For Abhinav Ademmagari, everything about the job is expanding. His employer, SourceDay, is in the growth phase of a startup. His field deals with enterprise supply chain logistics, which aims for modernized growth in an already massive global industry. Even his role as a product manager requires outside-the-container thinking on how to scale processes and workflows to better incorporate an increasing number of business clients. But Ademmagari sees it as a puzzle to solve — a challenge with many approaches that comes with its own risks and rewards.
“Scaling is a phase every product has to go through and if not done right, leads to huge tech debt and down-the-line issues,” said the product manager. “The direction we take now will be very hard to pivot. This is a great experience for a product manager to have.”
But he’s not alone in trying to tackle this challenge. While product managers take ownership of the conceptual lifespan of the product they lead, it’s not a singular source of authority; rather, they rally the teams in the trenches to realize a cohesive vision. Diverse resources remain Ademmagari’s most trusted tool for navigating scale. Easy access to anyone along the corporate hierarchy for a fresh perspective and a blend of experience levels in his team give him a lot to play with when it comes to generating solutions.
Beyond his day-to-day work life, Ademmagari is also growing. Much like how he has to focus on streamlining processes for expansion of both product and clientele, his company gives him space for his own personal growth. By investing in any strategic initiative of their employees’ choosing, it acts as a conduit for the melding of different product philosophies, essential for such an abstract, multi-faceted role.
To product managers, the de facto vision-setters for a specific project launch, growth is no stranger. But their success is defined by how much room is made available to them to function. For a closer look at one of their ongoing journeys, Built In Austin sat down with Abhinav Ademmagari to see his experience thus far, and how he is looking to grow further.
SourceDay is a supplier collaboration engine that modernizes the shipping process.
Tell us about a project you’ve worked on at your company that has helped you develop or hone your product management skills.
I have not worked in a growth-stage startup before. The challenges here gave me the opportunity to learn how to think strategically on setting up a product for the expansion phase. Focusing on our core workflows helped me dive deep into the intrinsic problems our customers are facing and understand the gaps in our workflows. Redesigning these workflows to be more reliable and to be able to provide more configuration and automation is key as we add more customers and expand to different markets. Scaling is a phase every product has to go through and if not done right, leads to huge tech debt and down the line issues. The direction we take now will be very hard to pivot. This is a great experience for a product manager to have.
The puzzle has to be solved in a way that supports the scale we are reaching.”
Give us a little more insight into professional development at your company. What other growth opportunities exist for product managers?
The product team at SourceDay is a mix of different experience levels. Though we work on different products, we work together and learn from each other. The team has helped a lot in navigating tricky problems. I can easily get access to anyone in the company, from the CEO to the interns, and set up some time to discuss different topics. Having these different perspectives teaches more than any course.
The company is flexible in picking what kind of initiatives you want to focus on and implement as long as they fit the overall company’s goal. Whether you want to focus more on product marketing and strategy, or be super technical, or transition to scrum and product owner to focus on day-to-day, you can carve the path you like. We can also get access to external professional development resources and expense them.
What’s an upcoming project you’re excited to work on? And how will you apply some of these newly acquired skills?
Suppliers are the core of our business model and I’m excited to focus on supplier adoption initiatives. This is a very interesting challenge, as our platform is free to use for our suppliers and we need to apply business to consumer (B2C) strategies in a business to business (B2B) setting to get them to adopt our product. Suppliers need to be presented with a very attractive value proposition or they won’t choose to engage with the product.
The puzzle has to be solved in a way that supports the scale we are reaching. The process with which we acquire, onboard and retain them to become champions of our product needs to be designed in a scalable fashion. We are adding suppliers at a rapid pace and the problem intensifies everyday. I’m drawing all the lessons learned from solving the problems on the buyer’s side and applying them to the suppliers’ side. I believe taking a user-centric approach is the key to success. This is something that I want to build my product philosophies around, regardless of where my career takes me.
