Crafting a Communications Career
Maggie Ballard, Corporate Communications Intern
When I applied to be an intern on the Palo Alto Networks Corporate Communications team, I never imagined I’d be reporting to work from my bedroom for the summer.
I was in the beginning of my sophomore year at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, working on a bachelor’s degree in public relations when I started exploring internship opportunities that would provide me with some communications experience. When I came across a listing for Palo Alto Networks’ internship program, it immediately struck me as a strong program. It was well-structured in terms of the support offered to interns. I would experience a diverse range of both internal and external communications. And the access to support from fellow interns and other employees at different levels within the company as well as the company’s role in the booming cybersecurity industry were appealing. Although I had not specifically been seeking a role in cybersecurity or even in technology, I loved the idea of working alongside talented people in a wide range of subjects, from software engineering to threat intelligence or finance, that I could learn from.
Little did I know that “alongside” would have a vastly different meaning from what I’d expected. After a great interview, I was accepted into the three-month internship program at Palo Alto Networks’ headquarters in Santa Clara, California, and planned to start in May 2020. But on April 8, I got the not-so-unexpected call informing me that my internship would be conducted remotely from my home in Danville, CA. By that time, the pandemic had driven everyone to work from home, so I wasn’t surprised, but I was a little bummed that the experience would be different from what I’d imagined. I was nervous about what to expect for the next three months. This was going to be my first “big-girl” job, and I wondered whether I’d be able to get the same value out of the experience in a virtual setting as I would in the office.
Fortunately, my fears were put to rest pretty quickly. Everyone was so great about communicating that I never felt out of the loop. The communications team made a huge effort to include me. In fact, I often felt like I wasn’t an intern at all — I was a contributing full-time member of the team. People were super open to talking to me, both on my team and from other teams around the organization, so I was able to get to know a lot of people who could help me in my career path moving forward. Despite being unable to make connections in person, I was still able to get a sense of the company atmosphere.
Not only that but I was given a wide range of work opportunities in the PR realm — I would help with drafting story pitches, developing media lists, creating briefing documents for Palo Alto Networks spokespeople, talking to reporters, and even writing internal communications. So in addition to the PR-related work, I got a new sense of how journalists work, which was not only interesting but also will be useful as I move forward in my PR career. I had the opportunity to work with the executive team, coordinating their schedules for various roundtable events for the company, which provided me with great experience on the corporate side. One of my favorite tasks was working on our daily news briefings every morning. I worked each morning with one of my managers to draft an email summing up the biggest news of the day in cybersecurity or our company and send it to roughly 75 employees.
In short, the summer was nothing short of wonderful. I am grateful to have been part of such an amazing company this summer — thanks to the efforts made to keep the internship program running in the midst of a pandemic.
A Virtual Internship with Real Benefits
Jessica McQuade, University Programs Specialist
It used to be that summer interns spent their days doing filing, making copies, and following people around to watch what they did. But those days are gone. Today’s interns are looking for true, professional, resume-worthy experience and connections that give them a leg up in their careers.
Palo Alto Networks takes this goal to heart, and its University Relations (UR) team has developed a distinctive internship program that — even in the midst of a pandemic that forced all interns to work remotely — is ranked among the top 100 in the nation for 2020 for the quality of experiences given to interns, its emphasis on diversity and inclusion, and its innovative approach to remote work.
“Real” Work
The UR team creates a valuable, real-world professional experience for interns. While, of course, interns can expect several weeks of onboarding and ramping up their knowledge about their jobs, the philosophy at Palo Alto Networks is that one learns by doing. After all, an internship is supposed to prepare you for the next phase of your career, so it’s important to gain true professional experience.
“The reason I chose Palo Alto was that, during my conversation with the manager, he made it very clear that, at least on his team, he was definitely going to give the intern real work,” says Karen Jiang, a rising senior at Cornell University in New York who interned during summer 2020. “What I’ve noticed about a lot of internships is that, while the work is legitimate, it was always kind of isolated from the rest of the team, just so the intern doesn’t ‘break’ anything. But my manager made it clear, this would be real work. That meant I’d also be in the zone for breaking other people’s code or other people potentially breaking my work, which is really interesting because that’s what real developers and engineers do..”
In fact, interns frequently express pleasant surprise about the level of work experience they gain through the program. Sabrina Liu, a senior at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts and a summer 2020 software engineer intern, says, “It’s really mind-blowing that they let interns get involved with this kind of thing and take ownership of something that impacts thousands of customers.”
