Building a product management career

From Product Manager at Facebook to Head of Product at Rappi, and now running my first startup—here are my essential tips for aspiring product managers.

By Joseph Burns, Founder and CEO of Lupa

My career began as an analyst and later transitioned into engineering, where I often felt envious of product manager jobs: being strategic, collaborative, and critical decision-makers across all organizational segments—design, engineering, and data. Determined to be involved in strategy, I aimed for a role as a strategy consultant, interviewing with top firms but facing repeated rejections due to my modest educational background from a non-prestigious school.

Turning towards product management, I immersed myself in studies, took online classes, and reached out to Silicon Valley giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Snapchat. Facebook, with its initiative to recruit non-traditional candidates due to a shortage of product people, was particularly appealing. I got an interview, studied like crazy, secured a job, and soon moved to Silicon Valley, learning from some of the industry’s greatest professionals.

In my pursuit of learning Portuguese—and maybe a quarter-life crisis—, I left my Facebook product manager role to spend a few months in Brazil. Upon returning to the US, I joined CouponCabin, leveraging my data-heavy background to enhance the product’s analytical aspects. My journey eventually led me to Rappi, where I quickly jumped from a product manager role to becoming head of product.

Learning the Way

Product managers are essentially sales people, tasked with convincing the organization that their initiative deserves priority. During my time at Rappi managing the search engine, I faced the challenge of not just adjusting an algorithm but ensuring the entire catalog was optimized—a key to improving search results and user satisfaction. 

Getting multiple teams in the same boat of my vision was crucial, highlighting the need to influence cross-functionally and align the organization towards a common goal. Later on, as head of product, my priorities expanded to aligning our strategic vision with the company's broader goals and managing multiple teams.

A crucial aspect for me at this level was having the backing of a strong engineering team because if any technical downfall came up, I was the one to blame. At Rappi, I was fortunate to have control over hiring and to work with engineering managers and VPs who prioritized this as much as I did, allowing us to assemble a stellar team.

A Product Manager's Essentials

In the product management world, I've learned that success comes not only from what you do but from how intelligently you do it. Here are seven critical insights, from my personal experience, on how to become a proficient product manager and eventually earn that head of product promotion.

1. Be the hardest working person. It's on you to determine all the priorities and movements of your team. This goes beyond owning hard skills—discipline is crucial. If you're not ready to be the most diligent worker, product management might not be your calling. You need to know everything that's happening in your market and this requires putting the time in.
2. Be extremely analytical and logical. A strong reliance on data and critical thinking is non-negotiable. Each decision I've made, from optimizing algorithms to overseeing broad strategic shifts, was grounded in solid analytics. If you can't model the impact of your project and later use numbers to connect the dots, you'll fail.
3. Be deeply empathetic. I once spent days as a delivery rider and a grocery picker to genuinely understand our users' experiences at Rappi. I would ask people who never used our platform to make an order and just watch every interaction. I once made over 1000 Rappi orders in a year. Experiencing the service firsthand and watching first-time users navigate our app gave me invaluable insights that drove immediate improvements to our product.
4. Be in a developer's mind. A basic tech background is essential. This is the only way to spot when someone is bluffing—whether is you or a developer—, timelines are suspiciously long or methods are not the most optimal. This is your call to learn a bit more about computer science—I can assure you this will improve collaboration with your developers tremendously and they'll respect you much more.
5. Be impactful. The best ideas mean nothing without the ability to secure buy-in from others. Successful product management is as much about persuasion as it is about innovation. By consistently demonstrating the impact of my projects, I earned more trust and, consequently, more resources from the final decision-makers of the organization. If you build something and no one uses it, no matter how good it is, you've failed.
6. Be knowledgeable of your market. During my time at Rappi, I would open Instacart, Doordash, and Uber Eats and tell you exactly what features they were testing. Having insights into your competitors and market trends is crucial—go study them. If you are not obsessed with your product or your line of business you won't be successful. You should be able to know almost every test your competitors are running and know what changes they're making. You don't always have to reinvent the wheel. Copying works.
7. Be picky with quality. If there's any bug or issue with your product or the customer experience, you must be the first one to raise the alarm. Every time something doesn't meet standards or fails to function properly, you need to voice it loudly and clearly before it's too late. You have to be the person with the absolute highest bar for quality on the team.

Jumping from Head of Product to Entrepreneur

Since childhood, I've aspired to become an entrepreneur. While the path forward wasn't clear for me, I found great inspiration reading a bunch of ""how to be a successful entrepreneur"" books—do something you love and care about.

I connected with the meaning of this phrase in Rappi, where I had to take the hiring of my team into my own hands. At this point, I discovered my purpose—there was nothing in my entire career that I got more satisfaction out of than creating successful teams and helping people succeed. Moreover, the market was huge and I thought I could do it much better than any other headhunter. Now here I am, building the most technologically—yet distinctly human—recruiting agency on the planet.

My experience as a product manager contributed hugely to making me the CEO I am today. First, it gave me a deep mindset of empathy for my customer's needs, which led me to cultivate a key habit: regular, direct communication with clients. Secondly, it provided me with the capacity to handle diverse areas and teams, strengthening my ability to navigate conflicting ideas and discern priorities—a skill set essential for steering the company through complex terrain.

Putting It All Together

The most crucial advice I can give to the product management community is this: if you aim to excel, you must outwork everyone. Product management is a highly competitive field where merely doing the minimum will fall short. 

Your reputation is critical, shaped by your relentless work ethic, potent influence, and sharp analytical skills. Remember, every decision should be backed by numbers—knowing and reciting your key metrics is non-negotiable. Even years later, I can still recall my main KPIs—how they trended and their outcomes. That's what sets apart a truly effective product manager.