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OhHello - Thaisa Fernandes
56 Plays1 year ago
Welcome to episode 51 of the OhHello.io 🌞☕️ pod/vod, where we interview empathetic leaders in tech, marketing, and advertising that believe in the importance of mentorship and giving back!
This "Hello" brings the funk, spunk, and an adorable pug all within the first few minutes!
Meet Thaisa Fernandes- an experienced #programmanager & #PMO with 15+ years of experience in the tech and agency field. Thaisa Fernandes, a Brazilian immigrant, has spent a decade in Silicon Valley, breaking the tech glass ceiling at companies like Twitter / X and now at Feedonomics (part of BigCommerce).
She's also a social entrepreneur with projects like the Latinx in Power podcast (part of HubSpot's creator community), featuring stories of global Latinx leaders. Thaisa authored PM101, the #1 blog on Program and Product Management, with over a million annual views. She co-authored the first-ever book on Product Management by Brazilian women, involving over 30 Latinas.
Product Owner (PSPO), PMI & Scrum Master (PSM) certified. Thaisa likes to solve problems, ask interesting questions, and help businesses create awesome products and programs. Thaisa Fernandes will be on v2.0 of OhHello.io (along with so many other amazing mentors), and she can't wait to connect with so many of you - all while giving back!
Her mentors:
Want to be a mentor or looking to seek guidance and help from someone like Thaisa? Great- sign-up now: OhHello.io
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Transcript
Introduction to Taisa and Her Pug
00:00:14
Speaker
Oh, hello, Taisa. Hello. Thanks for having me. I mean, us. Us. It's you, me, your 11 year old pug that I was just introduced to. His name is in Portuguese. It was a mackerel. Malachi. Malachi. Malachi. Okay, try that one again.
00:00:39
Speaker
a wonderful meeting, Malachi.
Taisa's Background and Journey
00:00:41
Speaker
So, Taisa, I have the pleasure of knowing who you are. We had a couple of different meetings several years back when you were at Twitter. Why don't you tell our listeners, our viewers that have been within the Oh, hello community, who I have the pleasure of speaking with right now?
00:01:00
Speaker
Awesome. So I'm Taisa Fernandez. I'm trying not to talk about professional parts, trying to talk about things that I like. So I'm from Brazil. I live in Bay Area for the past almost a decade. So I'm based in San Francisco. I love pugs, dogs in general, and cats, animals. I'm vegan. I don't know if you knew about that.
00:01:30
Speaker
I did not. Yeah, I'm vegan for almost a decade. I was vegetarian before that and I have been working tight for the past 10 years.
00:01:41
Speaker
in Bay Area. Before that, I was based in Brazil, working tech from the agency side. I worked many years as a project manager, started my career as a designer. It's funny because still, nowadays, people look at me, they think I'm a designer, so it's interesting. I'm not, I used to be. And for the past 10 years, I have been working in program management.
Program Management Insights
00:02:07
Speaker
for startups, agencies, and Big Tech. My previous experience was at Twitter. So why don't you tell us a little bit more about what program management means? And that's when we met when you were at Twitter. Give us a little bit more as this pod in the series is about mentorship. It's about career advice. It's about guidance. It's about the actual community within the marketing, advertising, and tech ecosystem. So I'd love to just have you explain that a little bit more.
00:02:37
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good question. I think people sometimes confuse with project management or even product management. So a program manager is a person who's more focused on their strategy. A lot of times you create programs for specific products.
00:02:55
Speaker
And to run the operation so the program manager is a person that is always working in something that is a little bit more long term twelve months or even more than that there's like a lot of operations. With that and a lot of times you're going to be working with.
00:03:15
Speaker
different project managers, different product managers, because this collection of projects is going to help you to achieve your program, your business goals. A lot of times there's not one thing, one project, but it's a collection of projects. So you're working with a lot of different stakeholders. And also it's something that is interesting and definitely a big challenge because you live without authority.
00:03:45
Speaker
So a lot of times you're not reporting, you don't have reports, but you're working with those different executives, stakeholders, and you're going to convince them to help in this specific project because this collection of projects is going to help you to achieve your business goals.
00:04:03
Speaker
And I say that you never get bored because you're always super business focused. You're going to look at the market, what is happening with all the changes. So there's always new things happening.
Cultural Adaptation and Identity
00:04:17
Speaker
Yeah, you're essentially an internal Switzerland that is dealing with a myriad of other countries externally, and you're trying to figure out who to partner with, why it's going to help your business, how their features, their benefits, their long-term vision can align with whatever company you're at.
00:04:38
Speaker
To me, it's a really exciting space. It's intriguing, and especially understanding that you have that design and designer background, and you just have a fun, eclectic personality. It really just helps you, I would think, infuse other cultures and also represent the company that you're at in a very unique way. Thank you for explaining that.
00:05:01
Speaker
Yeah, and yeah, you just said about the personality, it brings me something that I wanted to share, something that I have been thinking of. So I think like coming from Brazil, being a Latina, being US, it's something that
00:05:17
Speaker
It's very hard, and especially because your culture is different, your language is different, so you spend a lot of time adapting and learning, and some things that it was obvious for you, for other people might not, you might, like, I don't know, we clap when we see happy birthday again here, we don't clap, and silly things like that, you know, you're singing happy birthday at work for someone, and then you start to clap, and then you notice no one is clapping, like, why, why this is happening?
00:05:47
Speaker
It's a beauty of culture. Yeah. And at the same time, you're like, okay, I'm different, but I want to be like them. I want to blend. But at the same time, you're like, oh no, I want to show my personality. So I think in the previous years, I'm very comfortable with my personality, my weirdness. So it's something that I bring.