Keeping Diversity and Inclusion Top of Mind
Ensuring that we grow a cybersecurity workforce that includes a diverse range of backgrounds, talent, experiences, and ideas is a priority for our internship program. This is why our University Relations team actively reaches out to Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other diversity-focused institutions. During orientation, the team highlights Palo Alto Networks’ Employee Network Groups to encourage interns to get involved with groups they are allied with or interested in.
And as the nation turns increasing attention to the Black Lives Matter movement and a growing awareness of and interest in understanding the Black experience, we’ve created opportunities for deeper learning and connection, including spaces in which to have conversations about media representations of this subject as well as webinars with diverse speakers.
Shifting Gears
COVID-19 threw a wrench into plans for summer 2020 for the interns, many of whom had actually relocated to California to be near headquarters. Suddenly, gone were the dreams of water cooler conversations, sit-downs with managers, and happy hours with colleagues at local gathering spots.
Instead, the UR team reimagined an internship program that is both collegial and distant. Laptops were sent to each intern, along with a $200 stipend for any needed home office equipment. The onboarding plan included virtual learning paths that helped interns get up to speed quickly on Palo Alto Networks’ policies and expectations, guest speakers from various parts of the company, and an introduction to the Early in Career Employee Group, a small employee network of young professionals new to their careers who can share insights, form relationships, and ask questions, no matter how mundane.
Every intern was paired with a buddy from their team to act as a coach, motivator, and advisor. A professional development speaker series allowed interns to hear directly from professionals about tips for charting their career paths.
And just because they were working remotely doesn’t mean the interns weren’t able to have fun and socialize. The UR team got creative in planning a number of virtual events, from Bingo and 20 Questions to Zoom background competitions and much more.
As a result of these efforts, the interns say that not only did they feel included and engaged from day one, but they also warmed up quite easily to the remote work, with its lack of traffic and long commute times, and ability to carve out their own schedules.
Another unexpected benefit was how virtual interactions seemed to level the playing field for shy interns. “I’m a huge introvert,” says Karen. “I get very nervous meeting new people and talking to them — especially in the beginning of an internship, where you might need a lot of help and hand-holding. So with this experience being remote, it was actually a little easier for me to approach new people than it might have been in person. Sending a message on Slack isn’t all that different from chatting to anyone online; titles are erased. So if someone says, ‘You need to go talk to the director,’ you don’t see the word ‘director’ next to their name in Slack. It makes them seem more approachable.”
Ultimately, our goal for interns is to ensure them every opportunity to learn and grow in their chosen subject areas, but also to gain a deeper understanding of themselves as professionals and colleagues, as well as the cybersecurity industry and their place in it. We are so proud to be among the nation’s Top 100 Internship Programs, and we invite you to discover its many benefits for yourself!
When Things Fall Into Place
I grew up in India and did my undergrad in Electronics and Communication engineering. I moved to the U.S. after graduating to pursue a master’s degree program in Electrical Engineering. I have always been fascinated with building things, and I began my career as an FPGA/ASIC design engineer. After a few years of doing that, what I realized was that while I enjoyed working on complex engineering problems, I also wanted to learn more about the business and customer-related aspects such as – why are we building this product? What customer problem are we trying to solve? Etc. To get exposure to these aspects, I decided to enroll in an MBA program at Dartmouth College. Through my MBA, I got exposed to a variety of different career paths and met people across various industries. But after doing two product management internships, I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in product management – I loved the fact that no two days are ever alike for a product manager (PM) and that there are always new things to learn. I also realized that I liked working at the intersection of business and technology problems.
It is interesting how I ended up at Palo Alto Networks. I had heard about how dynamic the cybersecurity space is, and I started looking into opportunities in the field. I came across a career posting for an early-in-career PM at Palo Alto Networks and decided to reach out to a few PM leaders in the company to learn more about the role. I sent a LinkedIn InMail to a Director of Product Management who in turn put me in touch with the hiring team. Things moved quickly from there, and within two weeks, I had an offer to join the company’s accelerated rotational product management program (Product Management Academy – PMA). It’s been a year since I joined Palo Alto Networks, and looking back, I believe it was meant to be. When you’ve found the right fit, things fall into place.
