Interview with Rajan Sharma | Product Leader | Coach | Consultant
We always strive to bring meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. As part of this endeavour, Mr. Rajan Sharma, we invited for an exclusive interview with us. Let’s learn more about his incredible journey, his background and his advice for our growing community.
Tell us a little bit about your start-up and your journey, please;
My start-up is “Product Management Coaching”. It’s purpose is to help professionals across the world to transition into product management domain and also to help existing product managers and leaders to accelerate their career.
I am currently coaching and have mentored professionals in multiple countries – Australia, New York, Ireland, Dubai, UK California, India etc. The professionals come from diverse backgrounds including top B schools and fortune 500 companies.
I am a digital product leader with more than 14 years of experience in the Product Management Domain.
I have worked both in start-ups and big corporates in multiple domains – Health, Wealth, Industrials, InsurTech, SaaS, Education, Online business directories, Real Estate, and IT Services sectors.
I have worked in 4 start-ups to date, including one of my start-ups in the Real Estate Domain.
My professional journey started after I got a campus placement with Infosys as a Software Engineer. After that, I joined Naukri.com – No. 1 job portal in India as a Senior Software Engineer.
My first role as a product manager was in Shiksha.com – an education portal. After that, I joined an ex-Google Director in his start-up as a Senior Manager Product and Technology.
After moving to Australia in 2010, I joined Reed/Cirrus as Product Manager. In my tenure of 6 years, I got 4 promotions and I was promoted to a Product Director in just 3 years after joining the company.
In 2016, due to major divestments in Cirrus Media, I had to wind down by team and I was made redundant. I looked at the redundancy as an opportunity and my entrepreneurial instinct led me to build a startup in the real estate domain.
Along with my start-up, I joined another startup in the Insurance domain as a Head of Product and helped them set up their platform.
After 2 years, I joined OneSaas as a Head of Product. Due to some unexpected commercial impacts, I was made redundant in Nov 2019 along with few other team members.
That redundancy really shook me up and I promised myself that I will create so much abundance and avenues that it will remove the dependency on 9 to 5 jobs.
I started exploring new avenues with a razor focus on my goal and doubling down on execution.
As a part of exploring multiple businesses/avenues.
I joined Antler Australia 2020 cohort. Antler is a global startup generator and early-stage VC that is building the next big wave of tech. Our idea to disrupt the immigration industry was in the top 8 tracked start-ups in the cohort and was selected in the pre-IC round to be pitched to the Investment Committee for seed funding. Due to Covid’s impact on immigration, we couldn’t secure the funding.
Right now, in just 1.5 years, I am into multiple businesses/start-ups Real Estate, a SaaS product in HealthTech, a SaaS product in EdTech, Product Management Consulting and Coaching, and a full-time job with an Insurance platform in the Product Domain.
The one which is closest to my heart is Coaching as it helps me impact lives!
How did the idea for your business/startup come about?
The whole idea of coaching was driven by my experience of mentoring a lot of Product managers in my 6+ years of experience in Head of Product and Product Director positions.
After becoming a Product Director in 2013, I got a chance to mentor product managers, transitioning from various domains like engineering, marketing, and even journalism. A lot of professionals were transitioning into product management from unrelated domains with no prior product experience – AND They needed guidance!
While mentoring them and seeing them achieve success, I got a different level of fulfilment and I started mentoring product managers externally as well.
I soon discovered my passion for coaching professionals to transition into and build a successful career in the product management domain.
When I started coaching professionals, I didn’t know that it would become as big as it is today. I am currently coaching and have mentored professionals in multiple countries – Australia, Ireland, Dubai, UK California, India etc. The professionals come from diverse backgrounds including top B schools and fortune 500 companies.
To sum it up
It all started with an idea to help and mentor professionals to transition into Product Management and coaching helped me – take it to another level. The satisfaction and fulfilment to see my mentees succeed, achieve accelerated growth and become the best versions of themselves is beyond comparison.
What was your key driving force to become an entrepreneur?
From the time I got exposed to the corporate world, I wanted to build products which could solve pain points of real users. This led me to build my own start-up in 2016 in real estate domain.
I have been involved in multiple start-ups in Insurance, Immigration, Real Estate, EdTech and HealthTech.
Although there were a lot of key drivers powering my entrepreneurial journey however if I have to pick the most important key driving force, it is the “purpose” to impact lives. That’s why the start-up closest to my heart is Product Management Coaching as it helps me positively impacting my mentee’s entire career trajectory which is so important to them both commercially and from a job satisfaction perspective. It’s about giving someone that helping hand when they need it the most.
The satisfaction to see my mentees succeed and achieve an accelerated growth and become the best versions of themselves is beyond comparison.
How did you come up with the name for your business/startup?
My business name is Nova Orbis.
Nova – is a star that suddenly releases a huge burst of energy, temporarily becoming extraordinarily bright. It was derived from the Latin “novus,” or “new,”
Orbis – Its name comes from a Latin language word Orbis, which means world.
I came up with this name for my business because it was truly aligned with my purpose of coaching my mentees to break out of their cocoon and become the best version of themselves.
The results, I have created for my mentees are proving that it’s truly an apt name as my mentees are creating value for the businesses they are working for and are shining in their career as extraordinary bright stars.
What service(s) or product(s) do you offer?
I am currently coaching professionals all over the world (Ireland, California, New York, India and Australia to name a few) to transition into and build a successful career in product management domain.
In most of my coaching programs to switch to Product Management Domain, I assist professionals by focussing on 3 verticals.
- Mindset Transformation – Focused on building certainty and a positive mindset which helps them to remove the baggage of pessimism, reset and build great results.
- Upskilling – 6 steps to learn both basic and advanced Product Management Skills from true practical/ implementation point of view. It helps them create value for the businesses they work for and achieve an accelerated growth in their career trajectory.
- Transition – True handheld approach to optimize Resume, Cover Letter, Job application and networking to help them switch from their current profession to product management domain.
What comes first for you money or emotions?
Definitely emotions!
The satisfaction to see your mentees succeed and achieve an accelerated growth and become best versions of themselves is beyond comparison.
In almost all my trust calls everyone has bigger challenges/issues than just the technical skills holding them back from achieving that accelerated growth.
When I ask about the challenges, to identify the missing skills, , the challenges quickly transition from technical skills to personal, emotional, environmental and mindset issues like: a major setback they have received, when they were let go off a project or a product they built- in which they put in their heart and soul! Or that fire is extinguished due to repeated lack of acknowledgement for their hard work leading to lack of motivation.
It’s really overwhelming when they trust me and open up with a hope that I will understand and help them achieve their aspirations and dreams.
It’s really fulfilling when I see them winning and taking those steps to achieve their aspirations. I am filled with gratitude and thank the almighty that I took this path – The Path to fulfilment!!
What piece of advice would you give to college graduates who want to become entrepreneurs??
I want to advise the college graduates who want to become entrepreneurs to:
Focus on acquiring knowledge and skills.
In this time and era, it is easy to get distracted by short-term opportunities which can earn quick money – especially for students. There is a huge risk of losing their precious time. My advice would be to focus on gaining skills and acquiring knowledge that will stay with them forever.
Create Value
To the young professionals, always focus on creating value for the business you are working for rather than being instructional. That is the only way to achieve an accelerated GROWTH.
Follow your passion and don’t be afraid to take risks
You have the time and energy to take risks with no dependencies. It’s one of the best times in your life to take the risk to build something great!
Humility
Be humble, it will take you far in life.
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