ThoughtExchange

Leading the Go-To-Market for School Climate Surveys

Thriving as a Growth Product Manager: Building, Iterating, and Driving Success

I’ve had the exciting responsibility of owning everything from the inception to the go-to-market of our school climate survey product line. I have so many cool features to work on, from creating the survey, to collecting responses and analyzing the data using advanced visualization and AI / ChatGPT-style analysis.

What’s been most rewarding is having ownership of this product line—seeing it evolve from idea to execution. It’s been thrilling to gather feedback, conduct demos, meet with customers, and iterate quickly. The success we’ve seen in this area has been incredibly fulfilling, and it’s in these moments of building something new that I find the most joy in my work. We're seeing a steady rise in users every month, so it looks like we're doing something right!

This is the work I love most. I'm realizing that I'm best as a growth PM. I am generally a starter - as opposed to a finisher - in most things. For example, I much rather set up drywall than to paint. And so I see a parallel in product management. I'm at my best when solving nebulous problems and making new things. As soon as something matures, I'm ready to move onto the next challenge. That's probably why I love this job so much. I'm continuously building and cycling through new things.

Our Love for Open Ended Feedback

Death to the likert scale question

Let’s face it: nobody wants to answer 75 questions about their experience and still not feel like they were able to express how they felt. One of ThoughtExchange’s greatest strengths is its ability to work with qualitative data. Instead of relying on closed-ended, quantitative surveys, we focus on open-ended questions that allow people to express their thoughts more freely. This approach makes it easier for people to share their perspectives in a way that feels more natural and less tedious. The platform also has unique features that let participants see and respond to others’ views, which sparks deeper engagement.

Analyzing open ended data is much more complex and is arguably the reason why people avoid them. That's not a problem for ThoughtExchange - that's what it specializes in! We leverage AI to summarize, categorize, filter, and segment open-ended responses, making it possible to spot trends, differences, and common ground within large sets of data. Collaborating with data scientists on this has been a fascinating experience and has opened my eyes to the potential of AI in qualitative analysis.

Transitioning to ThoughtExchange

More structure, more focus

In my previous product management role, I handled a variety of responsibilities—product management, customer support, and more. Now, at ThoughtExchange, I'm working within a larger company with a more structured approach. The processes are well-defined, and there’s a strong focus on collaboration across teams, including customer-facing ones like client success.

While the larger team and clearer roles provide stability, there’s also the challenge of staying focused as the company grows. In smaller companies, alignment is easier with fewer people to communicate with, but in a bigger company, it requires balancing efficiency with broader goals. This shift has deepened my understanding of how product management operates at scale.

I can't yet say how I feel about it, but I'm suspecting that I'm going to miss some of the entrepreneurial responsibilities and accountability I used to have, but that I'm also really going to enjoy focusing on building great things with great people.

The culture here is also quite different than anything I've ever seen. In all the companies I've consulted with and worked for, I'd never felt like I was working with family. People here bring their whole selves here. There seems to be a love of love and kinship.