Birinder Singh Bhatia, Product Management Intern, Adobe
Birinder Singh Bhatia (MIMS ’19) spent the summer of 2018 as a product management intern at Adobe. Bhatia tells us about the challenges he overcame in this role and how the I School helped him do that:
Describe a typical day at your internship.
I was interning with a platform product management team, which required interacting with a large number of stakeholders. My typical day was usually split between two main projects. The day usually began with a call or meeting with customer service managers or a product manager, or the design team or program managers from Adobe cloud products in the context of one of the projects. That was followed by research work for the other project. Apart from work, I was playing in Futsal tournaments, enjoying kick-boxing sessions, or attending a fun intern event!
What was the biggest challenge?
The best part and the biggest challenge of my summer internship were the same: developing an understanding of product management in the context of a platform and not just a single product. It provided me with exposure to balancing customer needs, product vision and company strategy overall.
How did your work at the I School prepare you for this role?
I feel the I School curriculum is the best option to develop interdisciplinary skills which are essential for a product management role. Skills I picked in classes like Web Architecture, Lean-Agile Product Management, Haas@Work, Information Law and Policy, Data Mining and Analytics provided me the ability to understand nuances of different aspects of product and the perspective of external and internal stakeholders. For one of the projects, we were trying to build an analytics dashboard, and that required me to understand not just user experience and technical aspects, but also legal implications, which I was able to do successfully having acquired those skills.
Any advice for next years MIMS students as they prepare for their internships?
Product Management is an ambiguous role, and to prepare for it, identify what skills are missing from your arsenal and choose classes to best gain those skills.
Did your internship influence your career plans after graduation?
I had a great experience at my internship, especially since I was reporting to Kavita Mittal, a MIMS alumna. She understood and leveraged my skills and provided me encouragement throughout the internship. I also learned the impact a product manager can make and it has reinforced my desire to be a Product Manager.
