Scaling through imposter syndrome

Last month, I had the opportunity to speak at a Product Management Learning Conference hosted by my organization at Microsoft. I spoke about a topic I'm deeply passionate about - “measure what matters”.

The last time I gave v1.0 of this talk, I shared my story of dealing with imposter with you. This time around, the room was bigger, the audience was 10x wider, the stakes were higher, and I shared the floor with Justin Hutchinson who has a lot more expertise and experience in this space. So, it goes without saying that my imposter syndrome was also kicking in 10x louder in my tiny head. Here are 5 things I did to not just "deal with it", but to "grow and scale through it":

1) Practice, practice, practice

• I rehearsed on my own many, many times to find my yay and nay moments without feeling ambushed.
• Next, I practiced in a safe space with those who I knew well and those who knew this topic well.
• Finally, I stepped outside my comfort zone to do mock runs with those who didn't know me at all and those who did not know this topic well.

2) Iterate through feedback

• I asked my practice reviewers for elaborate feedback on what is landing well and what might be missing.
• I improved my next iteration by internalizing every piece of feedback and carefully choosing how to best incorporate it.

3) Make it my priority and be vocal about it

• I was not shy to be vocal that this is an important learning milestone, both at my workplace and (more importantly) at my home.
• I maximized my chances of success by seeking help and support from my circle of trust - family, friends, mentors, leaders, teammates, and anyone willing to offer it.

4) Ask for more feedback

• I asked many in the audience for 1 piece of feedback on what I could do differently if I had to do this talk again.
• I insisted on constructive criticism when I only received praise and asked for examples on how to apply it.
• I continue to seek feedback because what got me here, won't get me there!

5) Embrace the opportunity and enjoy the process

• I acknowledged to myself that feeling challenged is natural because I am experiencing a new scale and building new skills.
• The only way to get better is by getting started (quoting Justin)!
• Even if v2.0 doesn't land exactly the way I'd imagine or the audience would expect it, there's always another opportunity to make v3.0 better.

I treat my mini career milestones with the same rigor and grace as I treat my product & feature launches. I put my best effort, test plenty and launch, gather feedback, and iterate continuously to ship a better version next time.

Thanks for reading till the end. If you could relate with my story or have experienced something similar, I’d love to hear from you in comments.

Product Nuggets is my humble attempt to share candid stories about my experiences building a career in product, data, and tech. If you find this newsletter useful, please share it with one more person who can benefit from our conversations. I welcome your candid feedback on how I can make this most valuable to you.