One of the many benefits of working at a small company is being able to build your career in a way that you envision for yourself. There are many opportunities to grow and allow you to dive into a new avenue you may not have thought of before. If you aren’t sure what path you want to take, small companies allow you to try on many hats to see which one is the right fit. 

Cara Sego, our Product Director, has worn many hats at Kipsu! Cara started at Kipsu shortly after graduating from college, and was able to not only build her career path, but was able to help build our Product Development team and company over the years. We sat down with Cara to learn more about her career journey finding the best-fit hat for her. 

How long have you been working at Kipsu?

7 years

What was your path to product/product management?

In undergrad, I studied Computer Science and Statistics. During my senior year, some friends who had graduated a couple years before me were back on campus for a career fair working at a booth for the company they worked at. They were pitching this “Entrepreneurial Leadership Rotation Program (ELRP)” that their company was offering. I had never heard of Kipsu, and it made sense once I asked them how big Kipsu was they said 30 people haha! The program struck a chord with me because I wasn’t entirely certain if I wanted to pursue a software engineering role or not after college - the opportunity for variety piqued my interest and soon thereafter I found myself at Kipsu. 

Over the first year, I spent 4 months on 3 different teams learning the business, processes, and responsibilities of each (Customer Success Onboarding, Engineering, and Engineering - Business Analyst). At the time, Kipsu didn’t have a formal Product role or team, but the need definitely existed. I really enjoyed how the responsibilities of Product sat between the technology and the customer/user. Upon completion of the 1-year program, I started in a new role called “Product Analyst”. 

From there, we started building out a more formal Product function at Kipsu including forming a team, establishing processes, and integrating the domain into the broader development lifecycle. Over the next few years the team continued to grow from one person to the size we are today - 7!

What do you find rewarding about being a director of product?

I have really enjoyed being a part of growing a product team and helping shape what we do with an eager and talented team. More specifically, I’ve enjoyed the challenge of figuring out how we do what we do in order to accomplish our responsibilities. Starting from no team and organic product functions to a team of seven that is closely integrated throughout many processes across the company, I’ve had the chance to create and evolve processes, dive deep into the weeds to iterate, and try something new and fail or succeed. It’s rewarding to think back on where we started to where we are now, and humbling to look forward to where we can continue to grow.  

Do you have any defining or “aha” moments you’d like to share?

A broader theme of ongoing “aha” moments for me fall into the category of “how to effectively communicate across a variety of audiences”. One specific “aha” moment is a little mantra that my first manager and I coined after a series of meetings on a particular topic that seemingly kept running in circles: “Recap, don’t rehash”. We had been diving deep into details of a project with folks, came up with solutions and/or next steps, and then by the time we regrouped again, we’d rehash everything we already discussed due to time passed and ended up not moving the needle forward. The “aha” moment for me was the simplicity and impact of a simple recap as a tool for effective communication and ultimately product management. Be it at the end of a meeting, in an email afterwards, or even in a conversation with someone after discussing something - echoing back what we discussed and key decisions/direction gained more effectively sets us up for the next meeting or milestone. It’s a seemingly straightforward thing, but when working at a smaller company where everyone wears multiple hats, it’s tempting to think that either everyone will remember or someone else will remind, when really, we all have a role in keeping momentum moving forward. 

What’s your favorite thing about working at Kipsu?

It’s a classic but it’s true -- the people! Over the 7 years I’ve been at Kipsu, a lot has evolved, but one thing that has remained constant is the awesome people that join the team. There’s a sweet balance of ambition, focus, and humility that makes the work we do engaging and rewarding. I enjoy that we take our work seriously but we don’t take ourselves so seriously, and you’re going to spend a majority of your week with the people you work with, it’s extra convenient when those folks are great!

A close second place might be the clever and frequent use of memes to capture key moments at Kipsu. Never fails to ignite a good mid-day chuckle.

What advice would you give to someone looking to become a product manager?

A quote from Charles Ketterling, a former inventor and researcher at GM, states: “A problem well stated is a problem half solved.” He nails it on the head. Before we can effectively build a solution, we need to have an accurate understanding of what problem or need we are solutioning for and why. 

The following are a few things I’ve found helpful in working towards understanding a problem or need:

• Listening between the lines, not just to what people say, but also what they don’t say
• Creative question asking; rarely does it hurt to ask “why” one more time
• Synthesizing information and providing structure to the chaos through categorizing, theming, and grouping - the gold is often in the connections between needs, not just the needs themselves
• Echoing back, whether in words, diagrams, or other visuals

All of these are helpful skills to more effectively elicit, identify, and understand a problem, getting you (proverbially) halfway to a solution :)

As Kipsu continues to grow, we love to see our diverse team grow with us. We want to find the right hat to wear for all of our team members. Whether it is a career change or a brand new role, we value finding the best fit. Whether you’ve taken a more traditional path in engineering, or are considering a career change, be sure to check out our open positions on our careers page to see if Kipsu is a good fit for you.