 5M consumer impact.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sherryzhiyangwang

Topics: 

• Career strategy - how to create your own career plan
• How to manage ambiguity
• How does a PM collaborate with cross-functional teams

AI Pineda | Technical Program Manager at Facebook

I have a little over a decade of experience in developing and launching technology products.

I have had several product roles in my career and they all seem to fit in with my knack for machine learning. In my most recent role, I worked in a team that tries to understand how people move in a physical space, in big box retail stores. The team used a spatial analysis feature of computer vision technology to help create apps that can count people in a room, trace paths, understand dwell times in front of a retail display, and determine wait times in queues.

With the current speed of innovation, I stand by my choice of being a product manager and building exciting products with cutting edge technology that help address problems for consumers. I love finding simple, elegant solutions for complex, technical problems while motivating the team and driving business impact.

With product thinking and persistence you too can become a product manager.

Locale: Seattle, WA (Pacific Time Zone)
School: University of Cambridge
Credentials: MBA, Juris Doctor
Years of Experience: 12
Career Level: Senior
Trade: Product Management, Program Manager

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/alpineda0

Topics: 

• Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, Machine Learning
• Resume Review
• Mock Interviews
• Coursework
• 30-60-90 Day
• FAANG Company Preparation

Shikha Valsalan | Technical Product Manager @ Optum

Shikha Valsalan has over 16 years of experience in technology. She has worked as a Test Architect and Scrum Master, before joining Optum as a Technical Product Manager, where she leads the identity and authentication platform experience for one of their products. She has also volunteered as a product manager for nonprofits and startups.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shikha-valsalan/

Topics:

• Transitioning from tech to product
• Mock interviews
• Preparing for interviews
• Onboarding to a new PM job
• Time management as a mom

Maya Keekattil | Product Management Leader at Smarsh, VP of PM @ RiverRock

Maya Keekattil is passionate about creating value through products that makes jobs easier.

She brings nearly 20 years of technology and product industry experience . Currently managing SMB products - Compliance and Cyber Security at Smarsh where she is responsible for crafting the strategy and defining the go-to-market motions that help customers simplify and fortify their compliance and security posture.

Prior to Smarsh, she headed RiverRock Systems as V P of Product Development and has vast experience in telecom, energy and utilities. Ms Keekattil is an advocate for diversity and inclusivity and expanding opportunities in product.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayakeekattil/

Topics:

• Interview Prep
• Coaching

Soumya Suman | Senior Product Manager @ PTC & Co-Founder @ Product Vision

Coming from a software engineering background I have always been intrigued with the what and why rather than how which was the primary reason I decided to pursue product management rather that SWE roles. Back in 2020 when there was a 600,000 ventilator shortage I was the Founding PM in The Ventilator Project spearheading the launch of first 100 ventilators during the pandemic. Currently I am a Senior Product Manager @ PTC spearheading the digital transformation era with the first IoT cloud SaaS platform as well as handling some other high value initiatives! I am more than willing to conduct mock interviews, help out in networking and also discuss on how to stand out as an international student candidate as I have gone through all of these and definitely want to help others landing their next PM gig!!

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sayann

Topics: 

• Mock interview
• Networking
• How to navigate job search as an international student

Zerlina | Product Manager at AWS

Zerlina is a Senior Product Manager Technical with AWS Infra. She now owns strategies and roadmaps for 4 production tools supporting the world wide data center capacity delivery. Before becoming a Product Manager, she was a data analyst for 1 year, technology consultant for 4 years, and then program manager for 1 year. She has  experience switching industries, and job roles. Outside of work, she is pursuing a Computer Science master degree to become more technical.

LinkedIn: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yu-zerlina-zeng

Jacqui Teng | Technical Product Manager @ AmEx

Having always viewed the world in terms of problems, solutions, & better solutions, Jacqui realized developing and advancing solutions in CSR, financial inclusion, & transparency is her passion while creating a fintech/edtech product to solve her own problem. Afterwards, she helped build & launch a FDIC-insured platform to empower values alignment in bank deposits, capturing 90%+ of security tranche for partner community banks. During the pandemic, she helped raise $53 M of Axiom Space's Series B as the company's sole Investor Relations Associate. More recently, she owned the funding journeys of AmEx's 1st checking/debit product E2E, shipping 2 major features within 2 months joining as the 1st Jr. PM hired and receiving the highest performance rating. Nowadays, she owns product development (AmEx's version of TPM) for all money movement features, including those for iOS and Android.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqui-teng/

Topics:

• Resume building
• Succeeding in your 1st PM role
• Managing up/Driving ownership
• Conducting due diligence on startups

Dr. Daphne Houston | Ex-Recruiter @ Amazon

Dr. Daphne Houston is a leading expert with over 15 years of experience in careers business, job search and employment for government, corporations, universities and individual professionals.

