Gamers know what “leveling up” means; that sweet, satisfying moment when you finally solve a puzzle, find a key or vanquish an enemy and spring into an entirely different world with new characters, challenges and powers.
Leveling up at work can feel the same way, but it might take a little more effort and intention. For product managers, professional development and leadership training can be part of the equation, and companies that offer these kinds of opportunities provide all manner of possible ways to level up.
Nadeem Farah, vice president of product management at Agility Recovery told Built In Colorado that in addition to leadership training courses, he’s benefited from great one on one mentoring relationships. “Both have been instrumental in helping me level up as a product leader in 2023,” he said.
It might not come with fancy graphics or a sweet musical score, but putting these tips into practice can make leveling up at work feel just as satisfying.
Agility Recovery has been the premier provider of disaster recovery solutions across the United States and Canada. Formerly a division of General Electric, Agility Recovery has had a long and successful history helping businesses survive after a disaster or to recover from business interruptions.
Reflecting on 2023, what was the most important professional experience you had?
Building and scaling a world-class product and UX team of talented professionals has been pivotal this year. It has allowed us to expand our voice of customer work, and improve the quality and impact of our software and GTM investment. This is gratifying for me, and it aligns with our rally cry to "Level Up" by having the best team on the field.
How did your company's learning and development programs or other opportunities help you advance your career? And what role has your manager played in supporting your career growth?
Agility offers a great combination of one-on-one coaching and mentorship with veteran SaaS leaders, in addition to leadership training. Both have been instrumental in helping me level up as a product leader in 2023.
The highlights of leadership training programs that have made an impact on the way that I work on our products and with my team have been data storytelling and different actionable tools to understand communication styles and improve our team collaboration. This is essential for product teams as we play a central role in an organization.
What's one piece of advice you would offer to a product manager that's looking to take the next step in their career in 2024?
Get close and stay close to your market and customers to be proactive with a product vision. As product managers, we need to be both data-driven and customer-centric.
As product managers, we need to be both data-driven and customer-centric.”
Staying close to our customers and target markets helps us understand the context behind what our quantitative data is telling us, and helps us get ahead of market-moving trends to drive innovation and growth.
