Shubhansha
“Being a woman to me, and this can sound a little bit poetic or cliché, but I feel like it’s like being water. I find it to be a very fluid thing; somehow you’re able to adapt very immediately but also still be resilient, still keeping your own power. ”
Shubhansha is a versatile and dynamic professional who has navigated new countries, career paths, and avenues of self-expression. Currently a leader in the product space for Yelp, she began her journey as an engineer and has since worked her way up to a strategic role. Sharing her expertise as a guest speaker at multiple institutions and conferences, she has also become a published author, translating her product knowledge into digestible insights for readers in her latest book One to Hundred. In addition to her many contributions to the tech space, she is a seasoned artist who captures the experiences of womanhood in her figurative art. Through her artwork and ambition, she continues to provide women with the necessary tools to be successful in the tech arena and beyond. This is her story.
K: Please tell us about yourself!
S: I’m Shubhansha, I am originally from India – that's where I was born and brought up, and I moved to the States a decade ago. I actually got into tech as the only option that I had, it wasn't really like I was very passionate about it. It was definitely a very up-and-coming industry and so I wanted to be a part of it. I got into tech as an engineer but very soon I realized that even though I was good at it, it was not something that gave me a spark every day, so I kind of kept looking for new roles. I transitioned into product and that's what I do now.
I am currently in San Francisco, and I work in the Bay Area at one of the tech companies here. Outside of that, I am a creative person, too. I got into art during the pandemic and I now find that as my more creative side. I love to travel and I have a dog who's a one-year-old, he is a 100 pound baby that doesn't know that he's 100 pounds, so it's interesting how he keeps flapping things around in the house.
P: Can you speak a little bit more about what your career focus is now?
S: A little bit of a distinction is that earlier in my career I was in engineering so that was essentially writing code and making the apps. What I do now is still in tech but it's a domain called “product management,” and that domain includes doing strategy work, like figuring out what exactly the product we should be building is.
For example, at Yelp, a lot of what my role entails is figuring out what features should be on the platform and why they should be. Some of the ways that I do that is by looking at data trends, looking at people's behavior, and talking to a lot of users to figure out why they use the product, why they don't use the product, and what they do or don’t like about it. So, kind of figuring out from there how all of that combines with what Yelp’s business goals are, and what we should be building. To kind of put it into perspective, building a vision and strategy of where the company should go, which I personally find more fun than just building the app.
K: In your current role or previous roles that you have held in the tech space, have there been any challenges that you have faced because you are a woman? Has there been a shortage of women on the teams you have been a part of?
S: Absolutely. I have been in tech for more than 12 years and I feel like for the first 7 years, I was mostly the only woman in the team. Especially when I was working as an engineer, it used to be teams of like 20 men and I was the only woman. I would say it is definitely daunting because when you see only people from the US, and not someone who looks like you, you don't really know what's next because you don't really have good role models. If you don't have people in higher positions to look to, you’re kind of like a deer in headlights trying to figure out what's next for you.
I also thought it was actually very interesting that I could bring a unique perspective to that team. For example, if I was in a team where I was the only woman and I was working with a product that helps cater to local businesses, it was sometimes so unique and interesting to me that I was the only one who was thinking of hair and nail salons as local businesses, too. Whereas other people on my team thought of only restaurants or handymen or plumbers as local businesses. I think it's finding that obviously it's very challenging, but you can also still be a strong woman who brings a unique perspective. It doesn't have to be all about being the man in the team, I think it's nice to just have your own voice. I think that was an interesting experience but I don’t think that’s the case now. I think definitely now there's a very equal share of men and women, at least in the team that I work on.
P: What advice do you think you would give to someone who, for instance, was like you when you were younger, and was looking towards a career in technology?
S: I doubted myself a lot when I was younger, so I think it is about knowing if I was telling my own self “Do I really belong here?” or “Am I actually good?” because I didn't know a lot of people in that industry, so I've suffered with a lot of imposter syndrome. But I think the advice I would give to myself and other younger people is: there is a real place for you here and there is a real place for a women in tech. Not only because I do think women make just great leaders by themselves, but if you think of the world, 50% of population is women, so all these tech products are used by women. We can't have 50% of the population creating tech products for the other 50% of the population. So, you just need to have that belief that there is a real place for yourself there.
K: What are you most proud of that you have accomplished so far? What’s next for you?
S: I think there are a couple of things I would say I'm most proud of – one is the work that I do now, which is very directly related to making a positive impact on society. A lot of the work that I do is about helping local and small businesses, so I think there’s the validation that I’m actually making a small impact in a meaningful way and it's not just another product. I think that's something I really feel proud of. One of the things we've recently been doing is trying to stay on top of industry trends, through AI and launching customer related products, which I think is a plus.
