8. Khawla - Technical Product Manager @ DIA

Welcome to product3 - where we decode the art and science of building in web3.

This week, we continue our exploration of diverse roles with a fascinating perspective from someone who crossed the bridge from engineering to product management.

Meet Khawla (@xchaiboba) - Technical Product Manager at DIA (@DIAdata_org). Khawla’s web3 career started as a smart contract engineer. She had the opportunity to transition to a product role and hasn’t looked back.

In about 1000 words, she shares:

• Challenges she faced as a new PM 

• What she’s excited about

• Advice for her younger self

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What are some unique challenges you have faced, and how did you tackle them?

Reflecting on my transition from a developer to a product manager, these are the main challenges I encountered early in my PM career:

1. Asking the right question:

   I remember when I first started, I'd pass the feature requirements from the lead PM to the engineers without asking questions which wasted everybody’s time. I struggled to formulate questions because I had limited knowledge about what information I actually needed.  

   If you’re facing a similar challenge, you can start with a simple question like "Why do we need this?" or think through the current state of the system and compare it to the end goal, pick the first thing you are not sure about, and ask a question about it. Getting better at this took practice. Also having a deeper understanding of the product, and gradually building your knowledge base helps.

2. The “specialist” to “generalist” transition

   As a developer, you’re typically specialized in one area (front-end, back-end, smart contracts, etc.). In product, I suddenly found myself needing to think more broadly and understand how the different teams worked within the org. My technical “expertise” became less important than, for example, my ability to understand how a feature request might impact every other team (without sort of needing to become well-versed in their field).

   Communicate your knowledge gaps to a lead PM/CEO, seek their advice, and fill the gaps through research, podcasts, books, and engaging with teams across the org. Ask to be also included in their meetings with the other teams and take notes of the kind of topics or questions that come up.

3. PM, just another fancy title for doing nothing?

   The online discourse about PMs being "useless", and “contributing nothing to society” really got to me, sadly. I felt that way about myself for the longest time. I couldn’t see my value, as  my contributions were not things that you can “push to production”. It was sprint planning, writing a bunch of documents, attending meetings, …etc. When I told the lead PM about how I felt, he reassured me that this is a common junior PM experience and I'll be fine. He was right.

   I realized over time that PMs don’t get enough credit, they contribute to the team’s organization & structure, relaying information, being the biggest advocates for the product, empathizing with the user’s needs, making sure all the teams are aligned, and so much more.

   I’ve faced other challenges along the way, and I didn't know what to do back then, but I always somehow trusted myself to figure things out and so should you. You’ll be fine, embrace failure as an essential part of growth.

What were the most challenging aspects of switching from engineering to product management?

• The "specialist" to "generalist" shift mentioned above.

• No concept of “documentation”: If I'm learning a new framework or a programming language, I always start with the official docs and work my way to mastery. While there are frameworks and guides, they’re not meant to be strictly followed, it just doesn’t work like that here, so you have to customize your approach to product management for each org, which means lots of trial and error.

• Mentorship: It's really hard to survive in product (especially as a junior) without mentorship in my opinion. Engineers can often thrive independently, but in product, it's quite the opposite. Getting a mentor during my transition changed everything for me. Your lead PM/CEO is considered a mentor in a way here, but I’d strongly recommend finding someone outside of your company that you can openly talk to about everything you’re going through.

• Personal growth: Being in product pushed me to grow personally and reflect on the kind of life i was leading. I felt hypocritical at first - I was trying to organize and bring structure to a team while my life was chaotic and I could barely even maintain a daily planner. It really requires you to practice what you preach. If you're asking your team for better communication, for example, you need to demonstrate that quality yourself first. 

  I wasn’t expecting this connection between my career and personal life (not sure why), but it's definitely made me more authentic as a PM.

• The sheer weight of responsibility: If something isn’t being done, guess who has to step in and take ownership? Yes, you. This can be draining, especially in smaller teams where PMs often wear multiple hats. The product becomes your baby - you find yourself deeply invested and concerned about every single aspect of it.

My journey into product management has been super healing. Though I initially questioned if pivoting was the right decision (and I still miss coding quite a bit), I'm now two years in and have no regrets. If I could go back in time, I'd make the same decision again :)

In your opinion, what are the most exciting or influential trends shaping the future of web3 at the moment?

I’m admittedly biased here, but I find trends in the oracle space particularly exciting. The push towards decentralized oracles, which is what we’re building at DIA, and the development around oracles functioning as AVSs (Actively Validated Services) in protocols like EigenLayer, where they leverage the security provided by restakers rather than having to develop their own security models from the ground up.

Beyond oracles, privacy-focused tools and apps are also exciting. I regularly visit the Web3Privacy explorer to discover and experiment with the products listed there!

What would you advise your younger self?

• Seek your own validation first

• Ask the “dumb” questions

• Embrace being “slow” because that is your superpower :)

• The happiness and fulfillment you’re seeking are not in your accomplishments

• Rest and creativity are interdependent

• You have a unique story to tell. You can’t push yourself to live someone else’s story.

• “Done is better than perfect”

If you’ve enjoyed this micro interview, share it with fellow web3 product people and give Khawla a follow on X (@xchaiboba).

Got a builder in mind whose wisdom we should share? Please share!

See you in the next edition!