Getting to know our featured user for September - Chaitan Shet
What is your current role?
I am one of the Product Managers in the CA APM group. With great support from our customers, my Scrum teams, fellow Product Managers and Support and Field friends, I function as the Product Manager for a couple of integrations and as the product owner for some of the present and upcoming features of CA APM. With such an awesome environment around me, I only have to ensure that I follow the age old human virtues of being a good listener and an assertive speaker, and having an empathetic view of others in order to do my job effectively, and hopefully it helps me to improve as a human being as well.
Previous roles?
They have been spread across the Software Development Lifecycle! I have done front end development, QA, and Release and Configuration Management, all of which have given me practical hands-on knowledge over the development lifecycle.
What is the most challenging part of your current role?
Finding a problem and understanding if it is a real problem worth solving which could, in turn, positively impact people, is hugely challenging and fun!
How have the communities helped you?
The honest feedback on the forum is helpful and manifests a thought process on areas of improvement. Apart from that, the Q&A threads, the Tuesday tips that my friend Hal writes (did you know he has written over 40 of those!...such consistency!) have all taught me a lot.
Favorite movie of all time?
Most movies (preferably short in length ) where the protagonist wins despite all odds stacked against him provide me with a huge kick! The Pursuit of Happyness and The Social Network are movies that I would probably recommend my grandchildren watch!
Favorite book of all time?
No all-time favorite book, as i read a lot and tend, at times, to forget what they were about in a few months! The latest that I have read and loved is "The Phoenix Project." Very applicable to the industry we are a part of. Maybe the authors could have edited out some chapters, though!
Can you share an interesting fact about yourself?
Having secured admissions into two film schools and one with a scholarship, I was set to be a film maker. What made me pull off is a wacky story!
I think being a film maker and a product manger are not too different! With great help from each of the crew members in the team, each of these roles are responsible for having a vision and converting it to an end product that is loved by the audience. Maybe in the future, films may have Product Managers on board!
Try this fun game!...if you were a Product Manager of "so and so terrible movie" think how you would explain the end product to the customer. I have so and so features (comedy, romance, action, song and dance, drama, this actor, that actress, that sidekick, and that antagonist that would appeal to the set of audiences - the front bench audiences, the back bench romantic couples, the family audiences, etc.) to make it what it is and the results are hilarious! Now think the opposite way on what you could do to make it much better!
Stay positive, even when things are not going your way and nobody believes in you!