The second accomplishment I feel even more proud of is that I started speaking at conferences. I started because of my own fear of public speaking and I kind of wanted to push myself to try and get out there for my own skill building and confidence. When I started doing that, I realized that there are so many people who benefit from it, especially when it comes to representation. Just having people seeing a person do what someone else wants to do and sharing your own experiences and your own story. There are people who reach out to me later and ask for a connection or mentorship, so just getting to have a network, I think that's something I feel proud of – putting myself out there and being able to be a part of that bigger community of women in tech.
In terms of what I’m looking for next, I actually am a creative person so I keep trying to find new outlets to get that creative side out. During the pandemic it was art, and now it's actually a book. I've been working on a book for a year now. It's a short book but it's about how to scale and grow tech products, and how you can think like a product manager. It's a book literally for anyone who wants to think a little bit more strategically.
P: I know we’re adapting to this super-tech, super-AI landscape – what advice would you give to someone who is weary about that transition? Do you think the anxiety around it is justified?
S: I think the answer to it is still ambiguous, whether we should be wary or not. I think I am personally looking at it with more curiosity as to the potential of it, because to be honest it's a very naive field. Even though it may seem like it's such a ‘big bang’, it's still in very early stages, kind of developing and maturing. The way I think we should be thinking about it is instead of thinking of it as a threat, I think we can find more positive ways to use AI to help with existing consumer experiences while also being careful that we are not over stretching it.
One example is that recently on my team at Yelp, we rolled out a feature to help with writer’s block. So, for instance, if a plumber has asked me to write a review for them, sometimes I don't really know what to write because they did the job and I don't really know what else to say. We are currently using AI to do an analysis of things you can say, so if you're starting a review and we detect that you are not able to start or you're taking a pause, we can suggest you texts that we think are relevant for this kind of business. I think that’s a good instance of using AI, in spaces like that.
K: Is there a challenge you have faced that has defined you or made you stronger?
S: The one that really speaks to me is my own journey. When I moved to the States a decade ago, it was definitely a challenge and a huge culture shift. You’re leaving your comfort zone, you're coming to a new country and you don't know anyone. On top of that, I was also trying to transition from engineering to product around the same time, so my biggest challenge at that time was I didn't have a lot of help. Not to blame anyone for that, it's just the circumstances where I was new, I didn't have a lot of support systems, and even the company I was working for was not supportive in my transition to a different role.
I feel like that was a big defining moment for me in realizing that if I really want something, I really have to carve my own path. I think that's where I learned how important it is to have a network and a good support system. What really helped me was going out there, talking to people who are doing what I wanted to do, talking to more women actually who were doing what I wanted to do, and it was very surprising for me to learn how helpful the community of women is if you just reach out. This was something that I feel like I was very oblivious to before and I would very much be of the mindset that I had to do everything by myself and that everything had to be self-earned. I learned that if you reach out and you ask for help that doesn't mean you're not doing it yourself, you still are, you're just putting yourself in the right spaces.
It was a long struggle of trying to adjust to a new country while trying to make a career transition so I took a lot of courses and went to a lot of conferences and meetups. Eventually, I did land into the role I wanted, and I absolutely loved everything that I was doing. That was my big learning – finding the transition from “I want to do everything” to actually reaching out to a community space.
P: What does being a woman mean to you?
S: Being a woman to me, and this can sound a little bit poetic or cliché, but I feel like it's like being water. I find it to be a very fluid thing; somehow you're able to adapt very immediately but also still be resilient, still keeping your own power. It's keeping your power while still having a very strong influence on the people around you and kind of bringing them together.
K: Who is a woman that inspires you? What would you say to her if she were here now?
S: I don't think I can take one name. I feel like right from childhood – maybe I can say I was blessed – I've been surrounded by very, very strong women who always held their ground and wanted to be stronger every day. They fought to be stronger every day, right from my mom to a couple of friends or teachers I had. I would say to date there are so many people I find inspiring, and not just because they are successful professionally. I don't think that's my criteria of inspiration, I think it's more that I just find how they're able to bring such positivity to life and everything that they do, and still be warm, compassionate, and successful at the same time. I feel like I can take lots and lots of names but if I want to pick one, I mean again maybe a cliché, but it started from my mom.
P: When you moved from India to the US, what was it like being away from your mom? Was she supportive?
S: Honestly, I wasn't even considering coming to the US. I was very happy being a young adult in my own fun world, and I think it was a lot of encouragement and push from her side in thinking about the possibilities of my life, my future, and how different it could be and how better it could be.
I would say she gave a lot of mental encouragement to think beyond who I was, to who I could be. I see her once a year for a couple of days, but I do think that even now she is always very inspirational. For example, my mom is 65 years old and all the years I've known her, she's had a fear of one thing, which is dancing in public. She never dances in public, even at my wedding, she was just standing and swaying which is the the max she would do. But she's so inspiring because at the age of 65, she decided that she wants to get over that fear. She got an instructor and has been taking dance lessons and she actually did perform on stage just a few months ago for a whole song. I was just amazed by it because I feel like she continues to inspire me. Even at that age, she's still fighting her fears.
Check out more of Shubhansha’s work: