Breaking into PM and Why Business School: Lessons from Kristina Hu (Uber PM and Incoming Harvard MBA)

Moving from finance to tech, making a lateral switch to PM, getting into HBS 2+2, and turning hobbies into products

Members of the Remote Students Community had the opportunity to meet Kristina Hu this week and ask her questions about her experience as a PM at Uber, transitions from banking to tech, and her journey to business school. Apply here to join our invite-only community and meet our amazing lineup of guest speakers!

Kristina Hu is a Product Manager at Uber working on Uber Pro, Uber’s global driver loyalty program offering rewards such as cash back on gas and free university tuition to 4 million drivers in 58 countries around the world. Before becoming a PM, Kristina worked in Uber’s EMEA headquarters in Amsterdam as the Strategy & Planning Lead for the Business Development team and a Global Business Analyst for the Central Operations team. Prior to Uber, Kristina worked as an investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley in New York. She graduated from Harvard University with a B.A. in Economics and Computer Science, and will be enrolling at Harvard Business School for her MBA this fall.

What is your advice for students who want to do PM, but aren’t currently studying CS? Is it possible to join an APM program or find a PM role right out of school without a CS degree?

While I did not go through an official APM program, here are a few tips on how to laterally transition to product management if you aren’t studying CS.

1) Build and launch something.

Recruiters favor candidates who have demonstrated product ownership — from ideation to execution to impact generated to the business. Even if you don’t yet have a PM title, find a way to get PM experience by helping other PMs or by working on a product while still in your current role

One of my first projects at Uber was to build a tool that our customer support agents could use to provide personalized earnings advice to drivers. To approach this, I first conducted user research by visiting our support centers and interviewing agents and drivers. Next, I created a wireframe and prioritized a list of features for the MVP. Then I built the web-app using SQL, Python and Javascript (which I learned on my own) and launched to 5 countries in EMEA. Our agents used the tool in more than 20,000 interactions and saw increases in both driver earnings and satisfaction vs the control group. Word of my “Driver Insights Tool” soon found its way to the HQ Driver Product Team, and my journey to product management began.

2) Assess your skills and work on your weaknesses.

Product managers need to be able to influence without authority, and it’s easier to get everyone rowing in the same direction if you understand the role each person plays on the boat. For example, aspiring PMs without a technical background may face difficulty gaining the respect of their engineers. If this is you, find a way to get up to speed by learning the tech stack for your product, spending time with engineers, and learning how to code. In general, it is a good idea to build relationships with people whose strengths complement your weaknesses and treat them as your strategic thought partners.

Why did you pivot from tech to finance and now back to tech?

In college, I had a tough time deciding whether to pursue finance or tech. My first internship was as a Software Engineering Intern at Betterment because I wanted to try engineering and learn about finance at the same time. After that summer, I realized I didn’t want to be an engineer, so I pivoted to investment banking. I saw banking as a “business bootcamp” where I could learn the fundamentals of finance, accounting and company/industry analysis while helping advise Fortune 500 clients on capital markets and M&A opportunities. I spent the following two summers and first year after graduation working as an investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley, and am deeply grateful for my time there.

I decided to switch back into tech for two reasons. First, I have always loved tech (I come from a family of engineers) and yearned to work in an industry that is growing rapidly and changing lives more tangibly than natural resources, the industry I was working in at the time. Second, I wanted to get closer to the impact of my work and participate in the execution of my ideas. When it was time to decide whether or not to leave, I used the following framework to guide my thought process:

1. Do I feel challenged? Are there skills I want to continue developing in this role, or is my ideal learning curve steeper elsewhere?

2. Am I working on high-priority projects that excite and inspire me?

3. Are there mentors at this company who I look up to? Would I trade my life for theirs in 5, 10, or 20 years?

What made you decide to attend business school, and what do you think you will gain from it

1) The ability to take time for personal reflection and to broaden / diversify my network.

The Bay Area can be an insular environment where you’re primarily surrounded by other people who work in tech. I’m excited to take two years to step back and reflect on what matters to me, while expanding my network to include a diverse group of people I might not otherwise meet. Diversity of background and thought is what makes for well-rounded and innovative teams, and business school is a great place to be immersed in those different perspectives.

2) Platform for entrepreneurship.

Many of HBS’s professors are former business leaders, venture capitalists or founders themselves. Combined with the network, I see business school as the ideal environment to zero in on a problem I’m excited about solving, find co-founders, and get something started.

3) Develop pattern-recognition and management skills for a long-term career in product.

An MBA is also a great investment to accelerate your PM career in the long-term. Junior PMs tend to be individual contributors focused on project management and execution. More senior PMs (Director, VP etc.) tend to focus on long-term product / product portfolio strategy, people management and resource allocation (although this varies by company). HBS’s case study method allows you to step into the shoes of business leaders from various industries and practice making decisions in sometimes ambiguous situations.

What is your advice for crafting a story to get into business school?

Figure out your “B-school vision” before you begin your application. Start a document answering these questions:

1. What are your long-term career goals?

2. How did your background and experiences influence your long-term career goals? (Every life or career transition you’ve made needs to make “sense,” just like a story with a beginning, middle and end.)

3. Why do you need an MBA, especially since MBAs are not required for most business roles?

Next, send that document to your recommenders so they are aligned with your goals and can help convey your message. Be sure that all aspects of your application support each other without being redundant.

In addition, try turning your passion into something that you can talk about in an interview or essay. When I applied to the HBS 2+2 program, one of my side projects was a YouTube channel where I published piano covers of Top 40 / EDM music. My goal was to inspire creativity and appreciation in music by blending the disparate genres of classical and EDM. Once I gained enough traction, I turned my channel into a full-blown entrepreneurial endeavor by running my own marketing campaigns, building a website, and scheduling new releases. Within 4 years, I had grown the channel to 120,000 followers and had published an album on Spotify and iTunes. Imagine my surprise when the first question I was asked in my HBS interview was: “So tell me about your YouTube channel…!”

What’s a big failure that pushed yourself to be better?

In my first role as a Global Business Analyst at Uber, I was leading a cross-functional organization of 180 employees called the Analyst Community of EMEA. After I switched roles and moved to a new team, I became distant from the community and failed to come up with a succession and handover plan, leading to a rough transition. Looking back at that time in my life more generally, I had signed up for so many projects and activities that I wasn’t doing a great job at any of them. It’s no wonder that juggling too many balls makes you more likely to drop one. The best way to prevent failure, in a way, is to focus — less is more. Figure out what really matters to you and do a great job at it.

I also think that if you don’t fail, you’re probably not trying hard enough — so don’t worry if you run into obstacles on the way to your goal. Obstacles are just lessons in disguise; overcoming them will only accelerate your growth and get you closer to your destination.

It’s not all about achievement and checking boxes. Mental health is really important, and finding something that you love is also really important.

In summary, Kristina encourages students to find a problem they’re obsessed about solving (or a passion they’re obsessed about scaling) and hustle to make it happen. Take pride in leaning into discomfort and ambiguity — if you’re not failing, you’re probably not trying hard enough.

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