Jana Schellong is a Senior Product Manager at heycar. As one of its first employees, she has been promoting the product culture at heycar ever since the used car marketplace was launched. Before making the move into Product Management, Jana was leading several startup scouting and corporate innovation projects at Startupbootcamp’s mother company Rainmaking. She previously founded her own startup during her Master studies and initiated the Women in Tech community in Copenhagen.
Being a product manager at heart, it is Jana’s aspiration to create products that solve every day problems and bring real value to users – and to do so in teams where everyone is motivated not only to build something great but also to help each other grow and celebrate successes together.
Insights:
• Jana’s journey to product management
• Working with a start-up as a product manager
• Jana’s words of wisdom to aspiring product managers
• Challenges faced by product managers
Key Discussion Points:
[00:07]: Jana’s introduction
[00:36]: Jana’s product management journey
[02:58]: About heycar
[07:00]: How heycar and Volkswagen work with each other
[14:19]: Major challenges experienced by Jana
[16:32]: Product management from an startup vs big company perspective
[23:35]: The future of the transport sector
[27:00]: What does a person need to do to become a product manager
[36:42]: What does Jana read
Interesting Quotes:
“Try things out, take risks and don’t be too afraid.”“Product managers are the rather entrepreneurial type of people.”
“Whoever considers this to be a career choice for them, it’s essential to make it clear that you really want this and why.”
“Not everyone wants to own a car, actually less and fewer people want to own a car.”
“I realized things are repeating themselves. So at some point, it’s also about learning by doing, learning by talking to other PMs and just trying it out.”
“Sometimes, you need to prove yourself for them to, to realize the value.”
“The more mature we get, the more independent we become.”
“When they see there’s a big brand behind us, it provides more trust than a completely new and unknown internet brand.”
Book Recommendations:
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The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers – Ben Horowitz |
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