Reflecting on the last year
It’s incredible how quickly the time has flown by since I joined the program, yet I also feel I’ve gotten the opportunity to do so much in just a short time. During my first year at Palo Alto Networks, I focussed on building a Telemetry platform that helps our customers maximize the benefits they enjoy from the products and services that Palo Alto Networks delivers. As part of this, I got exposed to a lot of different aspects of being a PM such as working with UX and engineering teams to build a product, collaborating with marketing on positioning it, and creating field enablement content.
My most significant areas of growth through the year have been in developing critical thinking and soft skills. As someone who came from an engineering background, one of the learnings for me through the PM journey has been to become comfortable navigating through ambiguity. Because as a PM, you are discovering what is the real problem for the customers and then finding ways to solve it – so there is no set path to follow here. I learned how to go about breaking down large ambiguous problems into smaller consumable parts, how to validate assumptions for each of those parts, and figure out a way forward. Over the last year, I have also become comfortable acknowledging that “I don’t know something, but I will figure it out.” As a PM, there will be new things coming up, and there are going to be some areas that I know nothing about. It’s okay to acknowledge that and learn. That is where I think having a growth mindset helps!
Through the PMA program, I have also had a lot of opportunities to learn from senior leaders in the company. For example, we have had discussions with leaders on what are some best practices for developing a pricing strategy or aligning product development with go-to-market. And these discussions help me expand my horizon and learn from experts who have years of experience in these fields. To me, these learning opportunities are one of the biggest benefits of being in the PMA program. There is no straight path to becoming a successful PM – it is about learning best practices along the way and working on applying them, and the PMA program helps accelerate that learning. I also enjoy the diversity of our PMA cohort — we’re a small group, and all of us come from different backgrounds, but that means each of us brings something unique to the table, which makes for more robust interactions and innovation. We are always bouncing ideas off each other. Being able to share experiences and knowledge that way gives us a bird’s eye view of what’s happening across the company and helps us see how all these different products are stitched together in a much deeper way than we realized.
The PMA program is a rotational program, with our second year pushing us to challenge ourselves more and drive more significant impact. I am excited to see what the next year brings! Because Palo Alto Networks is continually evolving and growing, I don’t think there will ever be a time when I’m not learning at this company. I think as a PM, you want to be in a place where you’re looking on the horizon and seeing new things happening. I feel I have that here.
Breaking the Mold
As a Principal Researcher for Palo Alto Networks’ threat intelligence division, Unit 42, I’m focused on hunting cybercriminal threats and providing timely analysis and actionable intelligence to our customers and global security community. I’m based in Amsterdam, and my team and I work in close collaboration with the international security and law enforcement community to stop threat actors, and we educate customers about potential threats and help them prioritize their resources to protect themselves.
Unlike many of my colleagues, who knew early in life that they wanted to pursue careers in cybersecurity or computer science, my background includes a variety of different, seemingly unrelated experiences. I grew up in Taiwan and was interested in international affairs and communications, so I attended college at National Chengchi University and earned my bachelor’s degree in diplomacy. After graduating, I gave myself two years to explore any career that interested me. I worked for a short time as a set designer with a filmmaking team, and then I worked as an editor for a company that published a design magazine and did public relations.
In 2008, I decided to return to school and earn a master’s degree at American University in international communication, and I was interested in the numerous opportunities available in the U.S. This was just as the global economic crisis was beginning.
During my master’s program, I actually had aspirations of becoming a film professor — film is still a huge passion of mine. However, after I completed my master’s program, the recession made it very difficult to obtain a job. The first job I could get was as a translator for a cybersecurity company. After learning the basics of the field, I realized there was a real need for cybersecurity research, and that was something I was very interested in, so I convinced my employer to train me in security research. In that role, I focused on Chinese financially motivated cybercrimes.
That experience helped me understand how to detect and diagnose threats, but I wanted to learn more about how to address that on the client side, so I took a position with Uber, managing a global fraud intelligence program that identified cyber tools and tactics used against us in the ride-sharing industry.
After doing that for a couple of years, I realized that I missed doing research, and I wanted to work with a visionary leader in the space. I was familiar with Unit 42 and Palo Alto Networks, having worked in cybersecurity, so when I got the opportunity to work here, I jumped at it.
Although it doesn’t at first seem that my education and background would fit well with my current role, I do believe that it all contributes to my work in some way. In my diplomacy and international relations studies, I learned about the relationships among nuclear powers and nation states, non-governmental organizations, public diplomacy, global economies, and technology-empowered individuals who make a drastic impact on international politics. Knowing what’s happening in international societies and their economic policies is extremely useful in providing context for and explaining certain cybercrime campaigns, such as why those crimes were executed in the ways they were and why specific victims were targeted.
