How can a “product” with Russian experience succeed in a foreign company?
In the IT environment, that same tractor with a pig at the helm has always threshed, not sparing diesel fuel, and in the last two years, the departing people, in view of the already noticeable shortage of agricultural machinery, are actively mastering alternative methods of transportation, increasing momentum and leaving behind Peter, suffocatingly grunting in clouds of dust . As a result of the mass emigration of IT personnel, the issue of adaptation to a foreign company became acute for many who left their native land. Despite maintaining seemingly familiar roles, this process does not always go smoothly. Below I will share my experience of going through this path as a Product manager and tell you which rake hits harder – short or long 😉
My name is Alexey, and I have been managing b2b-b2c products and leading teams in enterprises and startups for more than 15 years.
I spent 2 of these 15 years in the USA, leaving in pursuit of a dream in 2018, when it was not yet completely mainstream. During this time, as a contractor, I managed to work as a Product Manager and Technical Product Manager in the mastodons of the industry – Microsoft and HPE, as well as in a number of startups from different fields – from Healthcare to Real Estate Mgt. The approaches and corporate culture differ from company to company, of course, but there are also general specific trends that ran counter to my Russian experience, but which I had to take into account in order to be successful in the new realities – I will try to highlight them.
Alma mother
At the time of moving to the States, my experience in product management in the Russian Federation totaled about 6 years, so we can say that I moved as a mature specialist with an established professional worldview. On the one hand, this was an undeniable advantage and allowed me to pull myself out of more than one swamp during my overseas wanderings, on the other hand, the accumulated baggage sometimes did me a disservice, but despite some rough spots along the way, I can say that experience is more likely it still worked to its advantage.
In Russia, as a “product”, I grew up in a company with a startup mindset and, accordingly, this role there was a kind of CEO in miniature. At the same time, we did not have a hint of any turquoise – the 'product' was the general of a small army, at the right moment lining up as a 'pig'. The Reaper and the Swede, coming to the grocery store at 2 a.m. after a long day at the counter, where he “sold” everything that he “threshed” during the season… In general, those who swam will understand!
It was with this background that one fine day my family and I boarded a plane whose destination was JFK.
Sun spots
Before relocation, I already had experience working with foreign customers, including successfully completed projects, flavored with short-term onsite business trips. At the time, it seemed to me that I had a sufficient understanding of what I was planning to get involved in, but, looking back, I can say that this was a delusion, and in the end life is learned not from textbooks, but from the bumps on the back of your own neck.
What unexpected difficulties did you have to face?
The main ones lie in the cultural plane and are related to communication and its interpretation.
The language barrier. If you want to be a “product” in the States, responsible for “vision” and building a product strategy, then in addition to the relevant professional knowledge, you need not only to be fluent in English, but to understand all the subtleties and local jargon, both industrial and everyday. Convincing a presentation to a company's C-level, demoing a half-baked product increment, or interviewing key customers is inseparable from the ability to crack a subtle joke to lighten the atmosphere.
Yes, your English will probably not be the worst in the company, and your Chinese colleagues will fight for this title, but considering that as a Product manager you are essentially the face of the company, then all of you, not excluding your language, should shine, like cat bells in March.
The advice here could probably be this: try to join the native crowd as actively as possible, drag colleagues out for lunches and brunches, improve your language skills by volunteering wherever your heart leads you, and don’t shy away from taking a couple of lessons from professionals, so that your pronunciation can be corrected, your accent removed, and in general these same bells polished 😉
Without this, most likely you will face the fate of Technical Product Manager, not the most dismal prospect, but there the focus will still shift towards more routine activities, such as system analytics, preparing User stories, layouts, interaction with the development team, etc.
Mind your own business. Everyone is called to mind their own business and not teach their neighbor which pot to pee in and how to pee. For some cases this is more true, for others less so – if you are in a startup, then you will probably be forgiven if you have the guilty pleasure of tinkering with the code, but in an enterprise you definitely shouldn’t cross the boundaries of other people’s areas of responsibility.
If, for example, you see problems with the performance of a solution, you do not need to go to the developer responsible for this piece of code, even if you know him personally, and even more so bring him the logs of profiling a request that fails – rather, he will perceive this as an encroachment on its job security rather than the friendly assistance you offer. The best way here would be to follow the official protocol that you have in place in the company – for example, document everything as part of a ticket, go to the quality department, asking them to check what is “wrong”, and so on, thereby allowing everyone to do their job, while having completed your task and achieved correction of the situation in the product.
In general, the “product” should be focused exclusively on performing its specific functions, without trying, even with the best intentions, to climb into territories beyond its control.
9 to 5. Unless we are talking about an early-stage startup, where the founder is balancing between the alternatives of riding a unicorn or being under a bridge, then very rarely in the company’s office you will be able to find a person working outside of standard hours, even in non-linear positions. If for Russian office culture it is normal to work overtime, and at 7 pm you most likely will not feel lonely in the office, then a similar zeal is unlikely to find understanding among your American colleagues.