Daphne has led recruiting, training and HR programs for a wide range of employers including Amazon, RewardStyle, RiseSmart, Accenture, Reuters, PeopleSoft and Citigroup.

She began her career as a software engineer for a Department of Defense contractor (DOD – Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff).

Throughout her career, she has been responsible for the hiring and development of thousands. And has read, written and edited at least 10,000 resumes.
Most recently, Daphne has been focused on Product Management, first as a product manager herself for an online career development portal, and then later as a Product Recruiter for Amazon and RewardStyle. She has also completed Dr. Nancy Li’s Product Accelerator Program and has studied UX Design through Google.

Her career advice and comments have been featured in over 35 U.S. publications and media outlets including Fortune.com, CBS News, The Chicago Tribune, The L.A. Times, The San Jose
Mercury News, Black Enterprise, Employment Review, The Orlando Sentinel, Monster.com,
Eclipse Magazine, The Baltimore Sun, Black Enterprise, Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com,
BlackAmericaWeb.com and many more. And her bestselling book, Your Gift Will Make Room
For You: 9 Simple Steps to the Work You Love and the Life You Want has inspired others to
live and work on purpose.

Daphne earned her PhD in Instructional Technology from Kansas State University, where she was a Patricia Roberts Harris Fellow. She earned her BA in Broadcast Journalism from Howard University. She’s also a Certified Job Search Strategist and Certified Federal Career Coach and Resume Writer.

In addition to coaching individuals, her firm also provides corporate career development, recruiting and staffing services.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/drdaphne

Cheng-Yuan Ke | Senior Product Manager @ Taelor

I am a first-generation immigrant coming from Taiwan, a small island near China. Currently, I am living in Lafayette, Louisiana. My favorite sport are tennis and Brazil Jiu-Jitsu, and my favorite drink is Ice Matcha tea latte. The biggest reason why I decided to become a product manager is that I want to know more about people and understand their needs.

I have over six years of experience launching and developing healthcare and machine-learning products.

I started my crazy journey in my third year of Ph.D.: I switched the gear, said goodbye to my research life, and started a business venture with my friends. We developed a digital platform for consumers to seek cardiology care services online, which has more than 2000 registered users now. I led efforts to improve our Healthcare SaaS platform for clinics, which doubled monthly active users within a one-year span. Due to the success of the online platform product, I was promoted to be the owner of a new product at my company to expand the service to mobile apps. Now I am also working as a part-time product manager for Taelor, an awards-winning startup, an AI-powered menswear rental service, and responsible for paid user experience. (Promoted to the Senior Product Manager within 3 months, currently leading three junior Product managers)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chengyuanke/

Topics:

• Startup (Pre-seed or Self-funded)
• Product Sense Interview
• Product Execution Interview
• Startup Engineer to Product manager

Mulin Shen | Senior PM @ Amazon

Mulin Shen is a Senior Product Manager with 8 years of experience in Finance Technology and Industrial IoT. He currently works at Bankers Health Group and will join Amazon in early 2022. He had worked for middle-sized company and start-ups before. From this experience, he could tell the difference between different sizes of companies. He graduated from his MBA degree at Chicago Booth in 2020. During his spare time, he plays soccer and manages a soccer team for his hobby. He is also keen on investment including primary and secondary markets.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mulins/

Topics:

• Mock Interviews
• PM Behavioral Interviews
• Elevator Pitch
• Resume Review
• Networking

Atilade Ariba | Co-Founder @ Pins Integrated Solutions & Senior TPM @ Tucows

Atilade Ariba has 7 years of experience developing and launching products with additional 4 years of technology implementation experience with backend Infrastructure.
Atilade won an International Student Excellence Award at the University of Salford Manchester. He obtained BSc- IST from RGU, MSc- DTN from Salford University in the UK, mastering design thinking from MIT and currently studying Data Analysis and Business Analytics PGD at Texas University.

