Foster the Product: Cracking the PM career

In a bonus edition of the UW Foster School’s monthly “Foster the Product” series, noted author and product leader Jackie Bavaro shared some of the top insights she has learned about becoming a great product manager over a long and illustrious career.

Jackie Bavaro

Bavaro, the author of Cracking the PM Interview and Cracking the PM Career, has been an expert in product management for many years, most recently serving as head of PM at Asana. During her tenure there, she has grown the PM team to more than 20 people—and Asana’s annual recurring revenue from $0 to more than $100 million. She also launched Asana’s associate product manager program.

Prior to Asana, Bavaro worked as PM for Google and Microsoft, and in a diverse set of PM roles—consumer, B2B, platform, mobile and growth. Her first book, Cracking the PM Interview, has been credited with helping to level the playing field for PM talent.

In her Foster the Product session, Bavaro discussed valuable topics for any potential PM professional, including product strategy, time management, road-mapping, learning from customers, career ladders and partnering with your manager.

About the series

Foster the Product, presented by the new Product Management Center at the UW Foster School of Business, is an opportunity to connect with people and ideas that can advance a product career. Regular sessions take place the first Thursday of every month.

The next Foster the Product event takes place March 4 at 4:30 p.m. PST. Vishal Ghotge, the chief product officer at Payscale, will speak on “OKRs and how to successfully implement them in your organization.” After the talk and Q&A, attendees will have an opportunity for networking and guided discussion.

To register, visit: foster.uw.edu/marftp.