August 1st, 2022 was an exciting day for me. It was the start of the week (Monday), the first day of the month (August), and the first day of my new job, as a Senior Associate Product Manager at JMP. Nothing quite motivates people like new beginnings. Whether writing resolutions on New Year's Eve, making goals on your birthday, or being extra motivated when you start a new job, people feel inspired and energized when starting something new. So, imagine how I felt when I had 3 new beginnings all on the same day! Overwhelmed, yes, but very motivated and excited, also, yes.
Having worked at SAS for about a year after graduating college, I stumbled upon an opportunity at JMP that seemed like the perfect fit for me. A role on the core product team working on statistical discovery software and implementing product management best practices throughout the organization at a time when change and newness at JMP are the norm. I could not pass up this opportunity. And, of course, being on the product team requires some rudimentary to expert understanding of the product (which I had only used once before my interview), so I had my work cut out for me.
I thought it would be fun to walk you all through my first 90 days at JMP to learn more about me, where I struggled and excelled, and what makes working at JMP so unique and sticky.
What stood out
Community
The community at JMP is like nothing I have experienced before. The users are incredibly passionate, which I have seen through events like Discovery Summit and from interacting with them on the Wishlist/Community. I love that I have so many opportunities to interact with users, ask them questions and make them feel heard. That is why the Product Management team is working so hard to improve the Wish List process and ensure we are always closing the loop with our customers.
We have recently made some changes to the Wishlist process that will help our team better report on the status of all feature requests, and ensure we are getting back to customers promptly (whether their wish was accepted or not).
Product
One of my favorite things about working at JMP is that I use the product daily. It is great to say that I am not only a product manager; I am a user who cares about what goes into the software. Using JMP allows me to have empathy with users more and makes me better at my job. Many product managers never get the chance to use their product for their own work (or choose not to). The fact that I use JMP every day to solve product problems for JMP is fantastic. For example, my team has been using JMP to help prioritize the feature requests for the Data Discovery team.
Helping develop Product Management as a practice
The product management team has grown over the last several years, and now has 8 members. The expansion of our team, along with the adoption of Jira and Confluence, means we can take on a larger scope of work and work more efficiently. We are excited for these process improvements as they will make it easier for us to hear the voice of the customer in our target industries.
A crucial part of my job is helping my team determine what the best way for us to use Jira is and to help develop an external product roadmap, so we can get even better at communicating with our customers. This differs from SAS, where there were already a lot of processes and rules in place that all Product Managers had to follow. These processes included how to use Jira, how to create roadmaps and when to update them, and more. Nothing is wrong with this, but I wanted a bit more freedom in my role. At JMP, I am not only free to question our use of Jira and confluence, but I am encouraged to do so!
What (pleasantly) surprised me
I became a Jira/Confluence admin
I was a bit surprised when I was asked to be on the Atlassian Admin team a few months into my job, but I also knew it would allow me to make the changes to our systems that we need. As I mentioned earlier, a huge part of my role is helping to define and standardize our processes so our team can work more effectively. Being in this Admin role will make that a lot easier!
Every time I use my Admin privileges, I remember “With great power comes great responsibility.”
Culture
I have been very pleasantly surprised by the culture here at JMP. I came into this job thinking the culture at JMP would be very similar to that of SAS. While there are a lot of similarities, like a great work-life balance, there were also a lot of differences. For one, JMP is a much smaller company, which means I feel like I am never more than one degree away from a person I need to talk to. Also, the approachability of John Sall and Jon Weisz is incredible. The fact that I have had conversations with both and could reach out to them if needed really blew my mind when I first came here. Also, realizing we had perks like quarterly recharge days and coffee carts was a bonus!
JMP Discovery Summit
I never thought I would say this, but I had so much fun at a work conference! I had never been to a conference for work before (because I’ve only been working since the pandemic was in full swing), and I never thought they would be enjoyable. The week I attended Discovery absolutely flew by, and I woke up each morning excited to talk with users and colleagues (and eat the delicious fig bars they had). I also immensely enjoyed helping Bryan Fricke run the usability studies, which were a huge success. It was so rewarding to get to talk to users and see first-hand their experience with the software, and those studies are going to help make great features even better. I am looking forward to the next Discovery I get to go to and to meeting new people when I’m there!
Looking forward to the future
I know I still have much to learn and experience at JMP, but I am so glad I made this change. I would like to give a special shoutout to my team and manager, Daniel Valente, for making this such a great first 90 days at JMP, and I am looking forward to what we accomplish in the future.
If I’m not busy trying to help make a great product even better, you can find me on the frisbee field, roller skating in one of the SAS Parking lots (I don’t know how to brake yet, so if you see me, please watch out 
) or grabbing a beyond burger at the building C Café. Please reach out if you have any questions about my role, my team, or if you just want to meet a new colleague!