Additionally, my intercultural communications training included a master’s thesis in which I reviewed a virtual group to examine how they communicated with each other. This has been helpful in analyzing the behaviors, patterns, and business models of threat actors, which enable security defenders to develop strategies based on threat actors’ weaknesses and limits.
In my experience studying intercultural communications, I’ve encountered three analogies for how people interact in their world. The first is the idea of the melting pot, in which everyone fuses together to become one. The second is the salad bowl, in which very different people and backgrounds mix together but remain intact. The third is the cookie cutter, in which individuals force themselves into an existing mold — sometimes cutting parts of yourself away to fit.
Many people think of technology as being a cookie-cutter setting — they believe there’s a mold you have to fit with a specific set of experiences, behaviors, and skills. But what I’ve found here at Palo Alto Networks is that people in tech appreciate the unique qualities each person brings to a role. They hire you with the expectation that you will enrich the role with your own personality, ideas, and perspectives, and diverse experiences are welcome. So if working in technology interests you, my advice is it to just be yourself!
Engineering the Sale
As a Corporate Systems Engineer, I work with the Sales team in our EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Asia) region to drive sales of our products. But whereas a lot of Systems Engineers are customer-facing and actually go out on sales calls, I’m primarily working from inside the company to communicate with customers by phone or email and support those sales efforts. I work on a team of six that’s based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and we represent a mix of cultures and languages from across EMEA.
I was born and raised in Kyrgyzstan, a country that most people in the world haven’t heard of, and I speak both Russian and English. I lived in that country until I was about 24, after I earned my master’s degree in information systems. I never planned to get into sales at all. I set out to be a software developer, but I couldn’t code to save my life, so I went into systems administration, which basically meant I was in charge of everything that plugged into a socket and related to information technology.
I did that for about two years, and then I applied for what I thought was a job with Cisco but actually ended up being a graduate program: the Cisco Sales Associate Program. I was part of a group of about 120 people from nearly 50 countries — some more technical, some more into sales — and when I finished the program a year later, I found myself in a corporate IT career.
I’ve done this kind of work for about 10 years now, and the job gets more fulfilling and easier when you work with a company that has an excellent product. That’s why it has brand recognition and a lot of accolades. Working for Palo Alto Networks is kind of like selling a Tesla — all you have to decide is whether you want it in red or black. The shit just works.
I also think the company has done a nice job of hiring people who are not only good at their work but are also good people. Everyone’s helpful, and it doesn’t matter if they’re senior or junior employees — there isn’t a class system here. There aren’t a lot of big egos. I’ve seen plenty of that at my previous jobs, people being moved forward for visibility rather than capability. But at Palo Alto Networks, that kind of behavior isn’t rewarded. I think this company is both big and small enough to have a good balance, and on the technology side, they’re making the right choices as well.
But I think a lot of people start out in systems engineering with false expectations that it’s mostly about technology. That’s only half true. The other half is being comfortable working with people. That was an acquired taste in my case. I was closer to a textbook geek than a salesperson. My first meetings were clumsy, to say the least (some were a straight-up dumpster fire), and I felt like a total fraud. My advice is just to do it. Fail, and fail quickly, and don’t be too hard on yourself. Allow yourself to make mistakes, as long as you learn from them. Learning is a big part of the work we do, and it never stops, so be prepared for that. If you’re professional and understand the industry, the technology, and how its application can help customers, you can do well.
Trailblazing
Rohan Kar, Product Management Academy
My Journey to Product Management
As a 90s kid in India, I vividly remember life pre-Internet, when Amazon was just a river, Google search didn’t exist, and you needed an actual paper map to travel. Contrasting that with the vast improvements in my life that came after, started a lifelong passion for technology as a catalyst for positive change in the world.
So when it came to deciding a career path, I wanted to get as much exposure as I could into building great technology products. When you simplify it, three things determine a successful product: what you build, how you build it, and how it’s adopted. Product management is the only role that’s deeply embedded in all three areas.
I was naturally inclined to major in computer science and engineering for my undergrad. While I was strong in software development, I wanted to develop myself into a more well-rounded technologist. So I moved to the U.S. to pursue a Master of Information Management and Systems (MIMS) at the U.C. Berkeley School of Information. Berkeley provided an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the societal impact of my decisions on how technology is designed, built, and used.
