Inside the 62-hour workathon! Jithu Prasad’s story of determination
This article is a part of the #WeAreLogiNext series of articles where we focus on the journeys of people that power the company.
A product manager is someone who is responsible for organic growth, whether it be related to finding the right market, building the right feature, or product-level decision-making. Jithu Prasad is a part of several key projects at LogiNext, and one of his most cherished moments is connected to a 62-hour workathon in which he challenged himself to ensure a smooth product launch. In this blog, we will go through his role, professional tips for being a successful product manager, and some inside stories that are worth a read!
LN: Tell us about yourself and your role at LogiNext.
JP: I’m currently a Senior Product Manager at LogiNext with the Product Excellence Department. I’m an Engineer by degree, heart, and soul. There is nothing better in life that I would do rather than devising solutions for problems and it’s the thing that gives me utmost joy. Being an entrepreneur and product consultant, prior to joining LogiNext, puts me in a unique position to tackle problems that come our way.
We work on a lot of cutting-edge problems in the industry today. It’s one of the most fun teams to be in where you get to make a lot of decisions concerning what goes into the product and how it goes. People say Product Management is a tough role but I would say it’s the most fun role to be in. It’s because you never end up doing the same thing on a day-to-day basis. You can never switch off your brain and go into maintenance mode, you’ll always have to be curious and mentally awake to be at your best and be of value.
LN: The 62-hour work marathon- we spoke about this but add on if you’d like to.
JP: This was one of the most fun things I did at LogiNext (voluntarily). A disclaimer first up is that though it makes for a great story, I don’t promote people doing this. Here goes the story- for a week to 10 days before the workathon, I was very sick with fever and had zoned out and my team helped by covering up for me and reducing the load on my plate. When I returned, there were certain dependencies on a new initiative that we are soon launching. Being the owner of the product, I was the only one who could deal with it as all of the things that were to be done were in my head. I seldom didn’t know that it was the beginning of a “Workathon” as I later coined it.
I arrived at the office around 7:30 with a bunch of red bulls (to power up) and the idea was to get everything completed before I left the office. But the process took longer than I expected and before I knew it, Dhruvil and I were the last people in the office that day. If I remember correctly, Dhruvil left the office at 11:30 pm or midnight and asked me if I wasn’t leaving, to which I replied soon. But I stayed and I think at that moment I had the idea to work for the entire night. I was sure it would take me all night to complete it task, but even that turned out to be far-fetched.
I rushed home for a quick shower and came back (so that folks at the office wouldn’t find it difficult the next day 😛 ). I had a sleepless night and with all the caffeine in the system, I covered up a lot of ground, but still, there was more to do, towards the wee hours of the second night at the office I had almost completed most of the stuff. But at that point, I was also seeing how much I can stretch myself and decided to make it 48 hours. This brought back memories of my early startup days.
The funny thing was this was something unofficial that I was doing, with only a handful of people who knew about it. Since I didn’t want to go public with it, I had to complete my third day at the office for normal working hours and so the workathon ended at 62 hours.
Apart from the work that got done, I made a couple of new friends also during this workathon. I came across people who come to 91springboard late at night for studying and freelance work, etc. I even got to know when the fresh milk in the coffee machine goes off and the time frame when only black coffee would be available. Viewing how beautiful the office is with all the white lights off and just the minimal ones on, sheds light on a new office perspective. 91Springboard just looks mesmerizing when it’s not overly illuminated.
At 62 hours, I had to stop working; otherwise, it would have been 84-86 hrs (since it was not a pre-approved workathon) before I could get home. Also, 62 hrs of not sleeping was starting to affect my performance. It was one of the most fun things I have done to date at LogiNext. Although my manager has asked me not to do such things in the future, I cannot guarantee it.
Disclaimer: I don’t promote this to any of my colleagues and won’t expect or advise people to do this. I would rather say don’t do it at all.
LN: What’s the best thing you like about your role?
JP: The best thing about Product Management is that it’s a creative role. To draw parallels, we can say that PMs are what an architect is for the construction industry. The ability to create unique experiences, features, and the freedom to express and solve a problem in a way you like- that’s the best thing about Product Management. Also, it’s not just engineering that you have to understand, you have to understand finance, marketing, design, business and also be able to understand and empathize with your audience. It’s a peculiar job in itself as it requires understanding almost every function of a business.
For most roles in a tech organization, your scope is very defined and limited, but with PM you have multiple opportunities. Your role starts right before even a problem is identified because it’s your job to identify one. Your job doesn’t end when the feature is rolled out for a user, because, it’s also your job to understand if a user is using it and what’s the adoption rate. Understanding what the user feels about the feature, how can we enhance the feature, what if a user is not adopting the feature, find its reason, is it because they lack awareness or because your assumptions were wrong and identify it to fix that. Once the user has adopted it, how to grow it further is the next thought process. What I’m saying is, you can work on a single feature for 700 days without any of those 700 days being like any other. This is exactly what I like about the role of a Product Manager.
LN: Any tips for aspiring professionals in your domain? What has helped you in the journey?
JP: As I said, it’s a challenging and holistic role. It will put you in many situations where you are not comfortable. If you want to be a Product Manager, you have to take risk of asking dumb questions and accept that you’re not the expert in certain areas. Sticking to what you’re an expert in and gradually learning that specific area will eventually make you the best. It also requires a lot of delegation skills, and it’s difficult to delegate and not be paranoid about the quality, as there is a lot at stake. This is the only way you can be successful in this role.