As a product manager, I have successfully launched the 1st Insurance Platform solution, Job hailing solution and a Payment platform for the financial industry that serves over 18m+ existing customer’s base.

Prior to joining Dr. Nancys PM Accelerator program, I couldn’t land a PM job in North America as an Immigrant. Within 2 months of joining Dr. Nancy’s PM Accelerator program, I was able to get 2 good offers (Snr TPM and PM).

I am happy to help other students in their journey who have also gone through my kind of struggle to land a PM job offer because I have also benefitted from the same.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/atilade-ariba-478b4a49/

Topics:

• PM Behavioral Interviews
• Mocks Interviews
• 1st & 2nd Round Interviews
• Case Study & Technical designs
• How to navigate Start-up and SMS’s Interviews

Sowmya Subramanian | Product Owner @ Development Seed

6+ years of experience in the tech world, with a mix of engineering, management consulting, product management and analytics roles. The PM accelerator program helped me land 2 jobs in 3 weeks, and I was interviewing actively with about 10 companies at the time, while being 6 months pregnant and having a full time job.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/SowmyaSubramanian

Topics:

• Behavioral interviews
• Asking good questions back to the interviewer
• Areas of Improvement

Sowmya Rao Donekal | Staff Product Manager @ Intuit

I am a Staff Product Manager at Intuit with 8+ years of industry experience leading and launching technology products. Previously, I have worked as a Consultant for Fin-Tech mid-sized companies in India, where I strategized & managed the data migration of 15 enterprise applications from legacy systems to modernized systems for 10K+ consumers. After this, feeling extremely passionate about the Product management space, I came to the United States in 2016 to pursue my Master's & majored in Information Systems. After my Master's, I was hired as a Business Analyst in a start-up healthcare company. Here, I spearheaded digital healthcare projects for the US Office of Women's Health, National Cancer Institute, Center of Medicare & Medicaid Services & the US Department of Health & Human Services. I have a track record of transforming products from 0 to 1 by leading cross functional teams & shipping valuable experiences to over 100 million global customers.

I love the Product Management space because I believe that PMs are stewards of the future and make the world a better place. It is our privilege to help others wholeheartedly by solving complex problems with simple solutions with intuition & insights. I am delighted to help students land a PM job offer in their career advancement journey because I have walked this difficult path & the PM Accelerator program has immensely supported me to achieve my dream job.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sowmya020291/

Topics:

• Product Sense / Design
• Building Product Portfolio
• Networking Mindset
• Change for Motivation & Achieving Success

Vatsalya Verma | Product Manager Intern @ AWS

Vatsalya Verma will be interning as a Product Manager at AWS. He attends Carnegie Mellon, and has experience with startups, web3, and product development. He has received several offers from top companies and startups, and has had massive success with PM interviews and frameworks. He is currently working on a startup and is a blockchain developer as well.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vatsalya-verma-641328196/

Topics:

• Networking
• PM internship
• Systems design

Paul Tran | Technical Recruiter @ Expertlead

Paul Tran is a Technical Recruiter at Expertlead with vast experience as a professional resume writer. As a resume writer, he has helped hundreds of clients ranging from students to C level executives land positions at various Fortune 500 companies in multiple industries.

Paul believes that his strength comes from his career diversity: SaaS HR (Enhancv), VP of Sales for a high growth energy analytics startup and Techstars Accelerator alumni (AlphaBBL), 5+ years in finance (UBS, Northwestern Mutual), NGO director (Big Brothers Big Sisters), 2 US Embassies (Hanoi, Berlin). He brings these perspectives to tackle new challenges and problems and will bring these varied insights to help Dr. Nancy Li's students find and do meaningful and impactful work!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paultran86/

Topics:

• PM Resumes
• Technical Resumes
• Resume Writing

Minnie Wu | Product Manager @ Cresicor

Minnie has 3 years of experience building technology products at startups at various stages. Since joining the Cresicor team as their first product manager, she has worked on high impact accounting and analytics products for Consumer Packaged Goods brands and crafted the company-wide product strategy and roadmap that led to a successful Series A funding round and doubled ARR in less than a year. She is now a hiring manager for its product team leading a small product team.