Do you need to do anything special when rebuilding your
approach to deadlines and overtime? I think that there is no need to worry here, because… at
for the majority, 11 holidays and 10 vacation days a year are unnecessary
the zeal somehow goes away on its own 😉
The opposite effect of feedback. In Russia, when the result of the work I did did not meet the expectations of the company management or the methods for achieving the desired result raised questions among colleagues, they firmly and clearly made it clear to me that I was an eccentric, sometimes they even beat me 🙂 Perhaps in the States you will also have a chance somehow try a cowboy boot, but at the same time you will definitely hear that You've been doing a great job!
To get actionable negative feedback, you will have to work hard, either by directly fishing it out of the right person, or by making a knight move, going through his/her leadership. Well, and, of course, you need to listen carefully and learn to correctly interpret what you hear. If your English-speaking colleague tells you “Very interesting…” in response to the presented idea, don’t flatter yourself, most likely he thinks that what you brought to him is completely and dullly wrong.
The same goes for providing negative feedback – don’t even think about coming to a person and telling him in all honesty what you think about the work into which he has put his heart and soul. If you are forced to convey bad news to the recipient yourself, then you should try to approach the issue as carefully as possible, and creative psychological approaches are strongly encouraged on how best to beat this presentation – you can’t just dump it on the table, in extreme cases you need to at least wrap it in shit sandwich. Also, a good option, in my opinion, to convey negative feedback would be to go through the manager of the person to whom it is intended, articulating to him your concerns or concerns and asking for assistance in bringing them to the final addressee J
I, raised in an organization where the slogan was “Negative feedback is the engine of progress!” It was quite difficult to adapt to this feature, and I wasn’t the only one. I remember an incident with the son of the owner of the kindergarten where we went, who started playing hockey at Molot Prikamye school, and continued to improve his skills in the suburbs of Seattle. He was, to put it mildly, dumbfounded when his teammate scored an own goal and instead of learning the bitter truth from the coach that he would never be a champion, he heard “Good job!” The bewilderment of the young Permian at that moment knew no bounds.
Practice beats theory. If your product does not have successful implementations in companies similar to the one you are pitching it to now, or a friend of your potential client did not leave a rave review for it, then your chances of selling it are minimal. You can draw long formulas in your pitch deck for as long as you like, proving that you have invented a perpetual motion machine, but if there are not a couple of pictures showing how this very engine (or at least a similar one) is used to success the client's neighbor's tractor, then this is doom and decay. If your product is not in harmony with the laws of physics, but at the same time it has a couple of success stories, then maybe it’s not so bad and is definitely worth paying attention to;)
Keep this feature in mind when creating
presentations or presenting ideas to the customer – applied cases in the States
inevitably beat the theory! Apply and then understand – this concept was for the adherents of the Soviet
school is difficult, but, alas, necessary 🙁
Working with beetles and toads. If you have to work with a transnational company, where offices, production sites, and just development teams are scattered all over the world, then this is a separate kind of sadomasochistic pleasure, especially if you have to sew this jacket, which is fraying at the seams, together. A kaleidoscope of time zones and cultural codes that need to be married to each other – there is probably no simple advice on how to survive in this meat grinder, and only years of training and self-torture will allow you to master this type of kung fu.
The main thing, it seems to me, is to form an understanding of
who is on the other end of the line, realize that it’s like communicating with girls, yes
doesn't always mean yes, no doesn't always mean
no, learn to be flexible by adapting your communication style and approach to
audience. In accordance with the existing features, carry out planning,
lay down the appropriate risks, evaluate the obligations assumed by the team
and understand what you can go to the bank with and what you can’t. In general, study, study and
learn to interact again!
Regulatory practices. A number of industries in the United States have strict legal restrictions, requirements and recommendations, without which your product may simply not see the light of day. So, for example, in Healthcare there are a number of laws and regulations that your decision must comply with – the HIPAA set of rules regulating how companies must protect the personal and medical data of patients, requirements for adapting solutions for people with disabilities ADA… CDA, HL7, ONC 2015 Edition Certification Criteria – the list here can be continued almost endlessly.
When entering this river, be prepared to study the hardware in the industry to which the product you are developing belongs, and communicate with various agencies and commissions in order to guide your product through the thorns of certification.
The End
Depending on your past experience, the culture and policies of the company you work with, your role on the project and even the location where you work, and a number of other factors, the list of unexpected difficulties you encountered may differ from the above. Accordingly, the steps to overcome these difficulties may also vary from situation to situation, but the following general recommendations, I think, can act as a kind of silver bullet that will facilitate adaptation in any environment:
Understanding the work culture and nuances of professional etiquette of a specific location
Active communication and interaction with colleagues
Immersion in the life of the professional community, participation in conferences, meetups and other events, volunteer activity
Building your own network
Study of the industry in which you will have to work, including terminology and nuances of the subject area, understanding of the product market, details of regulatory practices
Studying work processes and company policies, including mastering work tools specific to your organization
If you have had experience working in one or another role in a foreign company, then share your story in the comments, the unusual moments you had to face, and how you managed to cope with them!
Good luck to everyone and seamless adaptations!