As my mentor AJ likes to say, product management is both art and science. The art is all about situational leadership, influence, and the ability to drive outcomes despite imperfect conditions. Science is the technical knowledge and analytical skills you bring from areas within product development, like UX research, systems design, and data science, as well as areas outside product development like sociology, economics, and operations. PMs don’t necessarily make all the decisions — they just ensure the right ones get made. One’s ability to make better product decisions is ultimately limited by the scope of understanding of your problem space. So I think the more perspectives you bring into product management, the more you get out of it.
It was really important to me to be a part of a company that does well and also does good. I had always admired Palo Alto Networks as one that was working on the cutting edge and also making a difference in the world by keeping everyone digitally safer. When I encountered the PMA job listing on Berkeley’s internal careers site, I was immediately excited and applied right away. That’s how it all started!
About the PMA
The Product Management Academy is a two-year, rotational PM program for new grads. The rotations provide breadth and depth of experiences and give exposure to different customer challenges we solve as a company. It also introduces you to the unique problem-solver style of product management here at Palo Alto Networks. It fosters a high degree of analytical and product rigor by virtue of being on high-impact projects where you will be constantly challenged to deliver different outcomes while learning by doing.
Each year, the PMA welcomes a small class of six to eight PMs. The close community aspect is one of the most important things to me about it because we all support and learn from each other. Not only that, but the mentorship I’ve received from product leaders throughout Palo Alto Networks has been tremendous, and it was an important part of why I chose the program.
There’s really no prescribed path to a successful product management career. Everyone creates their own through their unique backgrounds and experiences. In a way, we’re all trailblazers! If you’ve realized product management is the right role for you, then I think the PMA is a fantastic way to start. We move very quickly and at a high level, so you have to be ready to hit the ground running. It will accelerate your growth and allow you to take the next step towards becoming a product leader.
In my first rotation, I was placed on one of our most successful products: WildFire. I’ve enjoyed the full spectrum of opportunities working across the company to strategize key areas for business growth, writing specs for new features, defining key performance indicators (KPIs) for the next stage of my product, and helping deliver a platform to general availability (GA). When I took the job as Palo Alto Networks’ first PM in the PMA, I couldn’t have imagined the professional fulfillment I would achieve just in this past year alone.
Working at Palo Alto Networks
A huge draw for me joining Palo Alto Networks was the scale at which our products affect customers. As the world’s leading cybersecurity company, we help protect over 70,000 organizations, who then serve millions of people like us around the world. We are customers of our customers. By protecting them from adversaries, we, in turn, protect our own digital way of life. The benefits of working for an industry-defining company where you can grow and try new things is invaluable. It’s still early days for us so I’m constantly excited about what we do next.
The Art of Customer Success
For many people, the term “customer success” equates to addressing complaints. It has negative connotations. But in my role as Customer Success Manager for Prisma Cloud at Palo Alto Networks, we perform true customer success functions, in that we are working to ensure that customers obtain the highest possible value from our products and services, leading to better, stronger cloud protection. I come in at the post-sale phase and help manage our relationship with the customer by assisting with the operationalisation of Prisma Cloud, helping them see value in it, and helping implement best practices in line with their business objectives.
I work in London as part of the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Asia) region, specifically working with customers in Southern Europe — Spain, Italy, Portugal — as well as in Israel. My work involves travel about one-third to half of the time so that I can meet face to face with customers and work with them on enablement to ensure that they’re getting the most out of the products and maximising the value of their investment with us.
My path to Palo Alto Networks was untraditional. Growing up, I wasn’t an academic. Art was my thing — I love to paint and sketch — and it was something I’ve always been good at. I thought for a while that I would pursue a career in art and design, but when I wasn’t able to attend the art school I’d set my sights on, I realized university wasn’t for me. I much preferred a professional setting to an academic one. So I finished my A levels and left school at 18, then went to work for a bit in retail. Soon after, an opportunity came along to work for my friend’s dad at an IT company, and my tech career started at age 19.
When I started out, I was doing purchasing and procurement in desktop support. Because it was a small company, I was quickly promoted to head of customer support, which made me a supervisor at a very young age. That’s where I started to engage with customers more often and enjoyed it while realising that I was good at customer-facing roles. After four years, I was ready for the next level and moved to another tech company, specifically, as a service manager. After an acquisition the role was changed to customer success, but unfortunately, it fell back into service management — the focus was quite reactive and concentrated on escalation management and resolving customer issues more often than not. Whereas customer success should be very proactive and consultative. I was soon promoted to a management role, but I eventually realised I preferred delivering true customer success and wanted to focus on that.
