#1: Being the Squeaky Wheel đź“Ł

First weeks are like cocktails

Author

Nihit Bhardwaj
April 28, 2025

Hey there, ladies and gentlemen!

Hope you’re having the time of your life.

Welcome to the first edition of Product in Progress, where we try to learn a little more about Product Management in the most raw and authentic way possible, right from the trenches.

First weeks are like cocktails. (this is 100% my stupid analogy, not ChatGPT)

One part excitement, one part awkwardness, with a generous dash of nerves.

And this summarised my first week at Yahoo — and my first time not working fully remote.

Until now, I’d always worked from home, where once the call ended, I could switch back to my unrefined self and catch the next episode of whatever show I was hooked to that week.

Now I’m working hybrid — and honestly, I think it’s the sweet spot. You get the quiet focus of working from home, and the much-needed face time with people you’re building with.

But here’s what stood out the most this week:

Being a Product Manager means you can’t afford to stay in your corner and just speak when spoken to.


You’ve got to squeak. Early. Loudly. Repeatedly.

I know, I know it’s nothing new. But for someone like me — who’s kind of an introvert — this doesn’t come easy.

It takes effort to walk up to people. To set up intros. To ask what might sound like obvious questions.

But that’s what the job is all about. Product Management is one of those roles where you’re not directly “building” anything — not the code, not the design, not the data pipeline.
So, what you do bring to the table is your ability to communicate, influence, unblock, and make people move in the same direction.

And, that doesn’t happen in silence. It happens through rapport, which you’ve got to build daily. One Slack message, one coffee chat, one question at a time.

What helped me immensely this week, especially as someone who doesn’t thrive in small talk, was this:

Do your homework before every intro call.

It doesn’t have to be a deep dive. But if you can take even 15–20 minutes to go through:

  • The person’s recent Jira tickets

  • Any review decks they’ve worked on

  • A PRD they contributed to

…you walk into that call with context. You’re not just chatting — you’re asking meaningful, team-specific questions. It builds trust, and more importantly, it makes your conversation useful — for both of you.

Over time, you start to understand:

  • Who does what

  • Who to go to for what

  • When to loop someone in and when to stay out of the way

What I’m Taking Away from Week 1:

âś… Must Haves:

  • Set up intro calls with every stakeholder you'll work with

  • Ask more questions than you think you should. Even the obvious ones

  • Do your homework — skim their Jira board, read a past PRD, scan review decks. Walk in with context

  • Show up. Speak up. Visibility over silence

đź‘Ť Good to Haves:

  • Ask: “What challenges are you currently facing?” — and note it down

  • Create a lightweight doc to track who’s responsible for what

  • Ask stakeholders how they like to work (async, calls, Slack, etc.)

  • Review Org charts or Internal team structure

đź’­ Would Be Nice:

  • Keep a “Stakeholder Cheat Sheet” with preferred ways of working, key metrics they own, and where you last left off

  • Drop a friendly Slack message after your 1:1 with a recap or small thank-you — helps reinforce that connection

Fun Fact about Yahoo

Yahoo was founded in 1994, one of the original “big tech” companies in the world and its name is a backronym for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle”.

Till next week...

We’re just getting started. If this week was about getting to know people, next week is about getting into the work.

I’ve got my first sprint planning call coming up. Let’s see how that goes.

See you on the other side.

— Nihit

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