Hey! Thanks for taking the time to review my application. I want to start by saying 2 barrels is my top pick right now so please reach out if you even think I might be a good fit. To me, picking the right company to work for is as important as hiring the right candidate. I’ll start with why I’m excited for this opportunity, then I’ll get into why I think you should be excited too.

Financial Independence

In my career I’ve seen a lot of really uniformed decisions made based on what investors believe is best for a product they think about once or twice a quarter. I’ve read about 2 Barrel’s financial independence and it’s energizing to think about the opportunity to work for a company that can decide its own direction forward. I’ve also spent the last 7 years at a SaaS start up, so it’ll be nice to get some experience with a more established company that has proven success.

Agile

It’s important to me that I work for a company that cares about doing things in the best possible way. Using Agile and Scrum methodologies is a big qualifier for me as it means that the company values its employee’s time and as stated several times on your website, prefers outcome over output. It’s ok if we put some work in on something that doesn’t ultimately get shipped. It’s better to move fast and iterate than to commit to building the perfect thing the first time. This allows teams to ship the right products at the right times, as well as adjust for the here and now as requirements, industry standards, and customer expectations change.

Common Sense Expectations

Reading through your values and your How We Hire/Work documentation it is apparent that you’re a company that hires well and focuses on how to meet employees where they are, and help them get to where they want to be. I don’t believe respect needs to be earned, it should be feely given. I also appreciate the transparency that is apparent in your documentation. It’s seems like you’re a company that communicates expectations with transparency and understanding which is important for me. I feel like I should always know where I stand when it comes to career growth and performance, and I get that vibe from what I’ve read.

Why me?

So why should you care about hiring me over the other hundreds of applicants you’ve likely received? I believe my experience on a strategic, product-led growth team will provide me with a great deal of necessary context for this role. I also have a proven track record of shipping functionality to product to encourage strategic growth. I’ve provided a good bit of context throughout this site as for who I am and my thoughts on certain topics. I believe I am fully capable of doing this job well and being a valuable member of a team. As a company that is growing by 20 people per month you’ll want people that will stick around for continued success. As long as I feel like the company I’m working for is being respectful of my time and effort I’m content to work there for as long as I can grow there. I love the work that I do as a product manager. I also am easy to get along with. If asked my opinion I speak my mind directly and with respect, but I can easily set aside my ego and own ideas when overruled.

A big part of being a product manager is managing interpersonal relationships. This job requires a lot of respectfully telling people no. Especially in a growth focused role, you want to be sure that you’re aligned and in good standing with not only your engineering teams, but marketing and design as well as sales teams so that everyone feels informed and good about what is being shipped. I believe my soft skills will excel in this function as well as my years of customer support experience as I treat many stakeholders as customers. We’re beholden to ship the products they need, which isn’t always the product they think they need. Good product managers understand the problems customers/stakeholders are trying to solve, and solve those problems in ways that align with the product vision, company goals, and user requirements.

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