Product Manager with Sean Halpin - a podcast by Ryan Sweeney

Sean Halpin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-ryan-halpin/) Active Army veteran and reservist and current Product  Manager with Dell Technologies discuss his background, his transition, and what it takes to be a product manager.

Transitioned via MBA program at the University of Virginia
His experience as a Military Intelligence officer in special operations gave him the knowledge that he wanted to work with a team of all-stars which made him focus on the Tech industry
Transition Tips:
1- Know what you are going to be doing
2- Know the personalities involved
3- Be selfish a little bit
4- Need to find yourself and know what you are looking for and why
5- What values you hold and who do you want to work for

Product management (What do you do? Who do you work with?  What is it?)
1- Manage products, part of the life cycle.  Prototype to Launch (Through the Marketing life)
2- Work with Customers, engineers, account managers, etc
3- Need to know Business Analytics
4- Need to balance value vs quality (a good product that stays on budget)
5- You need to be somewhat technical, but also need to realize you won't be the technical guru....Humble yourself and ask for help
6- Need some knowledge of Finance, Sales, Engineering, Customers and procurement

Skills that Translate from the Military
1- Resiliency
2- Planning (PACE) goes a long way as products evolve
3- Leadership (more cross-functional than direct)- Keep all the stakeholders on the same page!

References:
1- "Six Thinking Hats" by Edward de Bono


---

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/viewfromtheskies/message
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/viewfromtheskies/support

Further episodes of View from the Skies: Military Transition

Further podcasts by Ryan Sweeney

Website of Ryan Sweeney