Oh The Places You Can Go... My Tale Of Going From CX Into Product

First... The Backstory

For as long as I can remember, I've been working in Customer Service. Whether that be from my first real job behind the counter in a bagel store, to being a parking greeter at Shea Stadium, to working as a VIP Concierge at Madison Square Garden. I was always super in touch with customers on a face to face, conversational level. I had to learn how to treat each customer as if they were my first interaction that day - letting that last interaction go and moving on with a big, warm, inviting smile on my face for the next person. At one point I tried to do the math on how many customers I helped or interacted with, in person, over my career in sports and entertainment. Let's figure 81 home games in one baseball season - average 5 hours per shift - that's 405 hours. Then assume I really interacted with about 10 people per hour - that's 4,050 people in one baseball season. Well, I worked 5 full baseball seasons between my time with the Yankees and Met's - so that's 20,250 people. Then you add on 2+ years at Barclays Center and another 2+ years at the Bronx Zoo - we're looking at close to 50,000 legitimate face to face interactions over my career - all before day one at Freshly, where I had to transfer all of that experience into a whole new world of e-commerce, managing customer communications via calls, chats, and emails. Now that I've been at Freshly for over 3 years, I thought it would be fun to look back and see how many support tickets I've solved - well it's over 8,000! All of this is to say that I've had my fair share of experience trying to empathize with customers - see the world from their point of view - and truly, honestly, attempt to help resolve their issues. Little did I know, this is the BEST way to prepare yourself to be a solid Product Manager...more on that later!

Growing As A CX Leader

Stepping up from front line employee to a leader is no easy task and I've learned a lot on my journey. At the start, I'd say I was super focused on myself. Only caring about how I could advance further and beat out those around me for the next leg up. BIG mistake. The one main lesson learned for me was LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE WORKING FOR YOU! And truly listen - just like I used to do for all those guests visiting the ballpark. Take time out to have one on one's and try to see the world through their eyes. This way, you know what they need to succeed and you earn their trust and their buy-in. That's the most important thing. During my first two weeks at Freshly, I had the chance to sit down for one on one meetings with everyone on my new team. Of course, I wanted to get to know them as well as I could, and I wanted them to get to know me, but I really wanted to hear what was frustrating them and what they expected a new "boss" to be able to step in and fix for them. This is likely different for anyone put in that position, but for me, the overwhelming theme back in 2016 was that CX was left out of the loop on major bits of information. Maybe the marketing department launched a new promo code and didn't let the CX team know. Or maybe a new feature went live on the site and CX found out about it on a call with the customer. While this was bad news for CX, it was great news for me - I was learning about a real problem - that means I had an opportunity to address it with a real solution - and make an impact!

Starting To Branch Out

To solve the problem of CX not being included in the loop sooner or even at all, I had to branch out a bit and ask for meetings with people who may have questioned why they would ever meet with a CX leader. I scheduled a meeting with our head of marketing. He declined me for 3 weeks until I had my VP step in and ask a favor that he take my meeting. Same thing with our lead engineer (we didn't have a full Product team at that young stage of the company) - he ignored me for a month, and then my VP had to ask the favor. Those first meetings were absolutely awkward and uncomfortable. Here I was, some new CX Supervisor, sitting down with department heads and asking them to add more work to their already full plate in a super rapid growth start-up - no easy task at all. So how did I earn their buy in? I came with receipts! Turns out, after interacting with all of those customers in my previous roles, you learn that people are human - they are mostly caring, compassionate, and solution focused. You just need to get the right information in front of their face. So I came with call recordings, chat transcripts, emails, and slack conversations. All of these showing how the company looked silly when the customers knew more about changes than the person representing the company did on the other end of the conversation. And I made clear that they were the missing gap that could solve this problem. Once they understood the problem, and saw themselves as the solution, they were excited to work with me to help us get to where we needed to be. After those initial meetings, I had more and more just like that with many more departments. All of a sudden, I was the CX seat at the table. From company wide KPI meetings, to Marketing All Hands, to Product and Engineering Sprint Planning meetings - I was in the room where it happens! And this was starting to become more of a two way street. Yes - I was learning about all of the new and exciting changes coming down the pike, and I was able to share that information out with the entire CX team, so that we were all well informed. But, more importantly, I was starting to serve as the Voice Of The Customer. I was the person at the table who had the needs of the customer in the forefront of his mind and spoke out when it seemed like those needs were being ignored or overlooked in those meetings. I certainly didn't know this at the time, but a Product Manager sits at the intersection of Technology, Business, and Design - and above all else - they are the main voice of the customer. The PM needs to be thinking about how this thing will impact the end customer and needs to decide is this a problem worth solving. I was already starting to do this before I ever thought of myself as a true PM.

Taking The Leap

While I certainly didn't imagine myself stepping into a more Product heavy role, my VP had the foresight to see a path forward for me. One day, during our weekly one on one, he mentioned that my ability to communicate with other teams (Product and Engineering specifically) was becoming more and more of an asset to the department and one that he'd really like to lean more heavily into. This was exciting and scary and confusing all at the same time. I didn't even know where this was going, but I was down to dig in. He said that he'd support me if I wanted to get some formal training to learn the basics of what it takes to become a Product Manager. Now, this didn't mean that I was going to become a PM on the day I completed this training, but it did mean that I'd be focusing more of my time and effort into working with other teams and seeing what sort of influence I could have over tools that could help improve the CX department, and in turn, make for better external customer experiences with our company. I was about to step out into the unknown - out of my comfort zone - out of the world I'd had so much experience in. I did my research and enrolled in a ten week long night class session at General Assembly in NYC to earn a certificate in Product Management. Those ten weeks were some of the most fun and informative times of my life. I learned how to turn my skills of interacting with customers into great user interviews to create my personas for a new product. I turned my relationships with other departments into getting buy in for my product pitch. And I transferred all of that scrappy attitude it takes to start a CX department into getting a quick MVP out to market so we can test and iterate on it. Little by little, I was making the transition from the CX world, to the PM world, and slowly blending the two to become one new role.

The Payoff

To kick off 2020, I was promoted into the role of Associate Director of Infrastructural Efficiency. This was a unique role created for me, post completing my PM course. While I'm not exactly a PM, I have the ability to work closely on all the 3 points that intersect at that role. I know just enough Technology to talk the talk and hold my own in the room when it comes to front-end, back-end, API end points, JavaScript, and working on those JIRA tickets. I know the Business need, because I know the customer. I can dig into our support tickets and actually report out data that backs up our need for this feature or that update. And I know enough about Design that I can take a prototype out and conduct a user test to see how one design may work better than another. I am now the central figure in the CX Department responsible for managing technology-driven change in the technical infrastructure of our department, both internal and external, with a focus on improving efficiency, quality, and standardization across key departmental tasks. In terms of external innovations, I own the discovery, investigation, negotiation, implementation, and maintenance of technology-driven systems designed to simplify and streamline CX operations. In terms of internal efficiency, I serve as the key conduit connecting CX with Product and Engineering, ensuring regularized and streamlined communication between all parties and appropriate ideation, prioritization, planning, and training for changes to in-house technical systems. It's a lot, but all of that hard work prepared me for this. Who would have thought a CX leader could also be a great Product Manager?

The point of writing this is to show a path forward for others. If I can go from CX into this new blended role working with Product, so can you! It's fun to step out of your comfort zone and learn new things. Take that leap and hopefully you're surrounded by super supportive people who help teach you along the way. My hope is that this inspires you in some way to think about what else you can do with the experience you're gaining today. Think about the places you can go!