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what's the biggest difference between data analytics and product management and if you're working as a data analyst how do you make that natural progression from the role that you're in to a product management role in today's interview with Cassie Shia we sat down to unpack these two roles and discuss what skills and responsibilities carry over and what the biggest differences are so that you can make the right choice for your career path keep watching welcome back everybody my name is Mackenzie I'm the marketing manager here at product gym and today I sat down with Cassie Shia a product manager with four years of experience to talk about her experience working as a business data analyst and going from that role into product management but before we get to that interview now would be a great time for you to hit the Subscribe button and make sure that you ring the bell so you can get notified about the next great videos coming out from the product and YouTube channel alright now let's get to it thank you for hopping on this call with me uh would you mind just to start us off by introducing yourself and maybe telling us a bit about your journey and how you came into product management yeah sure so hi everyone my name is Cassie I'm currently a problem manager uh in the crypto industry and before that I was a data slash business analyst for about two to three years and I made a career transition into problem management when I joined a crypto startup and ever since then I've been a product manager for about four years and I've been like working as a product manager I'd be working at a different type of companies the big Tech organization like Walmart and the smaller uh startups under like 20 people and then also medium-sized startup around like 200 people and also like throughout different industry from like e-commerce to fintech so yeah so that is my product Journey so far wow that's already like I feel like that's so much experience to have gained in four years all of these different Industries and styles of companies that's cool um can I ask so we're kind of focusing on the difference between these two roles so let's just say um data analyst and product manager um from what you've seen both with your experience um working in data analytics and product management what are the um like the main differences between those two roles would you say yeah so I think one of the main difference I would say uh it's about the scope so as a business data analyst um oftentimes when business come to me there's uh already a clear defined uh like a problem and then they need that like certain uh like support either the qualitative data or quantitative data to help them make that uh like final decisions so that was more like a supporting role as a business analyst but as a product manager um most of the time that even the problem itself is not defined and because in the business there are so many problems you can solve for you users and not every problem is worth solving not every problem that solved will bring the biggest impact to the business so that's why as a product manager your number one priority is to figure out all those problems and then make the final decision for the team that okay this is a problem we want to solve and then you work with a team to deliver Solutions so I think um in other way that uh I don't know like probably many of you have heard about like five y methodology which is the root cost analysis that whenever you answer a question why you ask it can prompt another one and if you ask why five times you eventually come to the like the real cost so I would say as a product as a business data analyst most of the time you're working through the first three wise that those like like questions that will at the beginning people would ask but the product manager you are expected to solve the problem from the most like from the mental way as possible and ultimately you can deliver Solutions that's most effective for the business so I'd say that the expectation for product manager is that you are able to sell a problem from the root cause I love that explanation and I've heard the importance of asking why I talked about so much for product management but I've never heard the like ask why five times to get to the root cause and I can totally I can immediately see how that would lead to um yeah getting to the root of how to solve a problem that's really cool um so that's kind of I think a good explanation of the difference of uh like the main responsibilities or how those roles work um what do you think is the difference or similarities in skills that those two different roles require is there any overlap yeah so I think there are definitely uh overlap that uh when it comes to um like for example the the data-driven decision-making process is nowadays like it's so important for every business uh like air is so that as the business data analyst um I like my number one priority is to like go into the database and to collect the data and then present the insights um in a very struck structural way and then come to the actionable recommendation so as a product manager I also often use utilize data to make decisions so um I know like and many big Tech organizations they have a very dedicated data team to support problem manages but still I think in most job descriptions the expectation from for product manager is still that you're able to get data yourself because you're the person who know the problem best so you probably um it's just a kind of more efficient as a problem manner if you can get a data yourself and then when it comes to more complex problems you can rely on your data scientist team but uh as a product manager I think I spend a lot of time digging to data so that's one uh similarity and then another similarity is just the Curiosity and then the interest about problem solving because regardless big or small problems as a business analyst data analyst or product manager you're often just solving a problem it's just as a product manager you need to consolidate a lot more data points from your from the market from your competitors from uh from the stakeholders probably as a data analyst your problem is more related to uh quality quantitative uh sources but but still you're you're given a problem and then you need to come come to your solution yeah that's really uh sounds like that's the core of both roles and then they will just like play out in different ways yeah could you maybe um say a little bit more about how that would uh look in the day-to-day like the day-to-day differences of being a data analyst versus a product manager yeah sure so as a data analyst um I think my day's relative is structured and also um oftentimes that I would have a lot more downtime to do my own research because my deliverable as a business data analyst is either a data report or um a business and Analysis report that's come um come with some data results and some recommendations but as a product manager I think it depends on because you here as a product manager you are involved in the full problem product development life cycle so in different stages actually you're working on different tasks so at the beginning as a product manager you um it's very similar to business data analysts that you spend a lot of time doing market research and collect all those information and put together a product required document to elaborate what's the goal and the purpose for this project but as you kick off the project then I'll spend a lot more time with it with um the the designers and uh Engineers to brainstorm uh Solutions because Solutions always like because the problem is um is open-ended so there are no like one way to solve problems so we would I would spend a lot of time with designers and Engineers we would just do whiteboarding and then just brainstorming all kinds of solutions and then we would eventually narrow down scope and come to the uh the product MVP we want to deliver so that is and that that is the second stage and then once we come to a clear definition of the solution I would work spend a lot of time working with Engineers through the product building process so during that stage um my routine is that I would um create tickets