Since January 2021, I’ve been associated with an early-stage, 2x seed-funded Product with over $10M+, starting from 0 to building a product with 10+ enterprises in < 3 years. Working with seasoned leaders and professionals at "AccuKnox," a product that is/will be very close to my heart. Alongside a fabulous team that has helped me build my product sense to an extraordinary level. I’m super thrilled to share my ProjM and ProdM learnings at AccuKnox in public. As they say: Build, Fail, and Succeed in “Public”, let the world know the real ‘you’ :-)
It’s 10 Jan, 2024; felt FOMO of not writing a year in reflection blog post. So here we go. Expect me to have this blog crafted in as candid/ natural way as possibile. So much is doable in 12 months, 365 days of work, I’m smiling with inner peace as I’m starting to pen down my thoughts from the past year 2023's learnings, metrics and reflections.
In 2023
I’ve been taking up any and every task and opportunity that has come to me. Why do I do it? To possibly learn all things sales, profits, and revenues. Whom do I do it for? I’d be lying if I didn’t say "myself,” and of course for business, technology, and the user’s understanding.
I couldn’t be happier for my leadership, management, and fellow teammates for making 2023 the best year of my 4+ years of career! I could collaborate, contribute, and conjure immense learnings in a multidimensional product stream. At AccuKnox, a venture-backed cloud security startup, I’m privileged to wear multiple hats at once in project, process, product, marketing, and community management.
In this reflection blog, I’d like to highlight my achievements. Trust me, the metrics are true to the best of my knowledge. I'm highlighting below for better illustration, reflection, and proof of work in the areas to which I've contributed wholeheartedly.
Key Metrics
➡️ 36+ months of stint (Jan’21 — Present)
➡️ 1500+ JIRA tickets reported
➡️ 2x Best Performer of the Month (July, Oct’23)
➡️ ️2x Core Offline Sprint Participant (Chennai — Feb’23 and Goa — July’23)
➡️ 2x Core Event Planner & Community Manager (NetApp India — Oct’23 and KubeDay India — Dec’23)
Key Achievements
I feel blessed and privileged to wear multiple “hats” at once in my current job role. I would like to reflect on the key metrics that I was capable of contributing positively to. Here’s the following:
Hat #1: Project Management
2x Certified (CSM and CSPO)
2x Website Delivery Manager (Enterprise and Open Source)
3x Scrum Master (For Solution Engineers, AI Engineers, Website team)
Hat #2: Product Management
2x Website wireframing
3+ Features shipped
300+ Customer Presentations, Interactions, Requirements gathering
Hat #3: Marketplace Management
2x Press Releases
3x Customers onboarded
3x Marketplace review collaboration (Amazon, Azure, RedHat)
Hat #4: Website and Social Media Management
3+ Press Releases
8+ Monthly Newsletters
20+ Webpages drafted
20+ Blog posts collaborated
20+ Emails drafted and ran campaigns (with 50% open rates)
24,000+ Followers for AK LinkedIn Page (from 5k to 24k, a team effort)
Hat #5: OSS Community Management
1x Mic Co-ordinator (@NetApp Bangalore)
1x CNCF Opensource Event Participant
5+ Meetup.com webinars hosted
700k+ Opensource community manager
Hat #6: Pre-Sales Engineering
200+ Salesforce Opportunities, Leads, Accounts, and Contacts Groomed
2x Meaningful SF dashboards created
2x Sales training crafted
Hat #7: Process Management
20+ Interviews taken
10+ Jr. Engineers trained
3+ Remote Scrum Teams Management
Learnings? 100,00,000…+ I did learn how not to:
1. Spuddle
2. Busy Work
3. Settle for less
4. Copy paste from AI
5. Getting stressed
Conclusion
Concluding on a super positive note that is frequently mentioned by Nat D. Natraj (mentor, manager, leader and guru) — We are 1 mile into the 26-mile marathon. With this urge to grow as a responsible individual, professional, manager, and servant leader. I will be continuing to explore my potential in all the possible ways to get myself out of the comfort bubble, by all means. Thank you for reading throughout. If you’re on the below social platforms, let’s connect: LinkedIn: Syed Hadi; Twitter: hadireza14; More: Linktree
