Sumit Sharma is a product lead at Microsoft with over 15 years of experience in web, mobile and desktop products with MNCs and startups for B2B & B2C. She has a strong background in product management for SaaS products in real estate, travel, revenue management and location intelligence (GIS) mobile-first products. Within the realm of product management, her expertise lies in product strategy, market fit, go-to-market strategy, product requirements gathering, prioritization and more. She attended UCLA PGPX in 2019-2020 and shares her experience of the program.
Why UCLA PGPX?
I chose this program because I wanted to upgrade from a functional leader to a T shaped leader. I wanted to improve my acumen specifically in the areas of finance and marketing.
What insights did you gain through the program?
There were two things that really stood out to me. The first insight I gained from the program was understanding entrepreneurship as a process – moving from ideas to business models and applying finance to be able to get profitability was an experience in itself.
The second was how to develop leadership skills and the act of persuasion negotiation. These are some of the learnings and skills that I will value for life.
How would you describe the program?
If I had to sum up the value of the program in one word it would be upgraded business acumen. I am now able to connect the dots between my functional area of expertise and business as well as carry out my existing responsibilities even better.