Prior to Cresicor, she worked at Gecko Robotics as a hybrid product manager and software engineer for 2 years, building internal tools for Robot Operators as well as data visualization products for end users at power plants.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/minnie-wu-806b42126/

Topics:

• Behavioral Interviews
• Technical System Design
• Effort Estimation (for PO or Technical PGM roles)
• Product Sense Interviews
• Resume Review (perspective of an HM)

Euphie Zhou | Product Manager @ CRIO

Euphie Zhou (pronounces: Yufi Joe) has 3+ years of experience in UX and business administration. Since joining PMA, she quickly packaged her past experience and landed her first APM offer at a Series B health tech start-up within two months. Now, she builds and ships Electronic Data Capture and eSource products and leads the Process Improvement Initiatives in the PM department. Before joining her current company, Euphie worked as a UX designer and researcher for government-funded projects and healthcare companies. She has also built and launched campaigns as a marketer for Duolingo, Disney+, and NYC local SMBs at a marketing agency. In addition, Euphie produces videos for influencers in her spare time and serves as a "behind the scene" content strategist.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/euphzhou/

Topics:

• Portfolio Development
• Website/Prototype Design Feedback
• Creative tools - Figma/Miro/Wix
• How to transition from Design to PM?

Tracy Ji | Seasoned Product Manager

Tracy has over 10 years professional product lifecycle management experience at global IT companies and startups, including 2.5 years senior global product manager experience at Oracle U.S. and 1. 5 years senior product manager experience at Storage Appliance Corporation, which is one of the most successful startups in Canada, and was voted No.1 by Deloitte Canadian Technology fast 50 company's ranking. And, she received her MBA degree from University of Illinois at Chicago.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracy-ji/

Topics:

• PM Behavioral Interviews
• Product Sense/design

Shelly Choudhary | Product Manager at Deloitte

Shelly is Product Manager with 3 years of experience building fintech products. In her current role, she is working on modernization of large enterprise cloud products. She helps clients to understand why we need cloud infrastructure. As an extra initiative, she is building a course for PM basic skills for her organization which will be included in PM certification courses.

Fun Fact: Out of 60 recruiter calls, she passed 97% of them.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelly-choudhary-1010v/

Topics:

• Time Management - Job search with 9 to 5
• System Design - Technical Knowledge of architecture
• Recruiter Rounds - How to prepare for recruiter round

Ke Du | Senior Product Manager at Apple & Amazon

Ke Du is a Senior Product Manager at Amazon and Apple, a dancer, a policy maker, and a corporate strategist. She worked in Product Management at Amazon focusing on Home Innovations, and recently joined Apple scaling the Apple Media Product Core Commerce platforms. Ke started off at the State Government of Georgia, partnering with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to innovate public higher education. She met her previous manager while she was teaching Zumba and was convinced to pivot to Corporate Strategy. She earned her MBA from the Georgia Institute of Technology and MPA from the University of Michigan.

For fun, she enjoys dancing and coaching. She is a member of the Girlup Dance Crew in Seattle which grew 3x in 2022 but needs more Instagram (@girlupdancecrew) followers ;). She considers coaching as an opportunity to learn more about herself and learn together with her students.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kedu2022/

Topics:

• Resume Review
• Interview Behavioral Questions
• Case Questions
• Mock Interview
• FAANG Company Preparation

Yumeng Wang |Certified Product Manager|Creative Product Manager|Certified Scrum Master

Yumeng Wang is an accomplished Certified Product Owner and Scrum Master, fueled by a passion for innovation and a proven track record in product management. Her expertise spans B2C and B2B products, product design, and consumer engagement. Currently serving as the APAC Region Product Manager at Sinch, she has achieved remarkable success, notably launching products that saved the company 70% in cost of goods. Her responsibilities included catering to prestigious clients like LVMH and Microsoft, where she provided impactful enterprise strategy solutions.

