Speed Date Your Way to Product Management Success!

Are you looking for a product management or product marketing job?  Are you a practicing product manager or product marketing manager with a desire to expand the scope of your responsibilities?  Or perhaps, you have just assumed a senior management role and could use some help getting over the initial challenge?  The Boston Product Management Association (BPMA) can help!

The BPMA Mentorship Program offers peer support services to product management and product marketing professionals, including those just starting out in product management as well as those in senior positions.  The Program comprises two tracks, one for aspiring job seekers and one for experienced product management and product marketing professionals that want to do their jobs better and advance their careers. 

While there are a variety of online resources to draw upon for the aspiring or experienced product manager or product marketing manager, mentoring can provide a feet-on-the-street perspective that is as valuable as it is difficult to come by. I was lucky enough to have had the guidance of an experienced mentor when I started out in product management, and it made all the difference.  As a new product manager at Bolt Beranek and Newman (You’all remember BBN, right?  You know, they invented the Internet…) with a background in technical writing, I benefited greatly from my mentor (who also happened to be my boss), learning how to identify user requirements and develop a collaborative relationship with my developers, the latter being especially difficult as the developers at BBN were all from MIT and really did know everything!  These are soft skills that require real-world experience to develop, and the frequent and fruitful interactions with my mentor got me where I needed to go.

The BPMA Mentor Program has been in place for a while now, having generated productive and successful experiences for numerous Product Managers and Product Marketers.  Well, this month a new mentorship program will be rolled out!  So, what’s new about this updated program?  I spoke with Lynne Levey, BPMA Board member and Director of Mentorship, to find out.

According to Lynne, the goal of the revamped program is to put greater emphasis on the initial matching of mentor with mentee, resulting in a more personalized and more varied experience.  For experienced professionals, the program emphasizes one-on-one support, helping product management and product marketing professionals navigate the complexities of their work lives, whether moving up in the organization or successfully navigating a challenging situation.  Our mentors help mentees move from the tactical to the strategic, learn how to lead and influence, and accelerate their careers, providing one-on-one support without the complications of workplace politics.

And for job seekers, the BPMA program will offer mentor “speed dating” in which mentees get to benefit from the experience and perspective of a variety of mentors, and obtain valuable insight into the job market and learn how to succeed as a job seeker.

In both instances, the mentoring is mentee-driven.  It is up to the mentee to set the agenda and identify expected and desired outcomes for the mentoring.  The mentees must put in the time and effort to ensure their experience is productive.  The program is predicated on the notion that the more the mentees put into the experience, the more vested they will become in achieving the desired outcome, and a such, the more likely the mentee will meet those goals.

Feedback from past program participants is overwhelmingly positive, suggesting that new mentees will have the opportunity to be even more satisfied with their experiences.  Many of the program mentors have, themselves, been mentees, and so for them, this is an opportunity to pay it forward, doing everything in their power to ensure that new mentees have as positive an experience as they did, if not more so.  It has been our experience that people in the Boston area are incredibly generous with their time and are happy to give back to the industry in which they thrive.

Everyone should benefit from the mentoring experience.  It is a wonderful opportunity to grow and learn, and it’s free, so why not?  Visit the Mentorship page on the BMPA website to learn more.