The Last Dance
When career journeys come to an end...
Hello and welcome to issue #1 of the Product Colour newsletter. It seems a bit odd, but I’m starting my newsletter journey with a post about the end of a career journey, but hey here we are. I recently left my role as Sr. Product Manager at Yoco, and thought I’d reflect on my time there and how the experience impacted me.
I joined Yoco back in July 2018, when the Product team was still in the process of getting set up. At the time I accepted my offer, there was only 1 Product Manager at the company. Over the next 2.5 years we built out one of the biggest product teams in SA. It was one of the best product teams I’ve had the pleasure of working with and an incredibly rewarding experience.
Why journeys end
At times I thought I would never leave Yoco because the mission of building products and solutions for small businesses and entrepreneurs was one that resonated very strongly with me, having previously been an entrepreneur myself. But sometimes career journeys can come to end for a number of reasons. This is something we tend to lose track of when we are working in certain roles or products. Ultimately I had outgrown my role and it was no longer the right fit, and I lost track of this. A lesson I will be taking into future roles.
The fact this this all happened while we were in a pandemic also didn’t really help matters. It’s definitely been a challenging year. However my view on this journey ending has been mostly positive. It gave me the opportunity to take some time off and reflect on what I want for the next chapter of my career. I also created an incredible amount of great memories from my time at the company, and made some real connections made with my teammates that will continue to carry with me.
Yoco had just over 20 000 merchants when I joined and increased their customer base to 100 000 merchants by the time I left in October. Experiencing that kind of growth and scale at a startup is a life changing experience. The opportunity to work on amazing products, develop expertise in the hardware space and grow as a product manager is something I will always be thankful for.
Finally, getting the chance to work with the founding team in an early stage VC funded startup will be invaluable for when I start my own startup one day. Emphasis on one day.
What’s next
I’m still trying to figure that out. I’ve been interviewing with a few interesting companies as I look for a new product role. In the meantime I’ve started this newsletter in an effort to get back into writing more. I’ve started working on my personal site (again). It’s still very much a work in progress but you can check that out here. I’ve been building WordPress sites again for a few clients, and doing some consulting.
I have a vision of what this next chapter of my career looks like, and now it’s really just about putting the right plays in motion and executing to get there.
What to expect from this newsletter
You can expect a weekly newsletter with my thoughts on products, product management, startups and (some) sportsball. I’ll keep things light hearted as you’ve probably noticed, but will try and keep it informative. If you’re interested in products, product management and startups then you should subscribe.
If you haven’t checked out The Last Dance on Netflix yet, please do. The documentary gives a great first-hand account of just how much effort went into the 6 NBA Championship titles Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls won. I think there’s a lot of lessons in there for product teams and startups trying to achieve that level of success.
Thank you. Until the next issue, take care.