Charlie Whicher

Senior Product Manager, Unito

Bio

Charlie is a senior product manager at Unito, with over 8 years of product management experience in software, AI, and life sciences. She started out as an academic in Biology in the UK, but after her PhD she realised she wanted to be part of the fast paced world of startups, so she joined a seed round startup working on genetic data. There, she discovered the role of a PM, and has never looked back. She has worked in startups in all stages of their growth, from raising their first investment round to becoming unicorns. Charlie is passionate about supporting the product community, she is involved in various PM mentoring schemes including Front Row ventures’ Women Founders Project and is the co-organiser of the Montreal Meetup Product Circle.

Charlie's Session at Product4Good

“All roads can lead to product.”

Do you want to break into product but you don’t have a ‘traditional’ background and training? How can you convince an organization you have the right skills to be a product manager? As a hiring manager, how can you know if these non-traditional product managers have the skills to do a good job?

Product managers in the software and tech space tend to come from a set of ‘traditional’ backgrounds and career paths – marketing, support, engineering. This poses a problem for budding PMs who do not come from those backgrounds and for hiring managers who are trying to bring diversity into their team.

I believe that product management is one of those career paths where your background and training aren’t the most important thing for you to be able to be an amazing product manager. What I think is most important is your mindset, your approach to problem solving and your soft skills. In this talk I’ll explain why I think this is the case, based on my own experience of entering the software product space with a ‘non-traditional’ background, and from that experience what skills I think are most important to be a great product manager.

🗓️ October 18, 2023

⏰ 11:15 am

📍 Main Stage, Rialto Theater – Community Lightning Talks

Why are you interested in participating at Product4Good?

As you can see from my ‘extracurricular’ activities, I’m very passionate about helping develop, inspire and support the product community. Product4Good is a huge opportunity for product managers from across Montreal and beyond to come together to share ideas and concepts. I believe my message is valuable for two reasons, firstly it will encourage those who are afraid their backgrounds aren’t ‘right’ for product management to take the leap and have faith that their skills are all they need, and secondly to share the message about the importance and value of having product managers with diverse backgrounds. I have volunteered at various community events since I moved to Montreal, including Techaide’s 2022 football tournament. I’m thrilled about being involved in an event that brings passionate product people together while being able to give back to the wider Montreal community.