Office Hours: I’m the VP of Product at PayPal. I’m Clara Lee. AMA!Featured

Posted in:Navigating Career Transitions Product Office Hours

Hi Elphas!

I’m Clara Lee. As the VP of Service Experience Product at PayPal, I have two focus areas: (1) improving merchant and consumer service experiences and (2) optimizing service agent tools.

While this is the first time I’ve sat inside a Service organization, I enjoy that the role allows me to draw from many of my previous experiences. At Apple, I led go-to-market strategy and operations for the first generation of the Apple Watch and helped shape the development of Automatic Setup (now known as Quick Start) for frictionless device activation. At WooCommerce, I streamlined onboarding to increase paid conversion, built a customer research practice from scratch, and revived our Shipping product area.

During my downtime, my family and I enjoy exploring the national parks and forests in Washington State – there are many! Traveling in general is an addiction for us. I get as much joy planning and anticipating a trip as I do experiencing it.

Ask me anything about leadership, data-driven problem-solving, hiring, cross-functional collaboration, making career changes… or where you think I should travel to next!

ElphaStaff·Nov 04

Thanks so much for joining us @claraclee!Elphas – please ask @claraclee your questions before Friday, November 8th. @claraclee may not have time to answer every questions, so emoji upvote your favorites 🔥👍🏾➕

anisaramdhani·Nov 05

Hi @claraclee thanks for doing this AMA! I currently want to transition from a program manager to an analyst jobs. It could be a data analyst, growth analyst, or product manager. However, since my experience as a program manager is already more than 5 years, it's hard now to do job transitions. I even took data science for my master's to support my transitions. Do you have any tips?

Rebecca·Nov 04

Thanks for doing this AMA! I’m super curious to hear from your pov as a public company, exec leader, who was dealing with a scaled product - what does leading “GTM Strategy” entail?Was this considered part of the sales function, operations (under a COO or other G&A type role), product, or marketing? What was the problem you were specifically tasked with solving and what teams did you collaborate with to deliver? Were there a few key pillars/deliverables that you identified and made your framework for a “GTM Strategy” one that you could replicate on a different model or problem?How do you think this might this differ at an earlier stage company?

LeenaB·Nov 08

Hi Clara,1. When you are building product teams and hiring a people manager (e.g. Manager of Product Management), what are you looking for? How would you know they are successful, let's say 12 months, after hiring?2. How have you built strong product teams that embrace good product management practices like continuous discovery, having strong user research teams that support product teams etc? Did you need to get buy-in and the budget to build out such teams? The latter is a lagging indicator of success so how did you demonstrate the benefits/ROI while getting the buy-in and how soon were you able to see results after adopting these practices? Were there pitfalls that you ran into?

claraclee·Nov 08

Hi @leenab - love this two part question that gets to the heart of being a great people developer!1. When hiring a people manager, I look for how a person speaks about their current team – do they do so with curiosity, constructiveness, and empathy? In 12 months, my expectation is that they would have made a significant improvement on team performance, meaning are the "greens" thriving, are the "yellows" moving toward green, and have we actioned on the "reds"? (Referencing "Move Your Bus" by Ron Clark)2. Building well-rounded product teams is difficult! It starts with hiring – and back to my point about whether a person is naturally curious about customers / users. If they are, they will prioritize discovery and research, making time for it even when busy. In regards to company and budget, every situation is different, so it's difficult to generalize – but I'd say that demonstrating what can be done with with 1-2 resources or temp contractors first can give you the runway to build a case for broader / more permanent investment in the future. The pitfall to avoid here is getting to the end of a trial or engagement and realizing you don't have the data to back up an ROI argument! So make sure you align with your leaders up front on measurement, and implement it from the start.

