Kaajal Arora

Senior Program Manager

Microsoft

Ex: Oyo, POPXo

Career Milestones

I come from a non-engineering, non-B school background, yet, have had a fulfilling 6+ years run as a PM now 😊 Most PMs in the west have extremely diverse backgrounds and with the digital PM culture growing fast in India, I believe that anyone who has the right mindset and picks up the required skillset can become a PM.

Organization and You

For starters, I am a part of the Advertising tech unit of Airtel, which is an incubation hub, inside a really massive organisation - so you get the startup hustle alongside being comfortably backed. I am always up for learning something new and the consumer advertising space always intrigued me.

No two days are the same, however, everyday starts with a stand-up meeting with my engineering team. I also make it a point to pack in 1 user interview, 1 design brainstorm and 1 feature launch (even if it's a small one) within a week - gives you a lot of perspective on your product.

Core Competencies

User empathy
Stakeholder management
I eat-sleep-repeat metrics
Communication

Go to food for thought

Ken, Stratechery and Medium for good pieces on startups, product management and digital strategy.

There are quite a few good youtube videos on prepping for PM interviews these days (look up 'interview prep for FB/Amazon(x..) PM interview')

In books, I love the good old 'How to win friends and influence people' from D. Carnegie for imbibing people skills which are so important for a PM.

Favorite Products

Spotify - for the powerful recommendation engine that makes me discover music from around the world;
Slack - well thought through in terms of comm use-cases;
Gpay - for the brilliant growth hack and experience.