“As a result, I decided to do a little more of everything than I require to be a business owner. Instead of being limited by the title of position, I tried to make the most of every experience by learning all aspects, such as product development, finance, and analytics. It was my conscious decision to learn all the aspects to get prepared to run my own business.”
Pree Agarwal (MBA ‘17) is the founder of Wild & Pree, a clothing brand based in Seattle. Pree graduated from PSG College of Technology with a Computer Science degree in 2012. She spent three years fresh out of college in eBay India as a Sr. Business Analyst in the eBay Analytics team until summer of 2015. When she was working in eBay, she also worked part-time towards her entrepreneurial passion, Borebandar and Fundooing, focusing on improving curated experience for Indian millennials living in metropolitan cities. During the summer of her MBA at Ross, she interned in Amazon Prime Videos team as a Sr. Financial Analyst. She returned to Amazon after graduating from her MBA in the summer of 2017 as a Senior Financial Analyst and transitioned internally to Senior Product Manager in the summer of 2019. Pree left Amazon in August 2021 and has been pursuing her passion towards entrepreneurship full-time since then.
1 What was your career plan in college? How did your passion impact your choices?
My passion towards entrepreneurship began at the age of 13, inspired by a deeply entrepreneurial family background. Both my parents and siblings were successful entrepreneurs, instilling in me a strong desire to chart my own business path. The influence of my family not only fueled my determination to pursue a startup but also shaped my vision for a business with global reach. While my dad’s business was localized to our hometown, and my sister’s business operated in India, I aspired for broader horizons.
As a result, I decided to do a little more of everything than I require to be a business owner. Instead of being limited by the title of position, I tried to make the most of every experience by learning all aspects, such as product development, finance, and analytics. It was my conscious decision to learn all the aspects to get prepared to run my own business. I’m not sure if you’ve heard about this. But most Indian kids start with an engineering degree and then figure out what they want to do (laughter). (Iris: Same as Chinese here. You start from math and then figure out your life.) All Asians right (laughter)? But that is not a stereotype-forced decision, that turned out to be amazing. Engineering gave me the foundations of approaching problems in a systematic way, which was really helpful for problem solving. You build a strong mindset to look at things in structures. My college experience underscored two critical elements: honing problem-solving abilities and leveraging my theoretical computer science background to excel in the practical realm. It put me in a good position in PM, working with engineers in developing algorithms at Amazon.
2 How did you manage to work on your own startup while working at eBay full-time?
I decided to commit to several ideas part-time while staying at eBay full-time because that is a perfect learning opportunity.
First, because as a fresh undergrad, I did not have the capital to start a business on my own. Second, it was important for me to be in a large organization where I can learn how a business functions. I was on the business analytics team. I used to report to a variety of verticals there. In the first year, I did fashion analytics and then I moved to electronics. It gave me a good insight of how large businesses are structured, and what needs to be prepared to hit the goals. It was a Business 101 course. I’m really grateful for that experience. It was like a paid training where you earn a salary but learn a lot at the same time (laughter).
I had the privilege of encountering a supportive mentor early in my career. On the first day of my job, I expressed my ambition to start my own business within five years (laughter). He not only supported my entrepreneurial aspirations but also committed to helping me acquire the necessary skill sets. Having such a supportive manager fresh out of college was a significant blessing, and a lot of what I’ve learned leading up to today can be attributed to the guidance of such mentors through my different roles.
3 How did you get into PM after two years at Amazon as a Sr. Financial Analyst?
I was not very keen on being a PM when I was in business school. I returned to Amazon as a Sr. Financial Analyst rather than directly recruiting for PM because my background and work experience better aligned with a strategic finance role.
Sr. Finance Analyst, especially in companies like Amazon, is a very good place to learn strategic thinking. Finance is typically a strong strategy role, where you work with business partners to figure out metrics of launching a product. Product, on the other hand, in companies like Amazon, is execution heavy and requires strategic thinking. It’s great to build that strategic thinking muscle through a Sr. Financial Analyst (SFA) position. Getting a sense of the bigger picture was critical for me at that time. From a career transition perspective, going into financial analyst from MBA was also a better choice. It was more reasonable to transition from my data analyst background into the data-heavy financial analyst instead of directly pivoting into PM.
My two years as a Sr. Financial Analyst at Amazon were incredibly enriching. I had the opportunity to present to the C-Suite, learning extensively about Amazon’s strategic planning – such as the global launch of Alexa – and understanding how to navigate financial inefficiencies, plan intricate supply chains, and decipher the underlying economics of strategic moves.
After those two years, I applied internally for a PM position. By this point, I was certain that I wanted to prepare for my own startup and build my execution muscle. Startups demand persistent effort, where daily execution is key. The role of a PM at Amazon mirrored this intensity. While a Financial Analyst typically focuses on a specific business component, a PM engages with every aspect of that component – from planning initiatives and securing buy-ins to building rapport with stakeholders and overseeing end-to-end product development, launch and growth. It was akin to receiving an education in startups, albeit in a more secure environment (laughter) with the perks of a steady income, access to stakeholders, and ample resources. This move brought me closer to the startup environment I aspired to be part of.
4 What are the skill sets you find critical as a PM?
I think the most important two skill sets as a PM are customer focus and stakeholder management.
Customer focus, in the context of a PM, entails viewing products through the lens of the customer. It goes beyond creating fancy features. The key is to ensure that the product addresses real customer problems. It involves consistently placing oneself in the customers’ shoes to better understand their needs and challenges.
As a PM, collaboration with various teams, including development, marketing, finance, and legal, is inherent to the role. Effective stakeholder management becomes paramount in the successful launch of products. I evaluate my stakeholder management skills from two perspectives. Objectively, I assess how well I adhere to the product roadmap by meeting milestones at the right time. Questions I use for self-reflection include: “Are we hitting the milestones that bring us closer to our final destination?” and “Are we ensuring that others are comfortable with the pace of this roadmap?” On a more subjective note, I gauge the satisfaction of those working with me. Achieving a balance is key. If people find satisfaction in collaborating with you, they are more likely to prioritize your work (laughter).
5 What resources did you find helpful when you were in Ross?
It’s a while ago so let me think about it…(laughter) To be honest, when I was at Ross I did not think about the PM role as much, so I did not utilize PM resources that well. I took a lot of finance and strategy classes. Those were critical in building up my strategic thinking sense. I wish I could go back to Ross and do lots of things in a different way (laughter). I would have interacted more with Business + Tech (Iris: Yep!). It is a good way to learn. You went through different practice of design thinkings, workshops. Those built the foundation of my product experience. I focused more on securing a job as an international student (laughter). I wish I could go back and better utilize my time there. As a human being, you tend to retrospect and think “What could I have done better?”
6 Tell us something that is not on your LinkedIn/resume
I’m a DIY craft maker. If I want to calm myself down from work, I’ll choose crafting. As a kid, my mom used to send me to summer classes. It was her way to keep me out of the household to gain some me-time (laughter). “It’s summer break now. Please go out for a few hours so your overly tired mom can take the break she most truly deserves!”
Iris: I feel so much energy from Pree during this interview. She is so optimistic towards her experiences. I heard “learning” more than 20 times during this 30 minutes’ conversation. Every position is a learning opportunity for her. And this is also a lesson for us – You can always find a learning opportunity from your job.
Do you have any questions about product management that you would love us to cover in the coming episodes? Tell us here.