sukanyabharati05·Nov 06

Hi Clara! You don't know me, but I am an aspiring Product Manager based in India. I have two years of Product Analyst experience working at a Product Management and Consulting startup. Would you have 15 minutes to chat on the phone to give me some advice on how I can break into my first PM role at your company? Best Regards, Sukanya Bharati

claraclee·Nov 08

Hi @sukanyabharati05 – It may be hard for us to find time to connect live, but I'm happy to answer your question here in the meantime. I would suggest a couple approaches:1. Talk to company alumni who have made a similar transition – are there other Product Analysts that have successfully converted to a Product Manager?2. Consider your favorite consulting clients – is there one with whom you have a connection or relationship that would allow you to safely inquire about opportunities to transition to the client side Product Management team?As you speak with alumni and clients, make sure you are clear about your intention so that people know how they can help you. Wishing you the best of luck your journey!

sukanyabharati05·Nov 11

Hey Claraclee, thank you for the pointers!

joannatsuo·Nov 06

Hi Clara! Thanks for doing this AMA. I'm curious how you approached leadership throughout the years - was it something that you naturally grew into? Or were there aspects of it that you sought executive coaching on in order to up level? This is something I'm also personally considering on my career journey and would love to hear your thoughts! :)

claraclee·Nov 08

Hi @joannatsuo – great question! Ever since I started managing people, I have leveraged executive coaching through periods of transition. Sometimes that is transitioning functions within companies; other times that is while ramping at a new company. I tend to favor 3-6 month engagements, as this offers enough time for us to get to know each other. And I have also changed coaches over years, depending on what I need and the challenges I'm facing that juncture. With that said, executive coaching is not cheap. Some companies sponsor this benefit. Professional networks also may also have offers or connections that will help you explore whether and when it's right for you.

joannatsuo·Nov 12

Thank you for the insightful advice - appreciate your transparency on the topic! It's definitely both hard and expensive to find good coaches and having a company sponsored benefit would be amazing.

Corinna72·Nov 06

Thanks for being here Clara! Do you have any advice for cross-functional collaboration on teams where other members might be encroaching on a product manager's role and responsibilities? I specifically work with a project manager who appears more keen on activities e.g. roadmap prioritization, early stage strategic conversations, etc. that I understand to typically involve product, design and engineering. How might you encourage their continued interest but also clarify roles and responsibilities?

claraclee·Nov 08

Hi @Corinna72 – I've experienced a lot of this over my career, and while it put me on the defensive at first, I've learned to approach the situation / person with curiosity. Why are they behaving this way? Are they trying to learn into the function and make a career transition? Are they doing this because they believe it's helpful to the project and team goals? Or maybe they are green, and could use a refresher on who does what. Understanding "the why" will help you be better equipped to respond in a constructive and collaborative way.

MandyWong·Nov 07

Hi @claraclee - thanks for your time! I'm a Marketer and look at things from a consumer branding perspective. How do you differentiate between PayPal and Venmo (since PayPal owns both brands)? I know you're in Product but how would you describe these two brands to someone who doesn't know the difference? Also who would make a great partner brand to team up with to drive user engagement or brand awareness (for example, Starbucks or DoorDash)? Thanks!

claraclee·Nov 08

Hi @MandyWong – as a former Marketer, I'm happy that you're chiming in! While I'm still new to PayPal, from what I can see PayPal is investing in product breadth in its offerings and across the globe, Venmo is doubling down on P2P and embracing an event- and location-based strategy (think of splitting dinner bills, or rent payments). Some of the brands you mentioned are indeed PayPal partners – check out the consumer app for rich offers!

Iynna·Nov 04

You should go to Madagascar next ;-) I say this as a very UNBIASED Malagasy person haha

Maragret205·Nov 06

Hi Clara! Could you share a little about how you were able to build your data-driven problem solving skills? Are there certain practices or tools you found especially helpful in your roles? Is there anything in particular you might recommend for a product manager working in an org in which data science support is limited?

claraclee·Nov 08

Hi @maragret205 – having worked in both data rich and data poor environments, I've personally found great development opportunities in both! In data rich environments, I've been able to learn from the best of the best. In data poor environments (to your point), I've been lucky to have data science partners who are willing to teach me some skills so I can help myself. The other approach I'd take is to ask myself, is there some other way (or type of data) I can gather to answer the question – and sometimes that leads me to creative solutions like running experiments or conducting survey/qual research.

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