I sought out a role with Palo Alto Networks because I had been working in Technology for quite a while and had heard a lot about its culture, its products, and the direction in which the company was headed. I had kept an eye on shares and stock prices, watched the growth of the company, and had seen how it was transitioning from traditional firewalls and physical security to the cloud, and SaaS offerings, which was all very attractive to me. Plus, I knew its leadership was strong, and I wanted to be part of a company that was continuously growing and progressing. It seemed like a really exciting place to be.
Customer Success at Palo Alto Networks is the opposite of what my prior experiences were. It’s a very positive position in that we’re not selling, per se — we’re reminding customers of the continuous value of our products and helping them to successfully obtain that value. For example, rather than talking about ticket numbers or problem cases, we’re talking about adoption, new features, giving best practice guidance, and— as the name suggests — how to achieve success with the product. Customer Success means always finding ways for customers to achieve value.
While university may be right for some people, I don’t believe it’s essential in order to work in tech, and the professional world has been an invaluable training ground for me. I’ve developed in the course of my work, facing new obstacles that create more learning. The challenges of this role have truly improved my skills in working with customers over the short time I’ve been with the company. I think my work has been helped by my artistic background, because it means I tend to think more outside the box, coming up with creative solutions and being persistent in overcoming obstacles. Palo Alto Networks is a place that appreciates an innovative approach and empowers people to offer up new ideas. I recently told my boss, I’d rather go to her with a suggestion or solution than a problem, and I feel well suited to this company because it’s a place where that is encouraged.
Product Junkie
I come from a fairly conservative region in India. Growing up, I was always interested in pushing boundaries and breaking stereotypes. I married outside my community. I learned to drive a Jeep when I was 16, even though I could not do an elegant stick shift change. I earned a postgraduate degree in computer science. These were all things that girls in my family just did not do 20 years ago.
However, my father’s job as a government servant meant we had to move every two years or so. This helped me later in my career because it taught me to be adaptable and open to possibilities — to bloom where I’m planted. Because of this, I found myself in a career I love (but never planned for): leading a Product Management team for Palo Alto Networks.
My Career Journey
It was serendipitous that I ended up in cybersecurity. Unlike the college students I meet today, who are very clear about what they want, I didn’t know all the possibilities that existed in cybersecurity. I always knew I wanted to work with computers, and at that time, computer science education was just taking off, so I earned a degree in computer science, graduating in 2001. At the beginning of my career, in 2002, it was during the economic downturn, so I took the first interesting, available position I could find in my field, working as a Windows kernel developer for a technology startup. This was in a country where financial security is highly prized, and where women didn’t join risky startups. I had no experience in kernel development at the time, but I really loved technology, so this gave me an opportunity to get deep into solving problems with technology. Most of the time, I would be the only woman in late-night hacking sessions with my team. It required a lot of hard work, self-study, and running new pieces of code in windows kernel (mostly undocumented). I was so passionate about it that I was willing to do whatever I had to do and always saw the positive side — even when there was failure involved. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I eventually came to learn that if you want to make a difference in work, and in life, a growth mindset helps!
When the startup grew, it was time for the company to have a customer success team. I was expecting my daughter at the time, and in India, it’s considered more proper for women who are in the family way to work in less-stressful roles, so I was asked to leave engineering, which was perceived as more stressful, and heads up this new department which is perceived as less stressful. Even though I sort of fell into this new assignment, I learned that customer success was something I really enjoyed. It gave me an opportunity to build a team from scratch, which was very exciting but also to fully understand how the products worked and how customers were using them — and what their needs were. This would become key to my work as a Product Manager, a career I had increasingly become drawn to while working in customer success because I was interested in the connection between customers’ needs and product development.
In 2016, Rishi Bhargava, my former coworker from the startup where I’d begun my career, suggested that I come to work as a Product Manager for the company he had cofounded — Demisto, a pioneer in Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) products. Joining Demisto has been a pivotal point in my career. In this role, I worked on a very early product version with customers to discover how they used the product and what they needed from our product in the future. My team and I would bring our customers’ needs to our engineering team to translate that into our next generation of products.
Demisto’s product is exceptional and serves a key need in the Security Operations domain, so it’s no surprise that we were acquired by Palo Alto Networks (and rebranded as Cortex XSOAR).
