#10 - Client stories: Ana Woodrow
"If there is no career path, carve one out for yourself!"
In this new series I speak to my coaching clients to learn more about their journey into and through product management. Through these stories, you get real-life insight into product careers and the challenges and wins along the way.
This week I sit down with Ana, a product leader I’ve been coaching through her job search. If you are looking for a B2B SaaS product director, then Ana is your match - connect with her on Linkedin.
Hi Ana. Tell us a bit about who you are and what you do.
I'm currently between roles, but I spent the last 3 years in product leadership. I've been in product for 12+ years, with the vast majority of that (10 years) spent at Ocado.
What does your career journey look like so far?
While I started my career as a software developer, I found my passion actually lies at the intersection of tech and business. What started as a consultant role leading an agile transformation made me realise I loved product work. This passion fuelled a decade-long journey at Ocado: I went from being the PM for a few squads, establishing product best practices and driving a B2B SaaS transition to moving into more customer facing product roles that allowed me to expand my domain expertise and market understanding and finally leading a brand new product strategy team delivering key insights to C-suite stakeholders.
My Ocado career path was a bit squiggly and peppered with some non-traditional product roles, but I have learned a lot during that time and by the end I knew I wanted to move to a Head of/Director role elsewhere, where I could continue my learning and growth journey. My latest role at Korber as a Product Director enabled me to use my leadership, strategy and supply chain domain expertise to lead and grow a team of PMs, while navigating uncertainty and change in the business.
I'm now volunteering as COO for The Female Product Lead community, helping to establish best practices and improving processes, so we can provide even more value to our members and promote inclusivity in product leadership.
What are you most proud of professionally?
My first leadership role back at Ocado was scary - I wasn't sure I was ready for it and I thought I needed to have all the answers. The role involved setting up a brand new team, establishing new ways of operating, and working cross functionally with many areas of the business. It wasn't easy, but I'm glad I pushed through and laid the foundations for this new team, as I learned so much: working with more senior stakeholders and adapting what and how I present to them, working with technology teams and influencing their roadmaps (with their buy in) and putting together structured strategy narratives driven by market research, financial modelling and clear product recommendations.
I am proud of having the courage to take the big step into leadership, learning so much along the way and being able to deliver strategic recommendations and frameworks that were used for years.
What matters most to you in your work?
When it comes to work, I am a firm believer in continuous learning. With every role, I hope to learn something new and I hope I can help others learn as well. I lead with empathy, kindness and clarity and my team and my products are what drive me in my day to day work.
If anyone in my team needs help, or a product in my area is having issues, I am right there, supporting in any way I can, while giving the team the autonomy and trust to deliver the best results.
What challenges have you had to overcome along the way?
One of the biggest challenges I had in my career was the lack of a clear career path, particularly in the early days at Ocado. Product was new to the organisation and it took a good few years for a proper structure to develop. I ended up moving into the client facing side of the business with the goal of being closer to customers and learning more about the market first hand, which then made it difficult to go back to leading technology products.
That said, this "detour" meant I became more strategic and more commercially minded, which has definitely helped me differentiate as a product leader more recently. So the lesson here is - if there is no path, carve one out for yourself!
How has coaching played a role in your journey?
I'm relatively new to coaching. I started working with Caroline earlier this year following a redundancy and I honestly regret not engaging with a coach earlier. Coaching has helped me become much clearer about what I want in my career going forward, how to approach my job search, how to keep myself accountable for my goals and so much more.
A lot of what I worked on with Caroline has been centred around the job search and it's given me the confidence to present myself in the best possible way both in my CV and LinkedIn, and in interviews.
I went from always asking myself "Am I good enough?" or "I'm not sure I can do this" to "I have the experience, I've done great things and I ABSOLUTELY can do this!"
What advice would you give someone following a similar path?
I would definitely recommend working with a coach if you can. Looking back, it would've been so useful to have a coach when I first moved into leadership and to have that person to reassure me and help me navigate that transition.
The other piece of advice I have is that you don't have to follow a very traditional career path - be clear what your goals are and take the steps that will help you get closer to that, even if they are atypical.
And find a good mentor you can learn from - a lot of my managers early on were difficult or impossible to learn from and I wish I had a more experienced product person to talk to and learn from. A good mentor can really fast track your growth.
What’s next for you - or what are you excited about right now?
I am currently volunteering some of my time at The Female Product Lead, which I'm really enjoying and it does warm my heart to be able to give back to the product community.
However, finding a new product leadership role is my main focus. I'm looking for a Head of Product or above position in B2B SaaS, ideally in the tech for good space, but happy to go with something closer to my past experience in grocery retail or supply chain.
What brings you joy outside of work?
Outside of work, I mainly spend my free time with my two kids (6 and 2 years old) - so if you need any recommendations for kids activities in Bedfordshire, let me know :) Other than that, I'm almost always reading a professional development book to keep that learning cycle going. I'm currently reading "Who does what by how much? A practical guide to customer-centric OKRs" and I think it's a great resource for how to implement OKRs in a very practical, step by step way and make them stick.