and then bring those tickets to the backlog review meetings and refine those requirements with engineers and then like we go through the spring planning so each spring we will set a certain goals and then as a team would work through the goal and then we do retro so all those products had ceremonies we I would carry through um in the product building process and then once the product is kind of almost ready to release I will spend a lot of time with the marketing team the customer support team to prepare the go-to market because um for each different product there are different way to release that to your customers and that's like that's the that's the final stage as of for the product release so I think in all those different stages the product manager play different roles so I would not say there's a very typical day for a prime manager but as a as a business data analyst viewed as relatively um kind of structured and it's more predictable what I couldn't help but notice um from your explanation of the average day in the life of a product manager is that you really broke it down um in terms of what team you're spending the most time with or what team is getting more of your focus um which I thought was really interesting I've never heard that before um do you think that your particular background with business data analytics um plays into that or like what skills do you think that your experience working with all of these different types of product management like Industries and companies how does that affect um how you work with those different teams yeah so um to be honest when I was a business analyst data analyst I also work with different um cross-functional teams I think it just the depth of collaboration kind of um really got get to the next level when I work as a problem manager I think that comes to the the ownership and expectation for product manager and business analysts because I I see that business analysts um it's just from my own experience oftentimes you're supporting bro in that process and um you're usually not expect to take the full ownership of the final result so people will come to you ask for support ask for information and once you hand it over to different departments and your responsibility to stop there and how they use the insights you provide is usually out of your control and when you as a work as a product manager you are expected to take the ownership end to end so not only you need to have an ideas and then you also work with all different teams to carry through with the engineers to build it out with a marketing tune to Accurate take it to the customer's hands and then also with the data team to find to analyze the end result so that you can come up the ideas for the next iterations so because of that expectation and also the scope of only things end to end so I think product manager I have a much deeper collaboration with all different teams yeah I really like that um like a deeper collab duration because I think yeah all of the the parts that touch that product are going to be collaborating at some point but just the product manager role would be the the deepest and most involved because of the ownership like you said that makes a lot of sense yeah so I consider that um problem management is actually a natural progression for business analysts because um once you reach to a certain stage um level as a business analyst I think it's the next stage is about the impact the ownership and because I think you know we're modern corporation that there's very detailed division of different roles so that um so I think the the roles were the scope for business analysts sometimes stop at a certain place and then if you want more impact on the business and the want more responsibility then naturally you will become a product manager that that's cool do you do you have any advice for people who are kind of at that stage of thinking that they're ready to make that step into product management yeah so I think um I've heard a a good saying that is if you want to get promoted um not like even just your natural role like from uh entry-level business and business analyst to senior business analyst is you already start to deliver more than uh what's expected for your next level role so that you can get promoters so I think because I think product manager is natural progression for business to analysts so that an a nobody at the business environment especially nowadays everyone expect you deliver above and beyond so nobody will stop you as a business business analyst to play a bigger role in the final result or think more strategically about the business impact so if you are someone who is currently in business analyst wants to transition to product management then start to think about every time you finish the test what's the bigger picture what's the business end goal how you how your how you're deliverable how your report is contributing to that and you once you start to think about this and you can start to connect the dots and also like get try to get more content from different stakeholders because I know as a business analyst people's expectation for you is to get the data from you and then they stop there but you can make a little bit more effort to follow through and follow up with those people who get your reports so how they are using your uh insights how they're using your recommendation what's the end result and you can even try to set up some mattress to measure the effective effectiveness of your reports and data and recommendations so I think just having that mindset to think problems end to end and trying to get the results and impact is it's a good way to start wow yeah and it sounds like that that mindset shift would kind of just further along that natural progression of yeah because that's going to be so Central to your role as a product manager when you get there um I mean wow that was all of the questions that I had I feel like we just kind of like uh we snapped right through them um but do you before we go do you have any final um like Words of Wisdom or is there anything else that you feel like we haven't touched on about the similarities or differences between the roles that you would want to say yeah so I think my final words for people who want to make Transition from um business analysts to product management is that um I think like everyone pursue uh like progression advancement in your career but before you make that transition I think it's also important to understand um that whether your personality uh or your um your natural way of getting happiness and satisfaction is aligned with expectation of this role because I think there it is true that there are a lot of similarities between this row but there's also um there are also like differences of mindset and also way of working for example as a as a business analyst you often work on your own you you do have a lot of collaboration but but most of the time the the final result is your own deliverable and as a product manager that in order to deliver a product you need to support it with a lot of different teams because no product manager can deliver the results on his own so I think some people I think there's no good or bad that in terms of you prefer to work alone in terms versus you you like working with many other people it just all depends on your personality and some people get more satisfaction and fulfillment from just delivering things on his own and some people have more satisfaction from uh delivering things as a team and empowering other people to build stuff and I I actually talked to some friend who is currently a data scientist is and she told me that she just feel a lot more fulfilled whenever she delivered in a model that that on her own so I think it's totally fine so understand how your how your brain works and how you get uh satisfaction is also very important for career decision and I think there's no right or wrong answer thanks for watching everybody I hope you enjoyed that interview with Cassie and if you did take a second now to like the video if you haven't already and drop us any questions and comments you have down below there and let us know what kind of interviews you'd like to see us record next thanks for watching and stay safe [Music]