Meet Soumya Patro. She was recently promoted from Product Manager to Senior Product Manager at Capacity and she has been working with the company since May 2019. Before joining Capacity she worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant and Graduate Research Assistant at Stanford University where she received her Master’s Degree in Management Science and Engineering.
We asked Soumya a few questions about her experience and future goals as a product leader. Keep reading to learn more!
What brought you to Capacity?
I was looking for a Product Manager role at a startup in the AI space. I also wanted to find a place that I would be excited to work for and would be willing to sponsor my visa. I found out about this job post from a Women in Product Facebook group. From that very first touchpoint in the interview process, it was the people at Capacity that attracted me. Capacity already fit all of the things I was looking for in my next role, however, I was skeptical about moving out of the Bay area. Ultimately it was the company culture (of low ego and high achievement) that won me over and I packed up my bags to move to St. Louis.
Ultimately it was Capacity’s company culture (of low ego and high achievement) that won me over.
What originally led you to get into product?
As a software engineer, I really enjoyed building new products and the challenges and work involved. However, I wanted to be more broadly involved in the human aspect of the product instead of the technical piece. I wanted to work on identifying the right problems to solve for customers, ensuring a seamless user experience, thinking strategically on what to prioritize and build. If you aren’t a founder or an exec, a product manager is the only way to be this broadly involved in all aspects of product building.
What is something that the typical person wouldn’t know about working in product?
A product manager is only as successful as the quality of their relationships with internal teams. A lot of product management work is trust-based and all the teams need to be able to trust that you are making the right decisions at every step.
What is a project that you’re most proud of in your last role as a Product Manager? Why?
I am most proud of Capacity’s Developer Platform. When I joined Capacity, this was my first Product Manager role and I had never worked at a startup full-time before. After I started, I was given complete ownership of the vision, roadmap, and execution of the Dev Platform. The first version of Dev Platform was released in 6 months. Today, Dev Platform is a core component for a lot of our product offerings and we have an entire team dedicated to using Dev Platform to deliver value to our customers.
There have been ups and downs, but I am very proud of my journey in building this, the relationships I have developed with the teams, and continued positive customer feedback.
Watch Soumya demonstrate how to use the Dev Platform.
What are you most excited about in your new role?
I am working on our product strategy for 2021, which is both daunting and exciting. I am excited to think about our product from a strategic viewpoint and bring my ideas to the table to ensure we continue to build a product our customers love to use.
What is the next big goal that you plan to achieve?
Make sure we release all of the features that we have planned for in our ambitious 2021 product roadmap.