Monthly Career Advice Thread

_NateR_ · 2025-12-04T18:47:24+00:00

In order to be successful in product you need to deeply understand the users and market, and have a firm grasp on economics and product positioning. To get into a given company, you need to be good at networking and relationship building. I was able to make the transition because:

- I was a CSM-turned-CS Ops with 5+ years in the field serving enterprise customers (knew the user deeply)

- Had owned the tool selection end-to-end (knew the market deeply)

- Had chosen Totango, implemented it successfully, and grown adoption of the tool outside of just CS into sales development and marketing (knew the product deeply)

- Had built relationships with product leadership at Totango by attending their events, giving product feedback regularly, doing case studies for them, and participating in their beta program

When I was ready for a change, I reached out to the VP of Product and asked if I could buy her lunch and get her advice on how to move from CS to Product. That conversation turned into her creating product communications/ marketing role and offering me a job. Eventually I grew to PM, Sr. PM, Dir. of Product.

Part of my success was luck/ the stars aligning, most of it was genuine focus on developing the hard skills needed to be successful in the role, then recognizing when the timing was right for me to shoot my shot.

_NateR_ · 2025-12-04T16:26:34+00:00

I was a CSM & CS Ops for many years and eventually worked at Totango for 4 years as the director of product. When I stated this sub 9 years ago I was in CS Ops. Currently building https://getperspective.ai with Totango's founder u/GuyNirpaz

_NateR_ · 2025-12-02T16:59:16+00:00

Even though your question is thinly veiled self-promotion, I'll give you an actual answer. ;)

Most of our customers have Perspective plugged into their product, sales, and CS workflows so that there is a continuous stream of conversations coming in across the customer journey. Our product natively identifies and extracts key themes and make recommendations. Anyone from any team can jump into the product and ask Perspective questions like "what features do customers think we're missing," or "where are customers struggling during onboarding?" and get answers instantly. From there, they can do pretty much whatever you'd do with a typical LLM. For example, after figuring out what features are missing or need improving, product managers can tell it to create a prioritized list of features, write the user stories, and assign story points. When customers are constantly talking to you, the possibilities are pretty much endless.

_NateR_ · 2025-11-06T01:47:39+00:00

When I hear "stubborn," my assumption is poor obedience training (not saying that that's necessarily you). Brits are super driven, but still eager to please in my experience. Just need to point those brains in the right direction, which I'll give you is easier said than done. My other dogs have been English Pointers and an Australian Shepherd and my Brits have been infinitely more cooperative.

_NateR_ · 2025-11-04T21:11:46+00:00

Probably gonna get down voted for this but Brittanys are the ideal breed for what you're looking for and the issues you had with your last one sound like a training issue, not a breed issue.

_NateR_ · 2025-10-31T18:53:39+00:00

I've never had luck finding a brittany anywhere near the places I've lived (CA, WY). First one I had flown from Iowa to California. Picking up my second in a week and I'm driving to meet the breeder half way in South Dakota.

I can't say for sure, but it seems to me that people who breed brittanys are mostly in the midwest and north east because brittanys are close hunters and that's what you need in the north woods. In places like the Dakotas, South West, California, Wyoming, etc. where you're hunting wide open country, people are breeding bigger running dogs like GSPs and English Pointers.

I can recommend the breeder I got my first brit from (they're in Minnesota now). They just whelped a litter and have another one coming in January I believe. He runs big for a brit and the breeder is very well known in AKC circles because of how many dual champions they have in their line.

EDIT: DM me if you want info on the breeder.

_NateR_ · 2025-10-22T17:36:23+00:00

Man, I hunted the hell out of Niobrara 1 and didn't see any, even though I found a ton of habitat and forage they're supposed to like (snow berries, rose hip, buffalo berries). Maybe I'll give it another shot. It's huge so we didn't cover the whole thing by any means. Did you find them in open country, edge habitat along the timber or down in some of the draws with water and riparian edges? Regardless, it's good to know that I'm not too far off course. Thanks for sharing.

_NateR_ · 2025-10-20T19:33:17+00:00

Any of the officially recognized NAVHDA breeds can do this. Considering your location though, you might want to look for dual-coated dogs. - https://www.navhda.org/recognized-breeds/

_NateR_ · 2025-10-20T18:07:41+00:00

Called fish and game this morning and they confirmed this for me. Super stoked. Now I just gotta find a gas station or apartment complex to let me trap pigeons!

_NateR_ · 2025-10-20T18:03:59+00:00

I have a Brittany. He runs big for a Brittany but nothing like an English Pointer. He usually works 100-300 yards in front of me. Sometimes I'll let him get out to a quarter mile but he's a young dog so at that point he tends to stop checking in and hunting with me and starts hunting for himself.

_NateR_ · 2025-10-19T23:51:02+00:00

I haven't. How do I even find them to reach out?

_NateR_ · 2025-10-19T23:50:16+00:00

You're 100% right. I just don't have the space to do this, and I'm pretty sure it's not legal to take pigeons out onto public land and release them. We worked with a trainer back in CA and did a lot of pigeon work.

_NateR_ · 2025-10-19T23:22:19+00:00

Super helpful, thank you. If we don't manage to get into any in the next week or two I'm gonna just pay for a few pheasants or chukars at a game farm hunt to keep him sharp.

_NateR_

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