Salman, a Product Manager 2 from Microsoft, shares his career path and the philosophy that has helped him improve as a professional.

Salman with Microsoft

From the U.K., Salman Chishti graduated from the University of Nottingham with a degree in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. He began his career working as a software engineer/machine learning engineer/data scientist/analyst, continued as a Cloud Solution Architect and now currently works as a Product Manager 2 at Microsoft. He is also currently a Microsoft Certified Trainer Regional Lead and previously was a Windows Insider MVP and Microsoft Azure MVP. You can check out his YouTube channel and Instagram for more about his work at Microsoft. Continue reading as Salman shares his career as a product manager and philosophy of life.

What are some of your daily tasks as a product manager?

As a product manager, I oversee our feedback system that spans multiple products at Microsoft, where I try to shape the direction of the product to best support my customers. Part of my tasks include conducting research and working with engineers to resolve any bugs that our customers or staff members encounter. Without product managers it can be quite hard to understand all the customer pain points, wants, needs, and high-level business requirements. One of my goals as a product manager is to work with software engineers to help them see the purpose of what they’re building, to help them see the impact they have, and to steer the product in the right direction whilst balancing customer requests and business priorities. It’s all well and good if we ship fast, but we need to in addition to that we need to ship fast in the direction that our customers want.

Microsoft Reactor in London

Do you find management or problem solving interesting?

I think it’s really interesting. Having new problems to deal with daily is what I thrive off of, being in scenarios where I am uncomfortable, as that’s where most learnings happen. I recall reading that if people see the value in what they are doing, they will be more likely to find satisfaction in their day to day job. So as a result, solving problems that customers have, you get to see the process from beginning to end and you have an understanding of the impact you have on a wide scale. At the end of the day you get to make someone’s life better with technology, which is a great feeling.

What is the reason that you chose Microsoft?

I’ve always loved Microsoft as a company, so I joined their Insider programs, starting ~8 years ago when I was in high school. I got to beta test products, such as Windows 10/Microsoft Edge, etc. and provided feedback to the company. Through my years in the program, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the response, since I was only some random student. I was genuinely taken aback by their openness to hearing my opinion. After that experience, I truly believe that Microsoft does care about its consumers, which is why I love the company, and I hope I can deliver the same kind of experience to current and future users of Microsoft products.

“If people see the value in what they are doing, they’ll love their work.”

Salman and his colleagues at Microsoft

Is there anything about computing or product management that is more complex than what people think?

Software engineering is far more difficult than you may expect. For instance, when it comes to developing a product and coding, there are many factors to take into consideration, not only the technical requirements but also the business requirements. In addition to this there are so many possible ways to develop one solution, there may be a better approach, a library that is not as feature rich as another but not as stable, so on and so forth... An engineer has to figure out what someone is doing on their phone, i.e., the state, to ensure that the user interface is nice, to test edge cases, and to think about the privacy of users, meet security requirements, amongst lots of other things.

Additionally, you need to remove bugs, maintain and upgrade the product after finishing the application. Even if you think you will not need to update the product in the future, there will be security updates and patches you need to worry about. When it comes to coding, there are a variety of aspects that people don’t really notice. It's a lengthy process that may require a significant amount of time and energy.

For product management, one challenging aspect of it is being well-rounded in so many different verticals, understanding the technical aspects of your products where you need to know each and every feature and capability of your product, knowing the future direction of the organization/business, putting yourself in the shoes of your questions, prioritizing the requests from your customers, understanding competitor products, understanding go-to-market strategy, and more.

Moreover, since you are doing a lot of communicating, you can often find yourself having to work with people in multiple time-zones which can mean working at more irregular hours than your co-workers. At the end of the day, I feel as a product manager that if a product fails, I am responsible, and that’s a huge load of weight to put on oneself, however it's a unique sense of ownership which also is fun and a great challenge to have. I do enjoy the job and as with any, there are trade-offs that you’ll have to consider. I, for one, do enjoy meeting with people and making a positive impact with them for a greater good, so it’s not historically been too different even in roles I've done in the past which don’t require this, as I’d find other things to do with teams in different regions regardless of my core priorities.

Is there anything that you’ll never compromise as a product manager or an engineer?

One thing I won’t compromise on is quality. People will form an impression of a product before they use it. I want to ensure that there is a standard of quality when it comes to the final product to prevent people from having the wrong impression. Hundreds of millions of people are able to use the Microsoft products that use our product/feature without bugs every single month, so if something goes wrong, it has a significant impact on a large number of people around the world. Compromising on quality is not a question. This differs though from prototypes, I do heavily believe that we should involve customers early on to try things out or get feedback early on, but for proper big releases to customers, there should be a high bar for quality.

Do you have any tips on managing your tasks to have them done on time and perfectly?

When managing tasks, I believe it is crucial to break things down into manageable steps so you can better understand how to work toward the goals. Furthermore, to-do lists and calendars are useful for time management. I believe that making notes is also beneficial. For instance, if you frequently meet with clients, taking notes can help you prepare any questions to ask them during the next meeting and what must be followed up on. With meetings, I believe that sharing notes can really help customers and stakeholders, who will appreciate the additional effort, and if they cannot join the meeting, they will have a point of reference to catch up on. As a product manager, I find that To Do lists are more manageable than blocking out time in my calendar for specific tasks as my calendar gets quite busy and I need to be able to fit in so many different tasks in breaks which I can find. Having my tasks visible to other team members and being able to see what my engineering counterparts are working on also gives me a good overview on where we are all at as a product team.

“Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.”

What do you think of our ScreenBar Halo?

In addition to my 40-60 hour work weeks, I also like type racing. I did about 4,000 races in October alone due to competing in (and winning) multiple typing competitions that month, one of which I won at work! Since I’m looking at a computer screen for most of the day, my eyes can end up feeling strained if the ambient light does not complement the screen light. The ScreenBar Halo is helpful to me because it makes the area around the screen brighter and reduces the contrast difference. I also like how it uses USB charging since that saves power, especially because of inflation! I also enjoy the wireless controller because the batteries can be replaced. Rechargeable equipment often malfunctions after the batteries have used up all their recharge cycles.

Salman’s work-from-home setup with BenQ ScreenBar Halo

“The perfect solution to your working experience.”

Salman and his colleagues at Microsoft

On a scale of 1 to 100, how would you rate your life so far?

I give my life a 92 out of 100. In the grand scheme of things, I am very grateful to be in the position I am in right now. There's always progress to be made, and there are many things I can do better. I aspire to be like a tree since trees keep growing throughout their entire lifespan. And because of that, I love learning in my spare time, trying to move forward to see how I can improve. Many people have helped me throughout my life, and I want to repay them by imparting knowledge to others who might benefit from it.

Do you have any suggestions for anyone who wants to work in Microsoft?

Microsoft’s philosophy is “Come as you are, do what you love,” which is embodied and echoed throughout different organizations at the company, including in Microsoft Recruitment. I spoke to a lead recruiter, and they shared that they look for those who are their authentic selves. You can check out more of her advice here: https://youtu.be/Ef2XzV6wqds

What are your future goals as a product manager?

In the future, I hope to broaden the scope of the products I'm currently in charge of. I would like to start moving to a more senior position so I can coach others in their careers. A lot of my YouTube videos offer guidance and advice to viewers, so I think people management would be awesome. I want to be a good manager, because it’s important to have someone who guides you, has faith in you, and believes in you. At the same time, I may one day move back to do software engineering again, as I do love getting nitty gritty in the details of implementation. It all depends, and I will let the future present itself to me and be a leaf in the wind, but one thing is for sure, I want to keep learning.

“Endless pursuit of perfection”