Product Management Success Beyond Silicon Valley with Shardul Mehta

From a career spanning product management and entrepreneurship to now empowering the next generation of product leaders, today's Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur Spotlight features Shardul Mehta, founder of Street Smart Product Manager. Through his free weekly newsletter, online courses, and one-on-one mentoring sessions, Shardul is revolutionizing how product managers worldwide develop their careers and create impactful products. Drawing from his rich experience outside Silicon Valley and lessons learned from both successes and failures, Shardul proves that you don't need to follow the conventional path to make your mark in the product world.

Hi, Shardul! Thanks for joining us today. Tell us about your business. Who do you serve, how do you serve them, and what's the impact that your business and work makes?

I'm currently on a mission to help product managers have successful careers and make an impact. My primary vehicle for this is my 100% free weekly newsletter called Street Smart Product Manager. Each weekly article provides at least 1 practical, actionable tip to help them grow from first-time product manager to product leader. The newsletter helps product managers across the globe including the US, Canada, South America, the UK, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, India and South Asia, and Australia and New Zealand. I also have an online course called One Week Product Roadmap that helps product managers how to create a product roadmap that aligns stakeholders, excites teams, and deliver outcomes that matter. More courses and services are planned for the future! Finally, product managers across the world book 30 minutes with me to discuss any product management or career challenge they may have, 100% for free.

Tell us about the moment you finally felt like you went from wantrepreneur to entrepreneur.

In 2000, after graduating from business school, when I co-founded my health-tech startup with my dad.

Describe the moment or period in your life/career that motivated you to make the entrepreneurial leap.

I can't say there was a singular moment. I feel like I was always kind of drawn to it. My dad founded several businesses in the 1980s and 1990s, and I worked in his business several times. I'm sure that had an influence. Those two decades were also an exciting time for technological innovation driven by so many tech entrepreneurs, like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Dell, Gateway, Cisco, Oracle, etc. So that likely spurred my dreams. At the time, I felt I didn't know enough about business, so I went to business school. In business school, I took classes in entrepreneurship and even won an award. I graduated at the height of the dot-com era, so I figured now was the best time - just do it. So I did.

Describe a tool, service, or software that has been a game-changer for your business. How does it contribute to your success?

Improv. Changed my life. Entrepreneurs and innovators are creative and opportunistic. The power of "yes, and" has helped unlock these aspects in my life, fueling my creativity, enabling me to form new connections, and opened me to new opportunities I hadn't foreseen. The power of "got your back" has improved my leadership skills to form more effective teams and more meaningful relationships. On top of all that, improv has brought so much joy in my life, an opportunity to get away from the cares and stresses of daily life, and throwing fuel on my already positive, optimistic personality. It's an endorphin lift I love getting drunk on!

We know that success is very often a non-linear path. Tell us about a failure, pivot point, or lesson that changed your course or direction and helped to get you where you are today.

How do I pick just one?? LOL! My first startup failed. I've been passed for promotions, laid off, and fired. I've launched unsuccessful products. Weirdly, I was seen by business people as too technical, and I was seen by technical people as not being technical enough. I was called too verbose, yet not communicative enough. I had no idea how to navigate an organization, or how to foster cross-collaboration. No executive presence. Zero leadership skills.

With a young family to support, as the primary breadwinner, I knew I had to make a change. I had to find a way to accelerate my career and 10x my skills.

Then I started ProductCamp DC. I met other PMs, especially outside of Silicon Valley, with the same challenges. At the same time, I was exposed to the world of entrepreneurship and startups. I gained several mentors - product leaders, seasoned business managers, executives, and entrepreneurs.

I had an epiphany. I realized great product management happens best at the intersection of business management, leadership, and an entrepreneurial attitude.

I founded ProductCamp DC with a few others, and after that, my career took off. 

What unconventional strategy did you employ that significantly impacted your business?

I can't say there's any one strategy. But I do feel like I'm living proof that you don't need to follow the Silicon Valley path to success.

Silicon Valley has this big gravitational pull and it's easy for every tech entrepreneur, product manager, and innovator to feel they have to do it the SV way. That theirs is the right and only model for success. Now, there's no denying their model has been very successful. But I've always worked outside of that - every startup I've helped grow, every innovation I've launched, every product I've scaled, every "intrapreneurial" pursuit, every career and business success, has been outside of SV. As a result, I've been fortunate to enjoy a rich and diverse set of experiences and a fulfilling career that I'm not sure one would get in the SV echo chamber.

And I feel that makes my story more relatable to most folks, because the majority of folks are NOT in Silicon Valley and will never be in Silicon Valley, but they're all trying to accomplish the same goals, do a good job, have a good career, do right by their families and communities, and are trying to make their own little dents in the universe. It's absolutely doable and you don't have to be in California.

What’s something you wish you knew sooner that you’d give as advice for aspiring or newer entrepreneurs?

1. Career success comes to those who own it.

Don't rely on your employer or someone else. There's no such thing as job security.
There's lots of advice out there and even more opinions on what one must do to be successful. There is no one path. No one formula. Don't follow someone else's journey. Chart your own course. Carve your own path.
So the only real currency is skills and impact. Keep developing new skills and focus on delivering results that matter and you'll always have options.

2. You are your own best advocate.

You have full permission to tell the world how awesome you are. Because you are. Don't be arrogant. Don't brag. But don't be shy about promoting yourself. Because no one else will.

3. Be bold. Be opportunistic. Back yourself.

Staying in your lane is the riskiest thing you can do. If you remain open, opportunities will come by, and looking back you'll realize what a game changer it was. Every now and then, an opportunity will present itself to you and you'll be faced with a decision. It's easy and understandable to not take the leap, because we're scared. But that's often the riskier choice. For example, over the last 15 years, every career or business move just sort of came to me vs. me seeking it out. Some didn't work out. But most resulted in propelling my career into an exciting new direction. These things build on each other. So be opportunistic. Be bold. And always back yourself.

Want to dive deeper into Shardul's work? Check out the links below.

• Visit Street Smart Product Manager's website streetsmartproductmanager.com
• Join Shardul's course 'One Week Product Roadmap' at oneweekproductroadmap.com
• Connect with Shardul on LinkedIn: Shardul Mehta