So although I sort of happened into product management and my current role at Palo Alto Networks, I believe I’m exactly where I should be. There is no typical day. You have to be fluid, adaptable, and willing to deliver what your customers, the Sales department, your leadership and your team need from you. Fortunately, my upbringing and professional experience prepared me well for this!
Keys to Success
Now that I’ve been a Product Manager for several years, I see that there are several qualities a person should have to be successful. First, you have to be a product junkie — and I definitely am! I explore several products a week, which I believe is critical to success in this role. Nothing compares to the hands-on learning experience of what makes or breaks a great product. Working in a product like Cortex XSOAR, which integrates with an ecosystem of 300+ security products, is a great environment for learning new category of products.
I also think you must be passionate about customer success. I love working with customers, and I have developed a powerful empathy radar. I call it “customer sense” The most important things that customers have to tell you is what they’re not saying, so you have to sense these things.
Career Growth
What’s so exciting about working for Palo Alto Networks is that we are moving at incredible speed, trying to do things no one else is doing. We’re not about the status quo. There is no better security company to work for. There’s so much product DNA here, so much cutting-edge technology that we work on. The leaders here are deeply involved and open to new ideas. The possibilities for product development and a person’s career growth are vibrant. There is a lot of support for leadership development with coaching and abundant training resources.
When I was growing up, I wasn’t shown many career options — women in technology simply didn’t have that many. That’s why I’m passionate about helping others, particularly women, understand the options that product management can offer when there is interest. I work hard to bring young women along with me as I progress in my career. I make it a point to spend time mentoring women interested in transitioning to a product management career in cybersecurity. I regularly volunteer with organizations such as Girls Who Code, to introduce girls, including my daughter, to the many possibilities in the technology field.
If you have questions about Product Management opportunities at Palo Alto Networks, or about how to break into this field, I’d be happy to speak with you! Feel free to contact me at nrustagi@paloaltonetworks.com.
Improving the Customer Experience
I am a technology professional with over 20 years’ experience in the networking industry with the last two spent at Palo Alto Networks. In my current role at Palo Alto Networks, I am part of the APAC (Asia-Pacific) Global Customer Success (GCS) management team that oversees support operations and ensures that we have a satisfied customer base in APAC.
During my high school years, I was fairly clear that I would choose a career in either technology or administration. Back then, computer programming was just beginning to become a fad, and coding courses were newly introduced into the school curriculum. I used to enjoy having the ability to solve problems in a logical manner in my programming classes. One thing led to another, and I wound up pursuing my bachelor’s degree in engineering, followed by a career in computer networking.
Career Transition
I spent most of my career in quality assurance and management roles, within product engineering organizations. I have enjoyed being part of new product initiatives (NPI) and projects that help to deliver tangible products to the market.
However, over the last few years, being in Singapore, I realized that I needed to be closer to the customer to get a real taste of the business. This made me pursue a Master of Business Administration degree, simultaneously scouting for opportunities that were different from what I had been doing before. The Tech Support role at Palo Alto Networks seemed ideal to help put me in close contact with the customer and also to get an understanding of business drivers in the industry.
Fast-paced — that’s the best way to describe Tech Support. Customers expect problems to be solved pronto, and this demands urgent action. I have huge respect for my colleagues who continually take calls from customers — customers whose emotions are somewhere within the spectrum of confused, desperate, frustrated, or angry. Members of Technical Support have to maintain their own composure, calm down the situation, and then go about troubleshooting technical problems. It requires a demanding combination of excellent technical and communication skills.
This is where work-life balance is important. When work takes up so much of our time and mindspace, it is hard to not call it an integral part of our lives. On an average day, most of us spend more than 70% of our waking hours at work. This means that work has to be taken as part of life and not contrary to it. To keep an inner balance, I try to follow a routine that involves reserving early morning hours for yoga and meditation. I also squeeze in a walk or work out after work, whenever I can. Outside of spending time with my family, I have a variety of interests like playing games, reading, and contributing to certain social causes. I try to be genuinely present at work during working hours and with family during off-work hours, though I must admit that there are unavoidable encroachments into both.
