365 Days in The Life of A Product Manager: Day #12 — The Value of Online Communities 🙌🏻
Ever searched for something online and just got absolutely blown away by the insane number of resources available on the internet about any specific topic? Now, have you spent time looking for information about something and couldn’t quite get the answer you’re looking for? Sometimes, you won’t find the tailored details that will draw you the full image or give you the precise understanding you need. Why is that? Because the internet is limited by experience. Suppose no one ever goes online and types up their expertise about a particular topic. In that case, that information will not exist on the internet, unfortunately. Well, technically, it could potentially exist, but you can’t find it due to horrible SEO.
All of this brings us to the conclusion that sometimes you need somebody to get in contact with to give you a piece of information, advice, or opinion. Suppose you’re fortunate to have a decently-sized high-quality network. In that case, you’ll be able to navigate through your contacts until you find somebody that will give you the juice you are looking for. If not, however, you’re sh*t out of luck. Well, not really; you can always lean on an online community to back you up!
Over the past couple of years, I have found myself curiously searching through different professional fields and topics, yet always requiring an additional push to fulfill my inquisitive needs. Almost every single time, I successfully found a Slack Community with thousands and thousands of individuals with your same interest and questions just hanging out, connecting, networking, and helping each other out. Below are some of these communities I’ve become a part of, with their invite links:
- Product Marketing Alliance Slack Community
- Tech Sales/Business Development Community
- Product Management Community
Within these communities, there are usually many different Slack “channels” that cover a variety of different topics, including:
- Advice and Feedback
- General News About The Topic
- Job Opportunities / Advice
- Requests For Help and Support
- Networking and Chatting
- Intros and Opportunities
- Much, Much, Much More.
Anyway, here’s the reason I am sharing all of this since you might be wondering what the hell this has to do with “365 Days In a PM’s Life”, right? Well, I am actually a part of one of these communities that are focused on Product Management, which has been one of the best ones yet, in my opinion. I say this for multiple reasons, including:
- A high level of engagement and responsiveness from the participants.
- A wide variety of valuable discussions and insights are shared 24/7.
- Absolutely some of the friendliest people you’ll ever chat with.
- Multiple meetings/webinars are held daily as part of the community.
Here are two interactions that I’ve had on this community that really made me appreciate access to this resource and accordingly decide to share it with you all on here:
A little over a month ago, I shared my opinion about a topic in a thread with a few hundred people involved in that same discussion. Shortly after, I received a personal message from a young man based out of India, asking for help on a couple of PM interview questions that he had to solve to get the job he was pursuing. Well, we met the first time through a Zoom call and chatted for an hour or so. Honestly, the questions he was trying to solve were actually pretty interesting ones, so I got more involved out of curiosity. One call led to another, which led to another; we basically stayed in touch for a while. Two days ago, he reached out to me on Slack to share the great news; he got the job! I can’t begin to explain the joy I had for him; it almost felt like I was getting the job, haha.
About a week ago, I dealt with a somewhat challenging task for work and couldn’t figure out how to solve it. I headed directly into the “Ask for help” channel, posted a summary of my issue, and click that send button without thinking twice. Within 5 minutes, there was a whole thread of exceptional people worldwide volunteering to help me and provide their two cents. One of the responses (a very good one) was submitted by a brilliant young lady with lots of passion and willingness to help. Her answer gave me the framework that I needed to consider before finding the solutions I was looking for. I immediately went to the drawing board and started brainstorming. A week later, yesterday, I reached back out to her to ask her for feedback on my findings, and we ended up having a Zoom call to dive deeper into our discussion. I felt really blessed for running into someone this nice, smart, and collaborative. She never asked for anything in return, but I feel like I owe her for the push she gave me when I was in need.
So to conclude, I believe that the internet is one of the most significant places to be. Still, it’s only great with its people and the communities built within it. We have to appreciate the value of such communities, maintain their integrity, share our values, and help them grow to spread the benefit. Without such gatherings, we all will miss out on so many opportunities, experiences, and knowledge. You can buy a lot of things online, but what we are talking about here is invaluable; sharing human interactions and experiences.