00:06:12
Speaker
to work in anything I do. So and something that I don't know, I think our personality is something that makes us unique. So probably a lot of times people might not remember about the project we work with or a presentation that I did, but they might remember, Oh, she has a bug or I don't know, she just from Brazil. So, you know, so it's something that I have been embracing lately, I guess.
The Role of Mentorship
00:06:40
Speaker
I think it's great that you embrace that because the whole purpose of Oh Hello is to create connectivity and to provide guidance and mentorship. So when other people that come from other countries or that are US based or if they are from Brazil or Argentina or Ecuador or wherever in the world, understanding that
00:07:04
Speaker
there are other women to look up to that have been there, done that, that have taken a few steps before them. That is a very influential both capability and opportunity. With that said, what excites you about mentorship and what kind of advice would you give your younger self?
00:07:24
Speaker
I think what excites me is the fact that we have the internet, now we have more resources than ever. And thinking about someone who wants to change careers or who wants to get into tech, it's incredible, overwhelming to think about.
00:07:41
Speaker
the things you need to do because there's like many courses, books, people, like there's a lot that you need to look for and thinking about myself when I moved to the US. I already had a career, I had a really good career already in Brazil but when I moved here I started from scratch
00:08:01
Speaker
just because people didn't know me. And I was very lucky to work in global companies. But at the same time, no one knew that I studied where I studied. I had an MBA. I did an MBA in Brazil. And I think it's something that, you know, when there's this
00:08:21
Speaker
scenario where you don't know, it's just like in this huge bubble where like, oh, maybe I don't have time to look at it. Or maybe like, I just don't know, right? So I feel that is super overwhelming. So I think what excites me about mentorship is just to give me my tailored advice on things
00:08:43
Speaker
that people should look for. For example, I do mentorship, especially with folks from Latin America, women, and they get super overwhelming. And sometimes they don't realize, for example, they might work in sales and they are like, oh, I want to go into tech. And it's just so difficult, so different. I don't have experience. And just I tell them, you work in sales, you know a lot about your users.
00:09:06
Speaker
You know how to collaborate and work with cross-functional teams. You're really good at communication because this is what you do, right? So you should use those skills because those skills can be translated to a lot of different roles in tech.
00:09:22
Speaker
And I feel when you start researching and being overwhelming, it's very hard to connect those dots. So I think this is the part that I enjoy the most, being able to connect those dots. That's amazing. Yeah, connecting those dots and transferring that knowledge and those experiences, it makes the difference. Who are some top professional mentors that have played a big impact on your roles, your life, your experiences thus far?
The Value of Curiosity and Diverse Experiences
00:09:51
Speaker
Yeah. So as I mentioned, like I, I did my BA and my MBA in Brazil. And when I moved here, I love to study. I'm very curious person. I have like a lot of situations. I don't see myself like stopping studying. So I, I, I did this, uh, extension course in UC Berkeley. And it was incredible. I always wanted to study there and I had this.
00:10:19
Speaker
this teacher, Li Fong Yu. And she's so incredible. And I love her classes. And she's super badass. And she's Chinese, American. And I just always felt very inspired by her. And she became my mentor over time. And also I have a really good friend. She became
00:10:42
Speaker
a really good friend Gretchen Rodriguez she's also a Latina and she's super badass as well we were supposed to work together she was supposed to be my manager but
00:10:56
Speaker
We have a funny story. Now I laugh at it, but basically my first job in the West was supposed to be this one. I got an offer, I accepted the offer, but when was the time for me to start working? They were like in high and freeze, I guess. So my job didn't exist anymore. And it was so sad. I was so excited to work with her, but long story short, she became my friend and my mentor. So yeah.
00:11:26
Speaker
Yeah, I have those two people that we look for. Any other parting words of wisdom or advice that you could give to just to the Oh, hello community just about about your experiences about career about navigating. Anything else?
00:11:47
Speaker
I think two things, be curious, don't be afraid to ask questions. Sometimes ask the difficult questions as well. It's very important in a very, very nice way and with the curiosity in your mind. And also, I think thinking about mentorship, connecting with people, I think this is very important as well.
00:12:15
Speaker
getting to know people that maybe have a similar path than you or maybe a similar culture, because this will give you a lot of insights and a lot of times we feel alone. And it's not okay to feel like that. It's difficult, right? So connecting with people, I think this is the most important thing. And also keep in mind that career paths, they're not supposed to be linear.
00:12:48
Speaker
Yeah, and maybe you did a lot of different things in your past. For example, when I'm over here, I didn't want to say when I was interviewing that I was a designer because I didn't want to be seen as a designer who turned into like a PM. And then I realized, no, this is amazing. I should
00:13:06
Speaker
tell people that because at first I know how to design, I know the tools, I understand the design craft and I know how to work with designers. So don't be afraid to share about your past experience. Sometimes you might have no idea how this translates to what you plan to do next, but a lot of times it can translate. For example, last year I had the opportunity to teach for a master's
00:13:32
Speaker
the greening design in Thailand. So I was teaching design for business and I was teaching this student. He was
00:13:40
Speaker
a teacher, a math teacher who wanted to turn into a designer. And he was like, oh, those things are totally different. And I was like, yeah, they are kind of different. But at the same time, you know how to mentor people. You know how to work collaboratively. A lot of times in design, you're presenting your ideas, sharing your thoughts, your thinking behind. You might have different discussions trying to
00:14:07
Speaker
share your thought process, how things worked. So you are really good with people. So this definitely relates to design as well. So I think I encourage people to do these exercises to think more about the skills of what you are doing now and what you are doing next, how they can relate, although they might be from totally different industries.
00:14:31
Speaker
amazing parting words. Thank you, Taiza. Really appreciate you doing this. Thank you, everybody. Thank you for watching, for listening. We're going to drop Taiza's pod and credits as well. Thank you, everyone. Take care. Thank you.