Director of Product Management at Tinyclues, Laura Dominique joined the company in May 2017 after stints at Dailymotion and Accenture. With master’s degrees in international strategic management and computer science, Laura feels that her technical background serves her well at Tinyclues, where effective communication and team-building requires a good grasp of what’s “inside the box”. In this interview, Laura gives us a peek at her daily routine and shares a few of her favorite things…
1. What’s a typical day like as Director of Product Management at Tinyclues?
There are two sides to my job: first, the day-to-day work on features in development; at Tinyclues, the product manager is part of the feature team, so we have a hand in all of the development rituals. Second, the more long-term preparation of what’s coming next: assessing the needs of our clients and other departments (customer success, data operations…), and what our own team sees as important new features. We follow a quarterly system, so the last month of each quarter is mainly focused on the next period’s objectives: what they are, and how to prepare for them.
2. What’s your favorite thing about Tinyclues?
For starters, I love the product in and of itself. It’s truly innovative and fascinating to work on. (I know that sounds cliché, but for a product manager this is important!) My second favorite thing is the people I work with every day; I’m surrounded by a brilliant group of individuals, and it’s enriching to collaborate with them.
3. What are the most important skills required for your job?
Definitely a strong sense of perspective; stepping back a bit from what exists within the product and taking a global view, to see what will really solve problems and be useful for marketers. You also need strong communication skills, to help get the engineering team on board with an idea/project and to make sure the other teams are on the same page.
And of course, a strong capacity for analyzing information and for leveraging data to best support our clients’ varied use cases.
4. What teams do you interact with on a daily basis?
I work closely with the Engineering department, including the Data Science team. I also interact a lot with Data Operations, Customer Success and Product Marketing… which brings us back to the importance of communication skills! The product management team works directly with the client when it comes to beta testing and feedback on new features.
5. What’s the best part of your job?
The most rewarding thing for me is the impact I’m able to have on the end user…and the fact that we can measure the value we’re providing. As a product manager, you have to be able to reframe things – going beyond the clients’ expressed needs to the heart of the real issue. Innovation is key. We’re always aiming to introduce new uses and change the way people work, whether they realize it or not!
6. When are you happiest at work?
When a new feature comes out! Having a feature we’ve imagined from the beginning come to life, and then seeing its positive impact on clients. This really gives meaning to my day-to-day efforts. Also, when we struggle with a tough problem and finally come up with something that works, that’s a great feeling. My job isn’t always headache-free, but it’s very rewarding to be a part of these projects and to offer new solutions to the team and to marketers!
We’re hiring! If you’d like to join Laura and other great talents at Tinyclues, check out our open positions.