Beyond her professional achievements, Yumeng's creativity extends to her role as a DJ and digital performance artist, showcasing her diverse talents beyond the realm of product management.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yumeng-wang-a97056134/

Topics:

• Interview feedback
• Elevator pitch
• Portfolio
• Networking questions
• Product sense
• Creative background to PM transaction
• Saas, Paas, B2B, B2C product management
• EMEA, APAC GTM strategy
• Start-up, Enterprise

Anthony Janicas | Senior PM @ GoDaddy

Anthony is a Senior Product Manager on the Commerce team at GoDaddy for 4 B2B omni-commerce platform products, equipping merchants with payment tools for their business: POS payment terminals, gift cards, promotions, and loyalty.  Working fully remote from Canada for a big tech company based in Silicon Valley, Anthony fully applied everything he learned in the PM Accelerator program to achieve his goals, and looks forward to mentoring other students towards success.  In his free time, Anthony enjoys spending time with his wife and their 2 daughters, exercising, and reading about culture, philosophy, and politics. 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyjanicas/

Topics:

•  Succeeding in your 1st PM role
•  Behavioral Interviews
•  Strategy
•  Executing with Engineers

Iris Yuning Ye | Product Lead at Impartial

Iris has 3+ years product management experiences among startups and developed tech companies. Her products have been ranging widely from AI, NLP to user experience.

She joined Uber China (DiDi) ride-hailing sector as the sole undergrad return offerree. She owned the roadmap for DiDi Premier product line, launched Premier discount system and it led to 50% increase of weekly rides. She also co-founded DiDi driving school.

Aside from product management, she is also a strength and conditioning coach and classical violinist.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/irisyn-ye/

Topics:

• Transitioning from business to PM
• Time management and planning
• Product sense / design
• How to get great projects when you’re new to a company

Sam Montoya | Sr. AI Product Manager @ Weedmaps

Sam has been in Product for 8 years, with the past 6 focused on developing and launching B2C ML/AI products with companies like Mozilla, GameStop, and MGM Resorts International.

Recently he was hired at Weedmaps to lead their Discovery platform (Personalization and Search). Prior to Weedmaps, he was with Mozilla, focused on Pocket leading the discovery initiative where he launched content recommendations across the platform and generated $3M in net new revenue.

Prior to Mozilla, he was at GameStop working on their personalization efforts in e-commerce where he worked with a team of 12 Engineers to deploy product recommendations across the platform. Resulting in an average order increase of nearly 30%.

Before GameStop, he was at MGM where he took an ML product from problem identification through to full-scale deployment across a Fortune 500 company. Resulting in a forecasted $100M increase in net new revenue per year.

Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/sammontoya/

Topics:

• AI Product Management
• Portfolios
• Elevator Pitch
• Interview Feedback
• Networking Questions
• Behavioral PM Interview
• Product Sense
• Product Metrics
• System Design

Brian Sun | APM @ Mastercard

Being helped by many kind individuals during his job-hunting process, Brian is inspired to give back to the community by becoming a mentor. Before Mastercard, he had six different internships in finance and tech. In his leisure time, he enjoys skiing, playing the piano, and spending time with his dog.

Please reach out if you have questions on landing a PM job as a New Grad and any behavioral interview questions. During his own job search journey, Brian received a lot of help and support from kind people around him. Now, he is looking to give back to the community by becoming a mentor himself.

Linkedin:  www.linkedin.com/in/ysun1999

Topics:

• Portfolios
• Networking Questions
• Behavioral PM Interview

Lee Ann Chan | Professional “Career Matchmaker” | Recruitment Expert

 Lee Ann Chan has worked in recruitment for over 10 years in multiple industries. She has helped thousands of individuals land their job and recently went full-time with her career coaching business.

As a former recruiting leader, Lee Ann will also use her insider knowledge to help you position yourself for your next role!

Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeannchan/

Topics:

• Resume Reviews

Katherine "Kat" Sao | AI Product Manager at CallMiner

A champion for user-centric product development, Katherine brings over 8 years of product management expertise and 10+ years in the software industry to PM Accelerator. She’s passionate about building solutions that solve real-world problems, especially leveraging AI and ML. Katherine thrives in collaborative environments, effectively aligning cross-functional teams, including engineering, design, marketing, and sales to bring impactful products to market.

Katherine's career journey is marked by a diverse portfolio spanning healthcare, clinical research, education, consulting and retail, working for leading organizations such as CallMiner, Harvard University, and Tiffany & Co. Her experience gives her a well-rounded understanding of the product lifecycle.

Katherine is currently a AI Product Manager for CallMiner, a conversation intelligence solution leader that leverages AI and ML capabilities to provide insights for businesses to improve customer service.

Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinesao

Topics:

• Transitioning to a product role
• Effective communication within a team (how to influence)
• SaaS B2B/B2C
• Behavioral Interviews, Product Sense
• Enterprise Solution Design/Problem solving, Asking questions with intention(during interview)
• Research Interviewer (Know your audience)