Women in Tech Support
As a professional, I hardly ever identify myself with being a female worker – rather the focus is always on the task at hand. However, it is no secret that there are fewer women than men in tech support professions. Knowledge-centric professions are great levellers for women in the workforce, as they remove the requirement for physical prowess and technical support roles should be no different. Unfortunately, job requirements for technical support roles usually detail a need for shift timing and weekend work. This may be a deterrent for women who are technology savvy but unable to commit to schedules that are outside of traditional working hours. Conscious action by companies such as ours, with carefully worded job descriptions and supportive policies for employers, can help us have more smart women take up this role.
Due to the obvious competitive advantage that a diverse workforce brings, there is conscious effort around the world, to have greater participation from the female workforce in all levels of the organization. In this environment, the female professionals should not miss out on opportunities due to lack of self-confidence or initiative. Research has shown that the female employee is more likely to doubt herself and her contributions as compared to her male counterpart. As female leaders, we need to be introspective and consciously rise above these self-defeating doubts and not trivialize our value. The entire leadership team, irrespective of gender, plays a vital role in supporting this. Looking forward to seeing great female talent and leadership blossoming in our organization!
In the Driver’s Seat: Exploring Product Management
Before joining the Product Management Academy (PMA), I was enrolled in Stanford’s Ph.D. program, working in the robotics and autonomous motion planning field. I was excited to be working in a revolutionary technology space; after all, who doesn’t love robots? However, while I enjoyed the technical difficulty and cutting-edge nature of the work, I felt like I was inexplicably missing something.
Around the same time, by the pure chance of a friend’s recommendation, I decided to take a product management (PM) course at Stanford. That’s when the light bulb turned on. I loved influencing and shaping a product’s direction. I loved listening to users and hearing their experiences. But, most importantly, I loved collaborating with people — lots and lots of different people. With that Archimedean sense of revelation, I began rethinking my career path and started applying for product management jobs in leading technology fields.
In another stroke of good luck, I happened to run across a Palo Alto Networks interviewer at a data science career fair at Stanford. When I told him that I was more interested in product management, his eyes lit up, and he began telling me about this “new accelerated rotational program” the company was offering to put young PM candidates in control of important cybersecurity products and problems. Admittedly, at the time, I knew very little about the cybersecurity space. I had heard about the company from a friend in cybersecurity research and knew not much else. However, after returning home and doing some research, I realized the importance of the field (the very safety and security of our digital footprints!) and the impact Palo Alto Networks was having on it. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I had joined Palo Alto Networks’ PMA.
Now in month 10 as a PM, I can safely say that I really enjoy product management! While it isn’t as “technically” challenging as my Ph.D. work, it forces me to use other and more creative parts of my brain to get the job done: on-the-spot negotiating, removing obstacles by whatever means, and generally acting as a Swiss Army knife. Being able to say, “I drove the execution of this feature because metrics/reasons X, Y, Z show that this feature will have the most value for the customer,” is not only exciting, but also fulfilling. Seeing the improved customer experience due to the feature reminds me that a PM’s impact is real and observable.
As I’ve learned through my work experience, soft skills are a big component of product management. They’re critical for leading discussions with stakeholders and customers, distilling problems into their key components for long-term product guidance, and firefighting the new problems each day brings. However, in my view, self-learning and leadership are the most important traits for PM’s (yeah, yeah, I know — everyone says it). But to put it in perspective, during my first rotation, I was assigned to the virtual firewall team, which essentially delivers the Next-Generation Firewall in virtual form for more flexible deployments (for example, cloud environments or generic computing platforms). When I joined, I hardly knew anything about the product or the space — I had to learn about networking, what a packet was, what virtualization is and why it’s important, how VM-Series works and differentiates itself from its competitors… the list goes on. Luckily, I had my peers, the Internet, and the program to help me catch up. It can be a long, uncomfortable learning process (I only started feeling confident in my contributions after seven months!) — but then again, I believe it’s that discomfort that forces you to grow and become the best product manager (or anything, really) you can be.
Overall, I’d highly recommend my experience as a product manager. And for those interested in product management, I’d highly recommend the PMA as well! The program does a great job of providing workshops (e.g., PM skills, leadership, presentations, etc.), connections to different leaders and groups in Palo Alto Networks, and, more importantly, high-visibility and high-impact projects. These one-year rotations are no joke — I’ve already launched a partnership program, worked on cross-product integrations, driven features, written problem statements, and handled a few customer escalations — to name a few things. While we may have been inexperienced when joining, we were expected to perform at the senior product manager level sometime during the rotation (but within reason — the people are nice and understand there’s ramp-up!)
So give it a try! Maybe PMA is the right program for you.