To break into the sector, the simplest way is to complete quality courses to get an idea about what you are signing up for. Understanding the terms such as PRDs, user story, roadmap, etc., and how to build/create them for Product Management. The key is to identify a decent course that will truly impart value. There is an umpteen number of courses online with people promising to make you a PM in a 3-4 hr session, stay away from them! Udacity NanoDegree or Coursera would all be areas where you can find decent material. Also, it’s an investment, so make it wisely, not always the cheapest is the best, nor the costliest the best. An alternative to this would be to connect and find a mentor for yourself and learn from them. LinkedIn alone can help you make a great PM.
Once you get used to it, I’d say you pick a few problems, build an imaginary product, build everything honestly from a PM perspective, get it reviewed and repeat the process a few times. This should be good enough, to begin the journey as a PM or APM.
I learned product management by being a founder of two companies and I won’t say that’s the easiest route or best way to PM, though it was very rewarding, the cost was significantly high too :D.
LN: Tell us something about your personal life. What are your hobbies?
JP: We were a family of four until recently when my sister got married. Now with my brother-in-law and his family, we are also a family of 8. My hobbies are very scattered and I don’t have a specific one that I do every weekend. Some of the activities that I often carry out are- bike rides, hiking, swimming, music, movies, writing, and meeting new people. The one I’m currently engaged in is bike trips, hikes, and traveling. I have been traveling for almost 5 weekends straight now and looking forward to maintaining a streak.
The most important things in life are Family and Friends. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for both of them.
LN: Who are your role models within the organization and outside?
JP: Inside the organization, I would pick
Dhruvil Sanghvi: Being an ex-Entrepreneur myself, I understand the pain and effort it takes to build a company from the scratch and scale it up to the heights that LogiNext has achieved till now. We know that we’re just at the beginning of the journey, but I admire how Dhruvil has built a brand like LogiNext. Learning from him how to build a brand was one of the primary reasons I joined LogiNext so that I can inspire and adopt his strategies while I start up again somewhere down the lane.
Pushkar Soni: Everyone at LogiNext would know why Pushkar is someone you would look up to. His professionalism, calmness, positivity, the way he approaches problems, guides and mentors the team, and his expertise in both Engineering and Product Management. There is a lot to learn from him. I at times feel that we align a lot in the thought process for the Product. Pushkar would be one person I can go to at LogiNext when requiring mentorship, guidance, or advice. He is someone whose advice I’ll take and try implementing just because he said so. There are few people who I respect that much to allow them to have that influence on me.
Naveen Kumar: The methodical and very structured way of Product Management is something to learn from Naveen. The way Naveen dives deep into problems and how he questions our solutions helps a lot in covering and looking at different angles of the solution. A brilliant product mind to look up to at LogiNext. Once you work with Naveen on an end-to-end cycle of a story or feature, you can easily make a playbook for how to do Product Management step by step.
Product Team: I couldn’t ask for a better team to have as colleagues and directly be working with. The way the team stands for each other collaborates and helps each other out is commendable. Every one of us is brilliant in our way. All of them help you learn and uncover new things. Will take a line for each of them as they deserve at least that.
Jithu with the Product Team at LogiNext
Kanishk Jain: When I plan on my next start-up, he’ll be the first person I want on my team, but I’m sure it’s not possible because that’s how loyal he’s to LogiNext. Brilliant, committed, passionate, a true professional who would go any stretch to get things done. His commitment is truly inspirational. If a story is being handled by Kanishk, you don’t have to take a look at it again, it’s as good as perfectly done.
Supriya Palande: If you have to learn how to balance life and work together, there’s none better than her. She has a nack to get things done, knowing which card to play when, and how to get the desired outcome with minimum intervention. An out and out professional but someone who balances life and work without compromising on her work.
Shashank Thakur: The product management maturity Shashank has, within one year, it’s simply amazing! An impeccable human being and sheer joy of a person to work with and another mind where his ideas and thought process are so in sync with mine.
Smrati Pahwa: She has the zeal to learn and pushes herself to newer heights- that would be the easiest way to describe her. Clarity of thought, vision, what she wants, and the willingness to go the extra mile to get things done. She too can juggle multiple responsibilities without cribbing on it but looking at the positive side of it in the learning aspect.
Outside of work: It’ll be Mukesh Ambani for his ability to stay ahead of the curve and find opportunities. Ratan Tata, I don’t think anyone can be not be inspired by him if you’re a human in general. Kunal Shah for his vision. Donald Trump for playing the audience to his tunes. Lastly, my father for his professional integrity and dedication.
LN: You’ve been an entrepreneur before, what would you say to aspiring entrepreneurs?
JP: If there is something more challenging than Product Management, it has to be Entrepreneurship. It’s a very challenging journey, but a rewarding one too. I could go on and on about it, but I’ll put in one simple thing, I have heard this misconception alot that as an entrepreneur you’re your own boss, but the truth is when you are the entrepreneur now even your office boy (if you have the privilege to have one) will be your boss. An employee fighting with his partner is your problem because anything and everything that’s happening around your folks would directly impact you. I’m sure all entrepreneurs would be able to relate to this, but if not today, when you get into entrepreneurship you’ll understand it. Another thing, as an employee you are making mistakes at someone else’s expense, as an entrepreneur, you’re paying for others’ mistakes too.
But all this said. It’s the most exciting and fulfilling journey to be in and you won’t regret doing it for the sheer learning you’ll have from it.
LN: Favourite book, favorite movie?
JP: Fav Book: Call of the Wild. There are many I have read, but the first name that came into my mind was this.
Favorite Movie: Can’t pick one. There’s a ton. Can say my Favourite Genre, which would be SciFi, then followed by Fantasy, Action, Romance, Comedy. Saying that I have cinephilia.
LN: Tell us something no one knows about you.
JP: Well, if no one knows, how can I say it here :P. But on a lighter note let’s say: “I’m Vengeance” #BGMStarts.
Stay tuned to read more stories about those taking LogiNext to the next level!
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