Thomas Wadsworth - Product Management

Junior to Senior with David Guttman

Featuring Thomas Wadsworth, Co-Founder of TvPass and former Director of Product Management and User Experience at Disney

Talking Points:

• What is the special relationship between Product and Engineering?
• Important conversations to have between Product and Engineering at the beginning of a project.
• What is it like to work with engineering teams across the world?
• How was Thomas’ experience working with engineering teams at Disney?
• What is a POD based system?
• Discover internal dynamics between Product, Engineering, and Design.
• Learn how teamwork and communication plays a role on big company teams.
• What should a junior engineer be aware of when working with Product?
• What does Thomas look for when working with developers?
• Communication best practices.
• Learn the importance of company values and how they effect all aspects of work-life.
• Apply different values to different companies.

Quotable Quotes:

• “Product and Engineering are like left and right shoes. You really do need both.” - DG
• “Product sets the vision for the product and help explain to the other teams why it is important.” - TW
• “Product is there to support engineering and design by helping remove questions and blockers from a clarity standpoint pertaining to the product.” - TW
• “It is up to Product to work with Engineering and Design to find a creative solution to a problem.” - TW
• “Whether it be a big company or a small company, communication is absolutely key.” - TW
• “It’s not just about how much you know your codebase, there are also a lot of soft skills that go a long way.” - TW
• ~“Understanding the companies values is extremely important.” - TW
• “Being able to understand little bits of product [ that pertains to the project that you are working on ] is important.” - TW
• “The more that you are talking to people in Product, the more you are talking to Designers just in a friendlier way, the more you will be able to internalize what they are trying to do and what their goals are.” - DG
• “It is not just what you say, it is when you say.” - DG
• “Show why you care, why you are invested [ in a company ] when things get tough. [ when aligning yourself with their values] ” - DG
• “Do not waste time applying to companies that do not run themselves in a way that aligns with your values.” - DG
• “If you don’t have any questions for me [ at the end of an interview ] then what the hell are you doing?” - TW

Notes:
Thomas's LinkedIn
LinkedIn.com
Junior-to-Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io